Chapter 5The Mediaand ClaimsMedia and the Claims.docx

Chapter 5
The Media
and Claims
Media and the Claimsmaking Process
Slide 1
Many claimsmakers seek media attention.
How can they get it?
Why might it be difficult to get?
Slide 2
how social problems are constructed.
hope that the media will bring their claims to
wider audiences and policymakers.
the

original claim.
Slide 3
into secondary claims by the media.
Slide 4
new, fresh material for the media.
thought of as multiple arenas, each with a
limited carrying capacity.

presented in the arena they manage.
Slide 5
s constrained by economic
factors, deadlines, and cultural limitations
(such as professionalism).
entertainment value (“brand-new” stories,
easily filmed events, or claims that have
compelling typifying stories).
Slide 6
coverage by reporting views from “both sides”

stories they decide to cover.
by claimsmakers seeking media coverage.
Slide 7
msmakers who begin in distant
places tend to migrate to larger media centers.
produced by news workers.
Slide 8
ge claims in ways that help news
workers and parallel their constraints

their cause (such as celebrity ambassadors)
Changes in the Media
Slide 1
-hour cable news
networks, which must fill the newshole on a daily
basis, have increased in number.
ar
audiences (audience segmentation).
Changes in the Media
Slide 2
capacity for claims.

presence at a minimal cost.
an
make it hard to sift and sort claims.
Packaging Social Problems
Slide 1
the media and the general public.
that the media reach out to them.
become synonymous with the social problem.
ignored.
Packaging Social Problems
Slide 2

kages are familiar, coherent
views of a particular social problem.
amount of information into a recognizable story.
thinking about social problems.
News versus Entertainment
as well as on the news.
entertainment media construct social problems
are also affected by constraints.
characters, rather than social forces.

Impact of the Media
Slide 1
setting, but
there are constraints on media influence.
events such as disasters require immediate coverage.
particular topics.
sting claims, the media only
highlight a select few.
Impact of the Media
Slide 2
problems process, and that role is sometimes
exaggerated.
feedback.

problems process.
Impact of the Media
Slide 3
APTER ONE: Childhood and Delinquency
CHAPTER OUTLINE
THE RISKS AND REWARDS OF ADOLESCENCE
· Youth at Risk
What Does This Mean to Me?
FOCUS ON DELINQUENCY: Teen Risk Taking
Problems in Cyberspace
Is There Reason for Hope?
JUVENILE DELINQUENCY
THE DEVELOPMENT OF CHILDHOOD
· Custom and Practice in the Middle Ages
The Development of Concern for Children
Childhood in America
Controlling Children
DEVELOPING JUVENILE JUSTICE
· Juvenile Justice in the Nineteenth Century
Urbanization
The Child-Saving Movement
Were They Really Child Savers?
Development of Juvenile Institutions
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (SPCC)
The Illinois Juvenile Court Act and Its Legacy
Reforming the System
Delinquency and Parens Patriae

The Current Legal Status of Delinquency
Legal Responsibility of Youths
STATUS OFFENDERS
· Origins of the Status Offense Concept
The Status Offender in the Juvenile Justice System
Reforming the Treatment of Status Offenders
JUVENILE DELINQUENCY: Intervention: Family Keys
Program
The Future of the Status Offense Concept
Curfews
Disciplining Parents
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After reading this chapter you should:
· 1. Be familiar with the risks faced by youth in American
culture.
· 2. Develop an understanding of the history of childhood.
· 3. Be able to discuss development of the juvenile justice
system.
· 4. Trace the history and purpose of the juvenile court.
· 5. Be able to describe the differences between delinquency and
status offending.
REAL CASES/REAL PEOPLE: Aaliyah’s Story
Aaliyah Parker ran away from home at the age of 17. She
struggled with family issues and felt she could no longer live
with her mother, stepfather, and younger siblings in their
California home. Arriving in Colorado with no family support,
no money, and no place to live, she joined other runaway
adolescents, homeless on the streets. Aaliyah began using drugs
and was eventually arrested and detained at a juvenile detention
center for possession of methamphetamines and providing false
information to a police officer.
When Aaliyah entered the juvenile justice system she was a few
months from turning 18. Due to issues of jurisdiction, budget
concerns, and Aaliyah’s age, system administrators encouraged
the case worker assigned to Aaliyah to make arrangements for
her to return to her family in California. The case worker could

see that Aaliyah had a strong desire to get her life back on
track. She needed assistance, but the cost of her treatment
would be over $3,000 per month, and the county agency’s
budget was already stretched. She was transported from the
juvenile detention center to a 90-day drug and alcohol treatment
program where she was able to detoxify her body and engage in
intensive counseling. The program also provided family therapy
through phone counseling for Aaliyah’s mother, allowing the
family to reconnect. Despite this renewed contact, returning
home was not an option for Aaliyah.
Aaliyah contacted a group home run by a local church that takes
runaway adolescents through county placements and provides a
variety of services for clients and their families. Aaliyah
entered the group home, was able to get her high school
diploma, and eventually enrolled in an independent living
program that assisted her in finding a job and getting her own
apartment. Aaliyah has remained in contact with her juvenile
case worker. Although she has struggled with her sobriety on
occasion, she has been able to refrain from using
methamphetamines. Her case worker continues to encourage
Aaliyah and has been an ongoing source of support, despite the
fact that the client file was closed several years ago. Aaliyah’s
success can be credited to the initial advocacy of her case
worker, the effective interventions, and to the strong
determination demonstrated by this young woman.
There are now 75 million children in the United States under
age 17 — about 37 percent of the population—many of whom
share some of the same problems as Aaliyah.1 Thousands
become runaways and wind up on the streets where their safety
is compromised, and they may turn to drugs, alcohol, and crime
as street survival strategies. Simply spending time on the streets
increases their likelihood for violence.2
The present generation of adolescents faces many risks. They
have been described as cynical, preoccupied with material
acquisitions, and uninterested in creative expression.3 By age
18, the average American adolescent has spent more time in

front of a television set than in the classroom. In the 1950s,
teenagers were reading comic books, but today they watch TV
shows and movies that rely on graphic scenes of violence as
their main theme; each year they may see up to 1,000 rapes,
murders, and assaults. When they are not texting and tweeting,
teens are listening to rap songs by Gucci Mane, V-Nasty, and
Tyga, whose best-selling 2012 song “Rack City” includes these
romantic lyrics:
· I’mma M—f— star
Look at the paint on the car
Too much rim make the ride too hard
Tell that bitch hop out, walk the boulevard
I need my money pronto
These artists’ explicit lyrics routinely describe substance abuse
and promiscuity and glorify the gangsta lifestyle. How does
exposure to this music affect young listeners? Should we be
concerned? Maybe we should. Research has found that kids who
listen to music with a sexual content are much more likely to
engage in precocious sex than adolescents whose musical tastes
run to Adele and Justin Bieber.4
THE RISKS AND REWARDS OF ADOLESCENCE
The problems of American society have had a significant effect
on our nation’s youth. Adolescence is a time of trial and
uncertainty, a time when youths experience anxiety,
humiliation, and mood swings. During this period, the
personality is still developing and is vulnerable to a host of
external factors. Adolescents also undergo a period of rapid
biological development. During just a few years’ time, their
height, weight, and sexual characteristics change dramatically.
A hundred and fifty years ago girls matured sexually at age 16,
but today they do so at 12.5 years of age. Although they may be
capable of having children as early as 14, many youngsters
remain emotionally immature long after reaching biological
maturity. At age 15, a significant number of teenagers are
unable to meet the responsibilities of the workplace, the family,
and the neighborhood. Many suffer from health problems, are

underachievers in school, and are skeptical about their ability to
enter the workforce and become productive members of society.
In later adolescence (ages 16 to 18), youths may experience a
crisis that psychologist Erik Erikson described as a struggle
between ego identity and role diffusion. Ego identity is formed
when youths develop a firm sense of who they are and what they
stand for; role diffusion occurs when youths experience
uncertainty and place themselves at the mercy of leaders who
promise to give them a sense of identity they cannot mold for
themselves.5 Psychologists also find that late adolescence is
dominated by a yearning for independence from parental
control.6 Given this mixture of biological change and desire for
autonomy, it isn’t surprising that the teenage years are a time of
conflict with authority at home, at school, and in the
community.
ego identity
According to Erik Erikson, ego identity is formed when persons
develop a firm sense of who they are and what they stand for.
role diffusion
According to Erik Erikson, role diffusion occurs when youths
spread themselves too thin, experience personal uncertainty, and
place themselves at the mercy of leaders who promise to give
them a sense of identity they cannot develop for themselves.
Youth at Risk
Problems in the home, the school, and the neighborhood have
placed a significant portion of American youths at risk. Youths
considered at risk are those who engage in dangerous conduct,
such as drug abuse, alcohol use, and precocious sexuality.
Although it is impossible to determine precisely the number
of at-risk youths in the United States, one estimate is that 25
percent of the population under age 17, or about 18 million
youths, are in this category. The teen years bring many new
risks—including some that are life-threatening. Each year
almost 14,000 Americans ages 15 to 19 lose their lives in such
unexpected incidents as motor vehicle accidents, homicide, and
suicide. It is estimated that three-quarters of teen deaths are due

to preventable causes, yet little is being done to reduce the
death rate.7 The most pressing problems facing American youth
revolve around five issues: poverty, health and mortality
problems, family problems, substandard living conditions, and
inadequate education.8
at-risk youths
Young people who are extremely vulnerable to the negative
consequences of school failure, substance abuse, and early
sexuality.
Poverty.
Poverty in the United States is more prevalent now than in the
late 1960s and early 1970s, and has escalated rapidly since
2000. While poverty problems have risen for nearly every age,
gender, and race/ethnic group, the increases in poverty have
been most severe among the nation’s youngest families (adults
under 30), especially those with one or more children present in
the home. Since 2007, the poverty rate has risen by 8 percent
among these families, hitting 37 percent in 2010; in 1967 it
stood at only 14 percent. Among young families with children
residing in the home, 4 of every 9 were poor or near poor and
close to 2 out of 3 were low income.9
Working hard and playing by the rules is not enough to lift
families out of poverty: even if parents work full-time at the
federal minimum wage, the family still lives in poverty.
Consequently, about 6 million children live in extreme poverty,
which means less than $10,000 for a family of four; the younger
the child, the more likely they are to live in extreme poverty.10
Which kids live in poverty? Minority kids are much more likely
than white, non-Hispanic children to experience poverty, though
because of their numerical representation, there are actually a
larger number of poor white children in the population.
Nonetheless, proportionately, Hispanic and black children are
about three times as likely to be poor than their white
peers.11 And as Figure 1.1 shows, kids living in a single-parent
female-headed household are significantly more likely to suffer
poverty than those in two-parent families.

FIGURE 1.1: Percentage of Children Ages 0–17 Living in
Poverty by Family Structure
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey,
Annual Social and Economic
Supplements, www.childstats.gov/americaschildren/surveys2.as
p (accessed June 12, 2012).
Poverty hits kids especially hard, making it difficult for them to
be part of the American Dream. Here Jalinh Vasquez holds her
sister Jayshel Barthelemy in the FEMA Diamond trailer park in
Port Sulphur, Louisiana, where they still live with five other
children and four adults four years after Hurricane Katrina
destroyed their home. They are still awaiting money from the
federal Road Home program to purchase a new home.
Approximately 2,000 families in the New Orleans metropolitan
area live in FEMA trailers, and 80 percent of those still in
trailers were homeowners who are unable to return to their
storm-damaged houses.
Child poverty can exact a terrible lifelong burden and have
long-lasting negative effects on the child’s cognitive
achievement, educational attainment, nutrition, physical and
mental health, and social behavior. Educational achievement
scores between children in affluent and low-income families
have been widening over the years, and the incomes and wealth
of families have become increasingly important determinants of
adolescents’ high school graduation, college attendance, and
college persistence and graduation. The chances of an
adolescent from a poor family with weak academic skills
obtaining a bachelor’s degree by their mid-20s is now close to
zero.12
Health and Mortality Problems.
Receiving adequate health care is another significant concern
for American youth. There are some troubling signs. Recent
national estimates indicate that only about 18 percent of
adolescents meet current physical activity recommendations of

one hour of physical activity a day, and only about 22 percent
eat five or more servings of fruits and vegetables per day.13
Kids with health problems may only be helped if they have
insurance. And while most kids now have health care coverage
of some sort, about 10 percent or 7.5 million youth do not.14 As
might be expected, children who are not healthy, especially
those who live in lower-income families and children from
ethnic and minority backgrounds, are subject to illness and
early mortality. Recently, the infant mortality rate rose for the
first time in more than 40 years, and is now 7 per 1,000 births.
The United States currently ranks 25th in the world among
industrialized nations in preventing infant mortality, and the
percent of children born at low birth weight has increased.15
While infant mortality remains a problem, so does violent
adolescent death. More than 3,000 children and teens are killed
by firearms each year, the equivalent of 120 public school
classrooms of 25 students each; more than half of these deaths
were of white children and teens. Another 16,000 children and
teens suffer nonfatal firearm injuries. Today, more preschoolers
are killed by firearms than law enforcement officers killed in
the line of duty.16
Family Problems.
Family dissolution and disruption also plague American youth.
Divorce has become an all too common occurrence in the United
States; it is estimated that between 40 and 50 percent of first
marriages end in divorce. Second and third marriages fare even
worse: second marriages fail at a rate of 60 to 67 percent, and
third marriages fail at a rate of 73 to 74 percent.17 In 2010, 69
percent of children under age 17 lived with two parents (66
percent with two married parents—down from 77 percent in
1980—and 3 percent with two biological/ adoptive cohabiting
parents), 23 percent lived with only their mothers, 3 percent
with only their fathers, and 4 percent with neither of their
parents.18
Kids are often caught in the crossfire of marital strife and all

too often become its innocent victims. Family friend Margaret
Fischer holds up a picture of Amanda Peake and her two
children in front of the family’s home in Red Bank, South
Carolina. Peake’s estranged boyfriend, Chancey Smith, shot her,
then her 9-year-old son Cameron, then her 6-year-old daughter
Sarah inside the family’s home in the community of Red Bank.
Smith then turned the gun on himself.
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN TO ME? Older, but Wiser
“When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I
could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got
to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much he had learned
in seven years” (Mark Twain, “Old Times on the
Mississippi,” Atlantic Monthly, 1874).
Do you agree with Mark Twain? When you look back at your
adolescence, are you surprised at how much you thought you
knew then and how little you know now? Did you do anything
that you now consider silly and immature? Of course, as they
say, “Hindsight is always 20/20.” Maybe there is a benefit to
teenage rebellion. For example, would it make you a better
parent knowing firsthand about all the trouble your kids get into
and why they do?
As families undergo divorce, separation, and breakup, kids are
often placed in foster care. Among the 3 million children (4
percent of all children) not living with either parent, 54 percent
(1.7 million) lived with grandparents, 21 percent lived with
other relatives only, and 24 percent lived with nonrelatives. Of
children in nonrelatives’ homes, 27 percent (200,000) lived with
foster parents.19 About 130,000 kids in foster care are waiting
to be adopted, and 44 percent of them entered care before age 6.
Each year, on their 18th birthday, more than 25,000 kids leave
foster care without family support; these young adults share an
elevated risk of becoming homeless, unemployed,
and incarcerated. They are also at great risk at developing
physical, developmental, and mental health challenges across
their lifespan.20
Focus on Delinquency: TEEN RISK TAKING

Teens are risk takers. The Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) sponsors an annual Youth Risk Behavior
Survey (YRBS) that monitors health-risk behaviors among
youth and young adults. Among the risky behaviors measured
include dangerous driving habits, tobacco, alcohol and other
drug use, and sexual behaviors that contribute to unintended
pregnancy. The many findings of the most recent survey include
the following:
· • 10 percent of students rarely or never wore a seat belt when
riding in a car driven by someone else.
· • Among the 70 percent of students who had ridden a bicycle
during the 12 months before the survey, 85 percent had rarely or
never worn a bicycle helmet.
· • 28 percent of students rode in a car or other vehicle driven
by someone who had been drinking alcohol one or more times
during the 30 days before the survey.
· • 10 percent of students had driven a car or other vehicle one
or more times when they had been drinking alcohol during the
30 days before the survey.
· • 17 percent of students had carried a weapon (e.g., a gun,
knife, or club) on at least one day during the 30 days before the
survey.
· • 20 percent of students had been bullied on school property
during the 12 months before the survey.
· • Almost 14 percent of students had seriously considered
attempting suicide, and 6 percent of students had attempted
suicide one or more times during the 12 months before the
survey.
· • 19 percent of students smoked cigarettes on at least one day
during the 30 days before the survey.
· • 72 percent of students had had at least one drink of alcohol
on at least one day during their life, and 42 percent of students
had had at least one drink of alcohol on at least one day during
the 30 days before the survey.
· • 46 percent of students had had sexual intercourse.
· • 18 percent of students were physically active at least 60

minutes per day on each of the seven days before the survey.
· • 23 percent of students did not participate in at least 60
minutes of physical activity on at least one day during the seven
days before the survey.
Why do youths take such chances? Research has shown that kids
may be too immature to understand how dangerous risk taking
can be and are unable to properly assess the chances they are
taking. Criminologist Nanette Davis suggests there is a potential
for risky behavior among youth in all facets of American
life. Risky describes behavior that is emotionally edgy,
dangerous, exciting, hazardous, challenging, volatile, and
potentially emotionally, socially, and financially costly—even
life threatening. Youths commonly become involved in risky
behavior as they negotiate the hurdles of adolescent life,
learning to drive, date, drink, work, relate, and live. Davis finds
that social developments in the United States have increased the
risks of growing up for all children. The social, economic, and
political circumstances that increase adolescent risk taking
include these:
· • The uncertainty of contemporary social life. Planning a
future is problematic in a society where job elimination and
corporate downsizing are accepted business practices, and
divorce and family restructuring are epidemic.
· • Lack of legitimate opportunity. In some elements of society,
kids believe they have no future, leaving them to experiment
with risky alternatives, such as drug dealing or theft.
· • Emphasis on consumerism. In high school, peer respect is
bought through the accumulation of material goods. For those
kids whose families cannot afford to keep up, drug deals and
theft may be a shortcut to getting coveted name-brand clothes
and athletic shoes.
· • Racial, class, age, and ethnicity inequalities. These
discourage kids from believing in a better future. Children are
raised to be skeptical that they can receive social benefits from
any institution beyond themselves or their immediate family.
· • The “cult of individualism.” This makes people self-centered

and hurts collective and group identities. Children are taught to
put their own interests above those of others.
As children mature into adults, the uncertainty of modern
society may prolong their risk-taking behavior. Jobs have
become unpredictable, and many undereducated and
undertrained youths find themselves competing for the same
low-paying job as hundreds of other applicants; they are a
“surplus product.” They may find their only alternative for
survival is to return to their childhood bedroom and live off
their parents. Under these circumstances, risk taking may be a
plausible alternative for fitting in in our consumer-oriented
society.
CRITICAL THINKING
· 1. Davis calls for a major national effort to restore these
troubled youths using a holistic, nonpunitive approach that
recognizes the special needs of children. How would you
convince kids to stop taking risks?
· 2. Do you agree that elements of contemporary society cause
kids to take risks, or is it possible that teens are natural risk
takers and their risky behavior is a biological reaction to
“raging hormones”?
Writing Assignment Everyone has taken risks in their life and
some of us have paid the consequences. Write an essay detailing
one of your riskiest behaviors and what you learned from the
experience
Sources: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC), Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS),
2009, www.cdc.gov/HealthyYouth/yrbs/pdf/us_overview_yrbs.p
df (accessed June 13, 2012); “Unintentional Strangulation
Deaths from the ‘Choking Game’ Among Youths Aged 6–19
Years, United States, 1995–2007,” February 15,
2008, www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5706a1.htm (
accessed June 13, 2012); Patrick Nickoletti and Heather
Taussig, “Outcome Expectancies and Risk Behaviors in
Maltreated Adolescents,” Journal of Research on
Adolescence 16:217–228 (2006); Nanette Davis, Youth Crisis:

Growing Up in the High-Risk Society (New York:
Praeger/Greenwood, 1998).
Substandard Living Conditions.
Many children continue to live in substandard housing—such as
high-rise, multiple-family dwellings—which can have a
negative influence on their long-term psychological
health.21 Adolescents living in deteriorated urban areas are
prevented from having productive and happy lives. Many die
from random bullets and drive-by shootings. Some adolescents
are homeless and living on the street, where they are at risk of
drug addiction and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs),
including AIDS.
Looking Back to Aaliyah’s Story
Housing is a major issue for many teens “aging out” of the
system. Often, children placed in alternative care settings, such
as foster homes or residential treatment centers, are not
prepared to live on their own when they turn 18 or are released
from juvenile custody.
CRITICAL THINKING
Discuss what can be done to help kids in foster care be better
prepared for adult life. Make a list of life skills that must be
mastered.
Inadequate Education.
The U.S. educational system seems to be failing many young
people. It is now estimated that about 70 percent of fourth
graders in our public schools cannot read at grade
level.22 Because reading proficiency is an essential element for
educational success, students who are problem readers are at
high risk of grade repetition and dropping out of school.
Educational problems are likely to hit minority kids the hardest.
According to the nonprofit Children’s Defense Fund, African
American children are:
· • Half as likely to be placed in a gifted and talented class.
· • More than one and a half times as likely to be placed in a
class for students with emotional disturbances.
· • Almost twice as likely to be placed in a class for students

with mental retardation.
· • Two and a half times as likely to be held back or retained in
school.
· • Almost three times as likely to be suspended from school.
· • More than four times as likely to be expelled.23
Formed in 1985, the Children’s Rights Council (CRC) is a
national nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., that
works to ensure children meaningful and continuing contact
with both their parents and extended family, regardless of the
parents’ marital status. Find this website by visiting the
Criminal Justice CourseMate at CengageBrain.com, then
accessing the Web Links for this chapter.
Why the discrepancy? Poor minority-group children attend the
most underfunded schools, receive inadequate educational
opportunities, and have the fewest opportunities to achieve
conventional success.
The problems faced by kids who do poorly in school do not end
in adolescence.24 Adults 25 years of age and older with less
than a high school diploma earn 30 percent less than those who
have earned a high school diploma. High school graduation is
the single most effective preventive strategy against adult
poverty; as Table 1.1 shows, 13 percent of American adults age
25 to 34 are not high school graduates; only 31 percent have a
college degree or more.
TABLE 1.1: Educational Attainment Among 25- to 34-Year-
Olds
United States
%
Not a high school graduate
13%
High school diploma or GED
48%
Associate’s degree
8%
Bachelor’s degree

22%
Graduate degree
9%
Source: Anna E. Casey Foundation, Kids Count Program, 2010
data, http://datacenter.kidscount.org/data/acrossstates/Rankings.
aspx?ind=6294 (accessed June 12, 2012).
Considering that youth are at risk during the most tumultuous
time of their lives, it comes as no surprise that, as the Focus on
Delinquency box entitled “Teen Risk Taking” suggests, they are
willing to engage in risky, destructive behavior.
Problems in Cyberspace
Kids today are forced to deal with problems and issues that their
parents could not even dream about. While the Internet and
other technological advances have opened a new world of
information gathering and sharing, they have brought with them
a basketful of new problems ranging from sexting to
cyberstalking.
Cyberbullying.
Phoebe Prince, a 15-year-old Massachusetts girl, hanged herself
in a stairwell at her home after enduring months of torment by
her fellow students at South Hadley High School. Prince, who
had immigrated from Ireland, was taunted in the school’s
hallways and bombarded with vulgar insults by a pack of kids
led by the ex-girlfriend of a boy she had briefly dated. As she
studied in the library on the last day of her life, she was openly
hounded and threatened physically while other students and a
teacher looked on and did nothing. In the aftermath of her
death, prosecutors accused two boys of statutory rape and four
girls of violating Prince’s civil rights and criminal harassment.
Ironically, most of these students were still in school, and some
continued to post nasty remarks on Prince’s memorial Facebook
page after her death.25
Experts define bullying among children as repeated, negative
acts committed by one or more children against
another.26 These negative acts may be physical or verbal in
nature—for example, hitting or kicking, teasing or taunting—or

they may involve indirect actions such as manipulating
friendships or purposely excluding other children from
activities. While bullying is a problem that remains to be
solved, it has now morphed from the physical to the virtual.
Because of the creation of cyberspace, physical distance is no
longer a barrier to the frequency and depth of harm doled out by
a bully to his or her victim.27 Cyberbullying is the willful and
repeated harm inflicted through the medium of electronic text.
Like their real-world counterparts, cyberbullies are malicious
aggressors who seek implicit or explicit pleasure or profit
through the mistreatment of other individuals. Although power
in traditional bullying might be physical (stature) or social
(competency or popularity), online power may simply stem from
Internet proficiency.
Not only are kids at risk of real-time bullying, but they may be
bullied in cyberspace by people they hardly know and whose
identity is hard to discover. Here, John Halligan shows the web
page devoted to his son. Ryan was bullied for months online.
Classmates sent the 13-year-old Essex Junction, Vermont, boy
instant messages calling him gay. He was threatened, taunted,
and insulted incessantly by cyberbullies. Finally, Ryan killed …
CHAPTER 5: THE MEDIA AND CLAIMS
■ Media processes that affect the claimsmaking process
■ News work and constraints on coverage of claims
■ Omnipresent deadlines, while they can vary depending on
kind of media, necessitate
tough decisions about what claims are discussed

■ The newshole exists because each kind of media has limited
amount of space; e.g., a
thirty-minute national news program has about twenty-two
minutes of program time (the
rest is advertising), and not all of that time is spent on hard
news
■ The norm is that interesting stories are more likely to be
aired/written than less interesting
ones (novelty)
■ Different intended audiences shape what media workers
construct as newsworthy
■ Balance as a professional norm means frequently media show
two sides (but only two),
and sometimes one if news workers feel there is relative
consensus of opinion
■ Geography of the media means events in New York City, Los
Angeles, and Washington,
D.C., are more likely to be covered by media due to the greater
number of available news
workers in those cities and the perception that those cities are
centers of political and
cultural importance in the United States
■ Media as secondary claimsmakers

■ What claimsmakers need to know to acquire media attention
■ Package claims in ways that help media to do their jobs and
parallel their constraints
■ Give media advanced notice of claimsmaking events
■ Choose interesting individuals to represent the social
movement
■ Make events visually interesting (at least for television media
coverage)
■ Seek out, if possible, media that is narrowcasting toward the
audiences claimsmakers are
seeking to persuade
■ News media are not a static entity, but change over time
■ Growth of cable channels, especially twenty-four-hour cable
news networks which must fill
their newshole on a daily basis
■ Much of the media have transitioned from broadcasting to
narrowcasting to targeted
audiences (audience segmentation)
■ Internet’s unlimited carrying capacity for claims
■ On one hand, this is wonderful for claimsmakers, who can
sometimes bypass the media

and reach out directly to intended audiences
■ On the other hand, the Internet is unfiltered, so many claims
can make it hard for
audiences to sift and sort claims they encounter
■ Packaging social problems in the news
■ Seek out ownership of the social problems, so that
claimsmakers are the presumptive
people for the media to go to when covering the social problem
■ Offer typifying examples which can become landmark
narratives, so synonymous with the
social problem that they enter into the popular wisdom of the
society
■ Create media-accessible packages for news workers to use
■ Package: familiar, hopefully coherent story (e.g., contains
cause of the problem, villain,
victim who has been greatly harmed, as well as proposed
solution) that has a frame that
is familiar to intended audience
■ Use condensing symbols which harken back to the social
problem and are familiar to
most in the society

■ Impact of the media on social problems process
■ Remember though, media are not the sole influence on the
success or failure of a
claimsmaking campaign
■ Media are frequently effective as agenda-setters, bringing an
issue to public attention
■ Even here, there are constraints on media influence
■ Some events require coverage, no matter what other events
might be on the agenda
■ Claimsmaking is covered when media feel the issue is
newsworthy
■ Media constraints mean they must sift and sort through many
claims to lift up only a
few for public attention
■ The agenda-setting function, however, can be enormously
influential on the social
problems process, for both general public and policymakers may
feel issues that make
the media’s agenda are worthy of action
■ Media increasingly receive feedback from general and
targeted audiences, especially with
the availability of new technologies such as e-mail, and they
often feel responsible to

respond to it
■ Case study: Democratizing the Means of Media Production
and Reproduction

Chapter 5The Mediaand ClaimsMedia and the Claims.docx

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