Chapter 3

Social Problems
Chapter 3
Youngjoon Bae

Types of Activist Claimsmakers
Slide 1
Small activist groups make claims.
So do large well-known organizations.
How might claimsmaking be different for these
two groups?
Social Problems, Third Edition
Copyright © 2016 W.W. Norton & Company

Slide 2
 Outsider claimsmakers
 They do not hold powerful positions or have
strong ties to those who do.
 They have to work hard to get and maintain an
audience’s attention.

Slide 3
 Insider claimsmakers
 They are already close to sources of power
and can conduct claimsmaking without relying
on media coverage to be heard.

Slide 4
 Social movements are overarching large-
scale causes.
 Social movements may contain smaller, more
narrowly focused groups, or social movement
organizations (SMOs).
 Social movements and SMOs often provoke
countermovements.

Studying Social Movements
Slide 1
 Activists construct claims by framing them
within a larger cultural context.
 Three kinds of frames
1. Diagnostic frames identify the nature of the
troubling condition.
2. Motivational frames discuss why individuals
ought to care about the condition.
3. Prognostic frames explain what needs to be done
to solve the troubling condition.

Slide 2
 Social movements need to attract new
members to invest time and energy in the
cause.
 Social movement analysts are interested in
how activists enlist supporters.
 Frame alignment is the way activists adjust
their frames to recruit potential members.

Slide 3
 Four types of frame alignment:
1. Frame bridging reaches out to people who hold
similar frames and support similar causes.
2. Frame amplification calls on widely held values to
rally others to the cause.
3. Frame extension enlarges the cause’s frame to
encompass wider concerns.
4. Frame transformation calls on people to adopt a
new, different frame.

Slide 4
 Frame disputes often arise between
different SMOs within the same movement.
 SMOs may think about the social problem
differently, target different audiences, respond
differently to counterclaims, or modify frames.

Slide 5
 SMOs may portray the social condition
differently and see their way as “correct.”
 One side may accuse the other of “selling
out.”
 Especially likely if frame extension has
occurred and questions of integrity arise.

Slide 6
 Social movement activities require resources.
 Movements need money and donations,
media coverage, members, skills, and so on.
 Movements must assemble the resources they
need (resource mobilization) and use them
effectively.
 Many SMOs compete for resources.

Slide 7
 In contemporary America, social movement
activity often revolves around fundraising.
 Beneficiaries are those whom the
proposed policy will benefit.
 Constituents support the social movement.
 Conscience constituents support the
cause, though they do not expect to be direct
beneficiaries.

Slide 8
 In addition to framing and mobilizing
resources, activists must be aware of timing.
 At certain times, the obstacles to change are
temporarily or permanently reduced.
 This is the ideal time for activists to push.
 The reduction of obstacles can be caused by
cultural or political opportunities.

Slide 9
 Cultural opportunities arise when the
audience is more likely to listen to claims
about a particular troubling condition.
 This is often caused by a newsworthy event.
 It also occurs when a master frame becomes
familiar and easily applied to other conditions.
 LGBTQ activists often rely on a frame
introduced by the civil rights movement: that
citizens can demand equal rights.

Slide 10
 Political opportunities to promote claims
occur when the distribution of power shifts.
 Political opportunities can arise from shifting
priorities or when opposition to a movement
becomes weaker.
 Political opportunities can fail when the
public’s or the media’s attention is focused
elsewhere.

Slide 11
 Activists can gain ownership of a movement.
 An individual or SMO can become dominant in
political and cultural discourse.
 For example, the NRA established itself as the
leading SMO opposing gun control.

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