LS222 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Squeegee Man, Moral Panic, Social Constructionism
2 May 2016
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Document Summary
School shootings have been constructed as a huge social problem. Tax frauds is not seen as a huge social problem even though it happens often. Constructionist would wonder why is that the case. Media reporting of young people in general tends to be negative. Media reports a major source for public opinions. Problems tend to be decontextualized: e. g. , squeegee kids, coverage can be influenced by race, e. g. , asian gang activity in canada. Moral panics: cohen, 1973, a moral panic is often fueled by the mass media. These four things help us determine what makes a good theory, theories provide cleary defined concepts and propositions linking those concepts: coherence-whether the theories proposition or statements are logically connected to explain the phenomenon. Are statements logically connected: verifiability- needs to be supported with empirical evidence. Determining whether x causes y in social sciences is difficult. There may be a connection between x and y but not why it causes y.
