Chapter 5

Social Problems
Chapter 5
Youngjoon Bae

Media and the Claimsmaking Process
Slide 1
Many claimsmakers seek media attention.
How can they get it?
Why might it be difficult to get?
Social Problems, Third Edition
Copyright © 2016 W.W. Norton & Company

Slide 2
 Media coverage plays an important role in
how social problems are constructed.
 Activists, experts, and other claimsmakers
hope that the media will bring their claims to
wider audiences and policymakers.
 However, media coverage usually alters the
original claim.

Slide 3
 There are constraints on media workers.
 Deadlines
 Space and time limits (the “newshole”)
 Audience desires entertainment
 As a result, primary claims are transformed
into secondary claims by the media.

Slide 4
 Claimsmakers compete for media attention.
 Claimsmakers try to present their claims as
new, fresh material for the media.
 The marketplace for social problems can be
thought of as multiple arenas, each with a
limited carrying capacity.
 Media workers decide what claims are
presented in the arena they manage.

Slide 5
 News work locates and presents the news.
 News work is constrained by economic
factors, deadlines, and cultural limitations
(such as professionalism).
 News work seeks claims with an
entertainment value (“brand-new” stories,
easily filmed events, or claims that have
compelling typifying stories).

Slide 6
 News work follows professional standards.
 News workers may feel obligated to balance
coverage by reporting views from “both sides”
 News workers pay attention to rivals and the
stories they decide to cover.
 News workers try to avoid being manipulated
by claimsmakers seeking media coverage.

Slide 7
 Geography influences what claims are heard.
 News workers are concentrated in large cities.
 Even claimsmakers who begin in distant
places tend to migrate to larger media centers.
 Ultimately, the news is a social construction
produced by news workers.

Slide 8
 How do claimsmakers get media attention?
 Package claims in ways that help news
workers and parallel their constraints
 Give the media advanced notice of events
 Choose interesting individuals to represent
their cause (such as celebrity ambassadors)
 Make events visually interesting for TV
 Seek media that target the intended audience

Changes in the Media
Slide 1
 Cable channels, especially 24-hour cable news
networks, which must fill the newshole on a daily
basis, have increased in number.
 Much of the media now target particular
audiences (audience segmentation).

Changes in the Media
Slide 2
 The Internet has an unlimited carrying
capacity for claims.
 Claimsmakers can establish an online
presence at a minimal cost.
 The large volume of claims on the Internet can
make it hard to sift and sort claims.
 Social media draws attention to claims.

Packaging Social Problems
Slide 1
 Claimsmakers package social problems for
the media and the general public.
 They seek ownership of social problems so
that the media reach out to them.
 They supply landmark narratives that
become synonymous with the social problem.
 They use familiar rhetoric,
 Rhetoric far outside the mainstream is often
ignored.

Packaging Social Problems
Slide 2
 These packages are familiar, coherent
views of a particular social problem.
 Packages include condensing symbols.
 Landmark narratives, typifying examples, slogans
 Packages help the media by turning a large
amount of information into a recognizable story.
 Media packages help organize the audience’s
thinking about social problems.

News versus Entertainment
 Social problems appear in popular culture
as well as on the news.
 The way TV shows, books, and other
entertainment media construct social problems
are also affected by constraints.
 Time limits and the need for dramatization
 Entertainment media focus on individuals and
characters, rather than social forces.

Impact of the Media
Slide 1
 The media are capable of agenda setting, but
there are constraints on media influence.
 No matter what events might be on the agenda, new
events such as disasters require immediate coverage.
 The media can be influenced to cover (or ignore)
particular topics.
 Of the many existing claims, the media only
highlight a select few.

Impact of the Media
Slide 2
 The media play a visible role in the social
problems process, and that role is sometimes
exaggerated.
 The media constantly receive and respond to
feedback.
 They are connected to other actors in the social
problems process.

Impact of the Media
Slide 3

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