Scandal is

"A media scandal occurs when private acts that disgrace or offend the idealized, dominant morality of a social community are made public and narrativised by the media, producing a range of effects from ideological and cultural retrenchment to disruption and change"

(Lull and Hinerman, "The Search for Scandal.” In Media scandals and desire in the popular cultural marketplace. Lull & Hinerman (eds) Oxford: Polity, 1997.)