Does the prevalence of such themes as sex, drugs and violence in contemporary forms of media culture bear out the view that there is always an element of the ‘scandalous’ in popular culture?

There is a body of research that attests to the increasing prevalence of scandalous themes such as sex, drugs and violence in contemporary forms of media indicating that there is always an element of the scandalous in popular culture.  However, explaining this is a somewhat complex matter and is contradictory in terms of the approaches taken. For some, there is a sense of dismay that people find pleasure in such themes, suggesting there to be an unwholesome element to the depiction of sensational material. Others though contend that there is a political element attached to scandalous content as in the case of Marxist theorists believing…(short extract)