Social Problems Research Paper
The World’s Biggest Perpetrators Catherine Miller, Gabby Tomlinson, Beach Pained, Pillar Garcia December 2014 Issues such as child labor can be considered social problems. Social problems are defined as “conditions that are evaluated as wrong, widespread, and changeable” (Los eke, 2003, p. 7). Social construction theory refers to the process of how social problems are m dad. First, social construction theories are presented to claimer’s who deem the theories as a social problem or not. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the social problem of child labor made by international claimer’s.
How do news journalists in Sudan, Guatemala, pa Satan, and Malawi, acting as claimer’s, socially construct the global social problem of child labor? Methodology The data exhibited in this project is taken from many different international n swappers. These newspaper articles were found through the internet which then had to be translated to English. Each group member collected a minimum of five news articles concern inning child labor from different countries. The countries chosen were Guatemala, Malawi, Pack Stan and Sudan.
The data showed that each country was experiencing serious problems with c hill labor and that each country was attempting to find solutions. Findings Table 1 : Basis of Claim by Theoretical Framework for issues of Child Labor Nation Basis of Claim Logical Emotion Both Totals Sudan (1) Malawi Pakistan II (3) Ill (4) 35% Guatemala 25% Total 5% From this table, it is evident that child labor is a rapidly expanding social probe throughout the world. In carefully analyzing each article, it has shown that ma NY of them had an emotional claim.
An emotional claims are claims that “encourage audience m embers to feel sympathy for social problem victims and/ or to feel hatred for social problem villains”(Losses, 2003, p. 27). The audience should feel bad about a current social problem, “These children who grow up forget the pleasure of their childhood and are neglected by society. I instead of getting education, they tolerate rudeness and disrespect at work. ‘ This quote shows some of the problems that are being brought upon children as they enter the workforce at such a young age.
Furthermore, these children are not only being pushed into the workforce at a young age, but are being tortured, ” A group with children between 3 and 17 years old, were forced to work 16 ho ours a day and were held in overcrowded taverns south of Guatemala City, where t hey slept in cardboard or newspapers and amid feces. ‘These children are unwillingly put i onto the workforce taking away their childhood in front of their eyes, but then burdened with Ion g hours at work. These claims encourage the audience to feel sympathy for the children who h eve to partake in child labor.
On the other hand, about 50% of the articles analyzed claimed to have a logic claim. Losses defines a logic claim as “a reason why audience members should defined a particular condition as troublesome” ( p. 27) This means that when things seems like the y are not right, they are probably a big issue. “Approximately 1. 4 million children are said to be in child labor in Malawi”. After hearing this, much Of the audience should define that child lab or is definitely an issue in Malawi. In addition to Malawi having issues with child labor, Central A America also has a significant numbers of child workers. According to ILL estimate, Latin America a and the Caribbean there are 12. 5 million child laborers, of whom 9. 5 million in hazard us work” This tote shows the significant number of child workers and states that many of them are doing hazardous work. The issue should be defined as troublesome due to the fact t hat they are putting many of the children’s lives at risk. The data from this table highlights the type of claims that each country uses t o make the audience aware of the issues with child labor. Evidently, the most popular claim m was the emotional claim.
Emotional claims get the audience to feel sympathy for the v cities which in this case are the children. The audience agrees that a child’s infancy should n to be taken away in he blink of an eye. They should not be overworked and sleeping in cardboard boxes, children should have the opportunity to be educated. Logical claims were also popular r because this showed the numbers of children that are being robbed their infancy. There is a significant amount of child workers. It is in the audiences hands to classify this as a probe me that is truly troublesome and needs to be solved.
Table 2: Type Of Solution by Unit Of Analysis for Issue Of Child Labor Types of Solutions Person Blame System Blame TOTAL Symbolic punishment Symbolic assistance 3 10 13 (65%) Tough punishment Quick benefits 7 7 (35%) 17 (85%) 20 (100%) UNIT OF ANALYSIS In the table above, according to its data, is apparent that child labor is a rapid expanding social problem throughout the world today. After carefully analyze nag each article, 85% of the articles claimed to have system blame approaches. The system bal name approach, which is when social problems result from the social system, is another way t hat Losses explains social problems.
This means that the system needs to be fixed rather than the individual. Bilabial Bout Godard, of Guatemala, said “children are future of our nation and every aren’t has the responsibility to save their children from falling into the trap of child labor. H forever, it is the responsibility of the state to protect the children and take strong and commit deed steps to ensure that every child is given adequate chance to education, health, leisure and bas ICC freedoms”. Godard explains indeed it is the systems and governments job to provide child Rene with the necessary services to succeed.
However Godard also points out that parents h eve the responsibility to their children to not have to work at such a young age in such h vigorous conditions. According to Losses, person blame approach is the assumption that social pr bobbles result from individuals. This means there is no blame on the System but its en tiredly on the individual. In an opinion article in the Sudan Tribune , Negro Areola Garaging expresses that, “these are the consequences or the results of our narrow definition of child labor. We have a generation that has been destroyed by the ‘love’ or rather ‘exaggerated’ love o f their parents” (p. ). By saying consequences, Garaging means that children are being protected by their parents in the wrong way. He believes that parents are afraid of their children being force d into labor that they take care Of their to an extreme measure. Throughout the articles and from collecting data, the four countries mostly ha eve either a symbolic assistance or quick benefits type of solution. An example of symbols c assistance would be the government offering more education programs. An example of quick b infinite would be the government enforcing a new law.
The countries are making moves toward s helping children just not moves that are making a huge impact. Government systems and pare ants make changes to attempt to help now. Yet from the articles analyzed, there needs to be a plan f action to stop child labor and save the children. Table 3: Comparison of nations by type of solutions proposed Countries Type of change New administrative laws New social services 11(4) 1(3) 75% Evaluate as intolerable 100% From this table, it is evident that these articles all suggest that something shoo old be changed (mentally or physically) about child labor.
