Monica Lewinsky Research Paper

Monica Lewinsky
In 1995 Monica Lewinsky and president Bill Clinton initiated an affair, which was disclosed in 1998. It was a scandal, and was the very first time a story of that caliber was broken online. Monica was the first person to be thrown into the claws of newest branch on the medium-tree: the internet, which the story quickly spread on. Suddenly, news and stories could be accessed at all times, not just at given ones, like the broadcasting-times. Ordinary people could suddenly comment articles, without having to compose a reader’s letter, stamp it, bring it to the post-office and wait for it to arrive and probably not be approved for publishing. In general, it became a lot less effort. And commenting anonymously became possible.
Obscene myriads of ill-intended, offending comments were made on the articles, attacking not only her actions but also her person. Overnight she went from being a completely private person to a public figure everyone knew of.
She went through a devastating time of gut-wrenching humiliation, where her parents were worried about her will to live and felt that she needed to be surveilled constantly, even showering.
Her need to do so was triggered by Tyler Clementi, an 18-year old, who committed suicide after his roommate livestreamed him and another man kissing in their dorm-room, and Monica could see, how hearing about this story affected her mother, because of the many parallels between the two stories. By talking about her mother’s despair and referring to Tyler Clementi as “sweet, sensitive, creative Tyler, who was only 18”, she appeals to our feelings; she uses