SOCIOL 103 Chapter Notes - Chapter 5: Process Media, Social Forces, Free Hand
Document Summary
Analyses of the mass media"s role in the social problems process often focus on the issue of bias. All forms of media coverage tend to alter how social problems are constructed. Social problems process typically begins with claims making that precedes the media"s involvement. Usually activists or experts present the initial, or primary, claims. Media coverage almost inevitably alters the claims that it presents. The media translate and transform claimsmakers" messages into what we will call secondary claims and, typically by making them shorter, more dramatic, and less ideological than the original primary claims. The marketplace for social problems can be understood as composed of multiple arenas. Each arena is a venue where social problems claims can be presented. Each arena has a limited carrying capacity for presenting claims. News work reporters and editors have the job of locating and presenting news to the larger public. Constraints costs money to collect and produce news, and news workers operate within budgets.
