Blog Post #9 – Individual Reflections

Reflecting on a Constructionist Approach to Social Problems

Madison:

The constructionist stance for thinking about the social problems process is not the traditional approach to studying social problems. The constructionist approach is intellectually coherent. This approach is intended to give one some tools for recognizing, thinking about, and responding to social problems claims. By adopting a constructionist stance, we can identify interesting questions that we might ask about a set of claims. What constructionist approach cannot do is tell you which conditions ought to concern you. For example, claims spread so easily through social media.

What I liked best about this class is the Color Run project. It was fun and interesting to put together. The outcome also turned out well. I loved learning about the refugee crisis and how I could help. I also enjoyed the Felons Right to Vote project and learning about the laws on it.

I think the most difficult thing to learn this semester was the McDonald’s and Sokolof blog. The tapes were boring and confusing at times. The talk of aldehydes and other health issues became too much.

The process we used in this class helped me develop critical thinking skills by helping me analyze certain topics and study them more in-depth.

This class helped me think about what problems are and how they are addressed in society. For example, in Blog 7 we talked about policy outcomes for three different social problem topics. We then had to find what policies had been put into effect for these problems. It was interesting seeing how this is done and what is being done about certain problems.

If I had to retake this class, I would do the blogs earlier. Most of the time we were uploading late the night before. I would’ve liked to finish early and let Dr. Simmons look over the blog first.

If my friend was going to take this class next semester and asked me how to be successful, I would have a few words of advice. I would tell them to read the chapters, ask any questions they may have, and to stay on top of the work and not procrastinate.

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Rebekah:

The Constructionist Approach is a nontraditional method of studying social problems. This method makes you analyze a social problem more in-depth instead of just seeing the cover it presents. This book focuses on the general on the general topic of the social problem process and that the only thing that various conditions called social problems have in common is that they are socially constructed. This approach was used because it is intellectually coherent. Using the Constructionist Approach the book has focused on the general topic of the social problems process. It gives us, the reader, tools for recognizing, thinking about, and responding to the social problems claim. An example would be the current wave of immigrant threatens the foundation of American society. The individual, without these tools would just believe what they are told; but if they had used a constructionist approach then they could better understand what the social problem is claiming and make a more informed based decision on it. I enjoyed learning about a variety of social problems that I haven’t focused on before like the Syrian refugees or the fact that felons in some states have their right to vote stripped away. The most difficult thing was having to work on topics that I didn’t really care about or affect me personally An example would be the bees, I just don’t like bees because i’m allergic. I know they are good for nature but bees and I don’t get along well. It helps develop critical thinking skills because it causes you to look more carefully at a topic, get more than one opinion on a problem, and make a well-informed opinion. Instead of judging a problem by its cover we are forced to read the whole book, like in blog 6. I understand that there is much more to a social problem that what it presents. There are many different ways a problem can be dissected and analyzed, like with blog 5. If I had to do something differently it would be the project we chose, the color run. I would suggest a dog walk/run because lots of people showed up with their dogs to participate. I would suggest to have an open mind and don’t create an opinion about a topic before learning about it and understanding it.

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Samantha: 

The Constructionist Approach is a non traditional approach to studying social problems.  It is used in this book by focusing on the general topic of the social problems process and on the topics that are discussed about.  This approach is used instead of others because this approach has been intended to give students some tools to recognize, think about and respond to any of the current social problems that have risen.  An example would be the fact that claims can spread like wildfire now that social media is becoming important to day-to-day life.

My favorite thing about learning in this class was the felon voting rights because it was fun and informative because we got to be active in that particular act.  It made me feel like I was doing a good thing in my community and in my country. I felt like I was making a difference.  

The most difficult thing about learning in this class was the McDonald’s section.  I couldn’t stand the chewing part that he did because it made me cringe really hard.  I also didn’t like how confusing it was as well as how difficult it was to understand because I felt like he did not explain it very well nor was it interesting.  

The process that we were using in the class helped me to develop critical thinking skills because, at first, I did not know anything about it at all.  When we did our first real blog, it made me actually think about the issues at hand instead of just looking at an article and then scrolling by it.

This class has helped me think about what actual problems are instead of problems that only affect me.  Real life problems affect everyone and not just in the United States. They affect everyone in the world.

If I had to retake this class, I would probably take it a bit more serious instead of slacking a bit.

If my friend was going to take this class next semester, I would tell them to not procrastinate on assignments and take it much more seriously than I did.   

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Chadwick:

Constructionist Approach: This approach is intended to give you some tools for recognizing, thinking about, and responding to social claims. It is not the traditional approach for thinking about the social problems process. The justification for this book’s constructionist approach is that is it intellectually coherent. Rather than letting our attention drift as we examine, one at a time, crime and other specific phenomena that people consider social problems, this book has focused on the general topic of the social problems process on the insight that the only thing the various conditions called social problems have in common is that they are constructed and it has explored the ins and outs of that process. This process is used to identify interesting questions that we might ask about a set of claims. UNderstanding that claims need to be made persuasive that claimsmakers are competing to be heard in the social problems marketplace so that they can bring their claims to the attention of the press, public, and policymakers.

Personally, the thing that i enjoyed best when it came to this class would be the refugee crisis. I felt like it was the best topic that we had throughout the blogs, because it has the most current effect on today’s society. I think that this topic was most successful due to the amount of attention that we could possibly bring. Mainly because the topic doesn’t concern most people immediately, it means that the topic should be brought to the attention of these people so that they could share their opinion and possibly help the people in need. 

I would have to say that the McDonald’s blog was hands down the most boring blog that we had to do. I really couldn’t follow along with the video without starting to drift off or just day-dream. I didn’t really feel like doing the blog helped me understand what was happening within the video either. It just wasn’t something I was interested in. Specifically, I struggled with how the McDonald’s topic was a disciplinary science. 

I felt like the color run helped develop critical thinking skills because we had to prepare this run for the refugees from scratch. It was a turning point in the class for myself because i feel like i was able to learn a lot from this experience and I was able to use my resources around me to use my critical thinking skills. 

This class has definitely helped me understand problems that are occurring and how they are addressed in society. For example, the straw law in blog post 2. Being from across the United States, I would have never thought that this would be an actual problem. Thanks to this class, I feel like I am obligated to keep up with more global issues and I greatly appreciate that. 

If I were able to re-take this course again, I would have been more on top of the quizzes that were online. I feel like I struggled with remembering to take these quizzes. I would do this part over specifically because it would have made my grade much better. Other than that, I enjoyed the class and I was able to learn a lot.

If a friend of mine were going to take this class next semester, I would recommend them to stay on top of everything. If one was to get behind in this class, it would be hard to recover from it. I would also recommend getting in a group that you know will be productive. I wouldn’t get in a group of friends, unless they understand that it has to be all serious work and on time.

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Brianna:

Personally, I loved helping put the color run together! I had so much fun working with the class to raise money for such a great cause. I also really enjoyed learning more about plastic pollution in one of very first blogs we completed, blog 2 . It is something I am interested in and very new ways to avoid single plastic use and ways we can help our Earth.

I will have to agree with everyone else, the McDonald’s Blog was the most difficult. I am a visual learner, so only hearing the podcast made it difficult for me to follow along with the topic at hand. So other visual learners like me may struggle with this as well in future classes.

What I love about being an English Major is that I read passages and try to break them down to understand the bigger picture. With the process we used in class, that’s what it felt like to me. Looking at a problem and figuring out what can be done to fix it or make it better bit by bit. For example, the felons right to vote topic we choose. We really had to sit down and look at this at all angles in many different ways in order to form a judgement on if we felt if felons should continue to have their right to vote in the United States after being released.

For me, blog 8, is a great example of how this class has helped me think about problems and how they are addressed in society. I had little to no idea what was happening with the refugee crisis, and our Facebook poll was a real eye opener for me how people felt on refugees coming to America for safety. But I also understand people have different opinions, and that’s ok! This class has just helped me realise and accept that more.

If I had to retake this class I would definitely complete the blogs earlier than the due date. That way Dr. Simmons would have the chance to look over the completed blog and give us some feedback in order to make it better and what she expects.

If I had a friend who was going to take this class the advice I would give them goes back to my answer to the previous question. I highly recommend to finish your blogs early as possible and go to Dr. Simmons and have her take a look at the for feedback, that way you be successful!

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Mitchell:

Unlike Other books where they go through chapter after chapter talking about different types of social problems. This book focuses on the general topic of the social problems process and how to read them. It relates different types of social problems and helps you get a full better understanding of what they are. This is called the constructionist approach. For example back in chapter 3 the book talks about framing which is how activists constructs their claims. The chapter then goes on talking about all the different types of frames like bridging, amplification, extension and transformation. Each one a different type of topic and a different approach to a claim. Other books would have gone over these different types of approaches in separate chapters, but in this book it  groups them together by talking about framing.

What surprised me most and what I like best while learning about social problems was that we can make a difference so easily. I always thought that you had to be a part of a huge program in order to make a difference but even a class event in a small school like Newberry College was able to raise money and make a difference. For example our color run for global refugees crisis got a good number of participants and donations.

But it was also hard to learn about all these problems that I have been across the world and home so little people are aware of what’s going on. Especially with the Syrian refugees wandering from country to country trying to find a place to call home.

Our group all worked together and reached out and found programs that were already helping refugees. Then we were put together a way to way for us to make a difference. I like to believe that we were very successful while using this critical thinking skills.

I did notice during this class that there are many problems in the world but only the ones that are promoted properly are the ones that get the attention. For example before this class and before my group did a blog on felons voting rights. I did not know that after someone has served time in prison they were unable to vote. If it weren’t for our blog I probably still wouldn’t know about it either.

So overall I believe that I benefitted by taking this class, I do wish that I payed a little bit more attention to the blog rubric. I had a lot of points taken off for minor mistakes that I could have fixed.

But to anyone’s who is thinking about taking this class, my only advice is that you get all of your civic engagement hours done and over with as soon as you possibly can. So that you’re not looking for hours at the end of the semester.

Blog 8 – Global Refugee Crisis

Global Refugee Crisis

Global Refugee Assignment

Our group was assigned the Syrian Refugee Crisis and we focused on the causes and concerns.

The Global Refugee Crisis is bigger than most people think: “Every minute, 24 people around the world are forced to flee their homes. That’s 34,000 people a day who leave everything behind in the hope of finding safety and a better tomorrow.” Refugees are people who have to flee their country because of persecution, war, or violence.

(Photo By Google Images)

The brutal violence in Syria has caused thousands to lose their lives and their homes. Towns and cities have been left to waste away. Since 2011, millions of Syrians have poured into the  neighboring countries, trying to find safety. With so many refugees escaping to the safety of a new home, it strains the resources of their host nation with their need of food, work, medical care, and education.

We focused on a refugee named Um Ala’a. She was a wife and a mother to 3 orphaned children. She used to throw many parties and celebrations at her house. She was also an active swimmer and loved the ocean. After the war, she is now widowed. She still has her girls, but they live in a small dirty house. They aid the refugees. You can read more about Um Ala’a here.

(Photo By lifeonhold.com)

Madison: I feel that while this is a tragic story, that this made Um Ala’a stronger. She has found a way to turn her grief into strength. She empowers others and helps those like her. She is truly amazing.

Samantha: I feel like her story was a tough one to follow because of how hard it was to visualize.  Her life is very different from ours and I cannot imagine living a life like hers. There are so many stressors that she faces every day that I couldn’t possibly imagining living because we have it so good here.

Brianna: It’s heartbreaking that these everyday people are having to flee their homes and risk losing their lives. I want us to figure something out in order to help without straining our own resources.

Chad: As a firm believer in helping others, this refugee crisis is a tough one to swallow. It’s unbelievable that there are countries out there that can’t keep it together enough to where their citizens are fleeing. The environment these people are in could very well ruin their lives. Not to mention that when they leave their homes, they aren’t guaranteed to have somewhere to turn to. It’s really a sad situation that really needs to be re-evaluated because I wouldn’t want to have to raise my family in such a crisis.

Rebekah: I was heartbroken reading her story. She is a strong women. I can’t imagine being in that situation. This is something common to them and something I hope to never have to experience.

Mitchell: So many people to for granted not ever having to experience this crisis. I believe that we should always look to help those who are in need in any way possible because I know that we would want the same support if we were in their shoes.

A typifying example is a description of a particular instance of the condition. They are meant to illustrate the seriousness of the problem. For our claim it is extremely important to have a strong typifying example so people can truly understand the seriousness of why we are raising money.

Um Ala’s life story serves as a typifying example because a typifying example is usually an extreme case that gets the point across.  Um Ala’s story goes along with this definition because not all refugees stories are like hers. Her life used to be one of those that everyone dreams about, parties and having their loving family together.  After the Syrian War, she became a widow with a dirty house. She’s now not living the glamorous life that she once had. WIth her story and others just like hers, it will hopefully get people to worry more about the way going on in Syrian country.  Although few did not lose their home nor have to leave their country, Um Ala lost her whole life that she had and had to flee her country.

Our current event was about a man named, Hassan al-Kontar, who is a Syrian refugee. He has been stranded for months at a Malaysia Airport. He was documenting his life on social media. He left Syria to seek asylum instead of joining the military and cannot return. Hassan was arrested and might be forced to return to Syria. Read more about Hassan here.

A worsening condition is claiming that something that gets worse overtime.  These are effective to the claims process because it shows how something can become a bad situation after a while.  Like with the Syrian War, it started off as a small thing, but grew over time to over millions of people either dead or misplaced through their homes.  Another reason is that it provides a sense of urgency, that the problem is spreading and that it may spiral out of control.

Our current event is a worsening condition because it shows how bad the war has gotten, and continues to get. This man fled his home because of the war. Then wasn’t allowed to leave the airport. He was stranded there for months. Then, he was arrested and might be forced to return the place he fled from.

The poem we used for our project was “I’m Leaving?” by Kesidha Rajakesary.

The poem talk about bombs and guns going off. The person in the poem talks about how they aren’t in a safe place. The narrator goes on to talk about how they can’t leave certain things behind, such as, their baby chick or their friends and family. The poem ends with “I have no choice but to leave And I know that I will be safe in the new place But I will get my happiness back?” This is a representation of the people in Syria. They have to leave their war-torn home to try to find a safe, happy place.

Warrants are what helps to justify doing something about a specific troubling condition. It is important to have warrants when creating an effective claim because it gives people a reason to accept and join you on fixing the troubling condition at hand.

This poem could be used as a warrant for the larger global refugee crisis because it shows how serious the problem is. The poem talks about the war-torn country and how they needed to leave. This poem could convince people that they need to join us on fixing the troubling condition at hand.

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The “Pitch” Assignment

We focused on the Syrian Refugee Crisis. The aspect that we wanted to highlight was that not a lot of people know about it. We wanted people to know what is going on, how long it has been going on and why they should care.  Another aspect that we wanted to highlight is the fact that children are watching this war go on in their homeland as young as a newborn baby, even though they won’t be able to remember it. There are even children warriors, fighting in the war.  

We proposed to set up a color run to help raise money to send to Sunrise USA, which is an organization that helps Syrian Refugees. We planned to set up a color run with the help of Newberry College and local churches and businesses as a way to raise money to help with the Syrian refugees. We charged $5 a person to run. We hoped to learn ways to help others in need by getting students to come together.

Frame bridging is when activist seek support from people thought to hold frames similar to their own. Frame amplifications when activist call on values and beliefs that presume that many people hold in order to rally others to their cause. Frame extensions are when activist enlarge their frame to encompass concerns that prospective supports are thought to have. Frame transformation is when activist call on perspective supporters to reject the typical worldview that they take for granted and adopt a new and different frame.

We believe that the frame that describes our pitch the best would have to be frame transformation. The main reason that we believe this is due to the fact that many forget about this refugee crisis and typically push it to the side because it’s not immediately impacting them. Our goal was to inform others that these refugees need our help. For example, the United States has very strict refugee laws. Coming from a country who is one of the most prideful countries and labels themselves as the best country in the world, one would think that we are willing to accept these people in need. Unfortunately, if refugees attempt to come to America, they are going to have an unreasonably rough time getting the support they are searching for.

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The “Big Event”

Our Color Run was one of the events that won the “pitch.” So our group worked on the color run. However, some of our members also participated in the Walk-A-Thon.

All six of us chose to work on this project because we won the “pitch.” Madison, Brianna, Rebekah, and Chad also attended the Walk-A-Thon.

Madison: I was the leader and the photographer. I took photos at the event. I also assigned jobs and communicated with those above me such as Dr. Simmons, Michael Smith, and others. I helped design and distribute flyers also.

Brianna: I was co-director. I also contribute to buying our powdered color and walking around Main Street asking for donations as well as hanging flyers.

Samantha: I helped with getting the water along with helping people sign in for the run.  

Chad: I helped with gathering items for the color run, handing out water, the talker of the run, as well as providing a thoughtful question on our Facebook page.

Rebekah: During the event I was in charge of the sign in table and collecting the money. I kept up with who was running the color run and who was helping from our group.

Mitchell: I was able to help by setting up posters in the corners of campus that we made to help show the runners where to go. Also I was there to greet the runners at the beginning and pass out waters at the end of the run.

Diagnostic frame is a social movement’s depiction of the nature of a troubling condition. This basically means to state the problem in a clear, easily understood way. The problem we saw was that the Syrian citizens are having to flee their homes because their home is not safe anymore and they have nowhere to run to.

Motivational frame is a social movement’s justification for taking action. We justified our actions of wanting to help by showing pictures and explaining what the Syrians citizens are having to live through on a day-to-day basis.

Prognostic frame is a social movement’s description of what needs to be done about a particular troubling condition. We chose to raise money to send to an organization, Sunrise USA, that provides assistance to the Syrian refugees.

Cultural opportunities are when people become more willing to listen to the movement’s claim. We used the fact that the number of people having to flee has grown increasingly and it will continue to grow if we do nothing to help them. We also used people fear in a way we tried to make them think what if it was you in their position.

Political opportunities to promote activists’ claims arise when the distribution of power among different groups shifts so that changes that previously would have been successfully resisted can now be implemented.

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Measuring Success

We feel the most successful part of our project was the turnout and the involvement. We had a total of 21 that signed up originally. While some did not show up, we had a crowd sign in the day of the run. We also ended up raising a little under $300 dollars that went to Sunrise USA. The majority of the money was donations, not just the $5 fee for the race. We also had places that donated the powder to throw and offered to help if needed.

(Photos By NCSassyCats)

We felt challenged with the time frame. This was a big even to plan in three weeks. We also ran into complications with the flyers for the project. We didn’t know we had to have the event stamped by Michael Smith before hanging them. We had to reprint our flyers and re-hang them. At the actual event, it was windy and not everybody got lots of color. However, in the end everything went well and the color run was fun.

(Photos By NCSassyCats)

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Measuring Public Opinion

We used social media in many ways for this project. There was a Facebook donation page created by Brianna and the event was also created and posted to Facebook. Newberry College also posted the event to the Media Bulletin and on Instagram. Our teammates also posted to their social media accounts.

We expected people to be generous with this project. We thought people, especially churches and businesses to donate more or be more accepting. However, we did run into people who didn’t support our cause because they didn’t care to help refugees. There were some that thought we were helping refugees to come to the US for aid. After we explained, they were more willing to help.

We measure public reaction through a public Facebook poll posted by Madison. The post asked people: Should refugees be allowed to flee to America and hold a job without hassle? Or should our refugee laws stay in place? Yes, let them come or No, keep the laws? 65 People voted on the poll. 18% (12 people) said yes, let them come. 82% (53 people) said no, keep the laws. We even had people comment on the post and message Madison explaining why they voted a certain way.

We knew that many people use Facebook and that it is a fast way to measure opinions. We decided it was best because Facebook also is where many share their opinions of current events such as this Refugee Crisis. The reaction to the post confirmed our reasoning.

We did well getting people engaged with our troubling condition. A lot of people were interested in hearing about the Syrian Refugee Crisis. The idea of a color run definitely got people engaged with our idea. It made them more interested in what we were supporting. If people couldn’t run, they wanted to donate money or supplies when they heard what we were doing.Another way to get involved would be here at the World Vision website that has a bunch of different options on how to do it.

Blog #7-Policy Outcomes

Policy Outcomes in Response to Social Problems

 

Social Problem Topic #1: Plastic Pollution

Troubling Condition

The California coast is being polluted due to single plastic use and poses a severe threat to many animals such as fish, birds, turtles, and more.

Policy to Alleviate Troubling Condition

On September 20, 2018, California governor, Jerry Brown, signed three key bills on the public health and environmental threat presented by plastic pollution and wastes. The main bill was AB-1884. This bill requires restaurants to offer straws upon request. If they fail to comply with the bill, they are fined $25 dollars a day, but they cannot exceed $300. Some the other key bills were; SB-452, SB-1335, and SB-1263.  

Policy Critique

Although this law, and the others, do help to downsize the plastic problem, the policy is insufficient. When people critique a policy for being insufficient, they mean that the policy was a step in the right direction, but it doesn’t do enough and falls short of what is needed to eliminate the troubling condition. In the case of AB-1884, this only stops the single use of some single use straws in restaurants. It does not put a stop to the plastic problem, only addresses a small portion of it.

 

(Photos from Plastic-Pollution.org)

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Social Problem Topic #2: Endangered Bumble Bees

Troubling Condition

Bumble bees are becoming endangered at an alarming rate this poses a severe threat to gardens, orchards, prairies, woodlands, and wetlands because they play a critical role in the pollination of crops.

Policy to Alleviate Troubling Condition

On May 25, 2018, a policy to help the bee’s, along with birds, known as the Solar Habitat Act became effective. The bill is H.4875. According to The State, this bill “establishes a completely voluntary standard by which companies can market their commercial solar facilities as “pollinator and bird friendly.” The standard, set by state agencies, would require the planting of native perennials and foraging habitats in and around solar sites.”

Policy Critique

Although this law does help with the bee population and pollination, the policy is too excessive. When people critique a policy for being too excessive, they mean that the policy goes too far and does too much and should be rolled back some. This could be for many reasons such as the law being too broad, too cumbersome, or not in society’s best interest. In the case of H.4875, this isn’t in society’s best interest. This requirement to protect the endangered species could impede society from achieving other goals, such as the progression of the solar facilities.

(Photos from scientificamerican.com and pv-magazine-usa.com)

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Social Problem Topic #3: Gun Control

Troubling Condition

There is an ongoing debate on whether or not we should have some kind of gun control. This is because on the multiple mass shootings in schools, churches, etc, as well as possible suicides. Threatening the lives of everyday people.

Policy to Alleviate Troubling Condition

After the horrific mass shooting in Parkland, Florida at an ordinary high school killing 17 students, State legislators begun passing legislation to restrict gun access. This was thanks to the movement of the student survivors of the devastating attack.  States across the country have passed 50 new laws in order to restrict the access to guns. This ranging from the banning of bump stocks to allowing authorities to temporarily disarm potentially violent people according to the PEW website. As of October 1, bump-fire stocks are now illegal in the state of Florida. Bump-fire stocks are used to semi-automatic guns fire at a faster rate, which was used in the Parkland, Florida shooting. If you are in possession of a bump stock, after October 1st it is a felony, disregarding when you received it according to Sheriff Grady Judd. This bill is now known as SB-456.

Policy Critique

Although this law does help with the mass shootings and suicides, the policy is misguided. When people critique a policy for being misguided, they mean that the policy heads in the wrong direction. In the case of SB-456, the construction of the troubling condition that led to the policy is mistaken. The problem needs to be understood in completely different terms. The problem is not the guns, or the stocks on them, but the people using the guns and how they attain them.

( Photos From triblive.com and  time.com)

Blog 6: Voting and Elections

(Photo by NCSassyCats)

The troubling condition our group chose to address was felons losing their right to vote once convicted. The FRRC was actually one of the organizations we discussed in class that supports and fights to restore the right to vote for felons. All of our group members were unaware of this law in certain states, causing us to jump onto the opportunity to not only educate ourselves, but others as well.

(Photo By floridarrc.com)

We wanted people to understand that their voting rights can and will be taken away from them once they become a felon or commit a felony.  A typifying example would be someone trying to live a normal life after serving their time in prison for a felony that they committed when they were younger.  Our troubling condition became a worsening situation over the years by more people being arrested for a felony as low as constant drug usage, like marijuana. The victims in our problem would be the people who are trying to live normal lives after being released from prison because they do not have all of their rights back after proving that they can be a normal person again.  The villains would be the lawmakers because they are the ones who took away their rights and decided to not give them back. One statistic that would describe the range of people affected is that “An estimated 6.1 million people in the United States (2.5% of the nation’s voting age population, excluding DC) cannot vote due to a felony conviction.”  Anyone can be affected by getting a felony charge on their record. One warrant that we have is that 6.1 million people is a lot of people and that it could have potentially changed who we have as president right now.  Another warrant is that we all like our rights and do not like having them taken away, especially after we have shown society that we are becoming responsible adults and functioning human beings.

(Photo By NCSassyCats)

 

• Why did you choose this project

  • We chose to do our project about how some states people who have committed a felony are no longer given the right to vote. We believed that this is unfair and against a person’s right as an American. We also wanted to inform people who once they are convicted of a felony that there is a chance they will lose their right to vote at a minimum while serving their time or worse for good; most people were unaware of this we realized when we completed our demonstration.

• What did your group do – clear description of event

  • We created a cardboard cutout of a jail cell and we also had a member of the group to dress up as an inmate and people would take pictures with her behind the jail cell. We also created a poster with facts on it so we could teach the people who came over to our table about how people who had committed a felony were having the right to vote taken away and about how it impacts the voting process. We also gave out candy to entice more people to come over and hear what we had to say.

• When did your group do this – date and time(s)

  • We completed our demonstration on Monday October 15, 2018 at 6:00 pm outside in the quad.

• Who was involved and in what ways – list each person and the pieces they were responsible for, also include any faculty, staff, or students that were involved in your event

  • We each played a part in completing the demonstration

  • Samantha – the felon

  • Rebekah – provided the cardboard

  • Brianna – helped with the poster and jail cell  

  • Madison – made the poster

  • Chadwick – was the spokesperson during our event

  • Mitchell – made the jail cell

• What materials did you create or distribute

  • donation jar

  • Posters

  • Markers

  • Table and chairs

  • Cardboard

  • Paint

  • Each of our group members will be in charge of bringing an object for the materials.

(Photo By NCSassyCats)

Audience segmentation is targeting media presentation for particular audiences. We anticipated facing college aged adults. We had candy and a photo booth set up to address this segmentation. It grabbed their attention. College age adults love taking photos. Afterwards we gave them information about our cause.

Diagnostic Frame is to identify the problem. The problem of our topic was that there are about 6.1 million felons that are unable to vote. Our diagnostic frame in our project was just to inform others of the amount of felons in the United States that are unable to have a say in our government. We felt as if everyone should know the amount of votes that could come from these felons and why they should have their rights restored to them once they become free from their wrongdoings.

Motivational Frame is why the actions had to be taken. The reason the action needed to be taken in felons being able to vote would be that they could alter the outcome of the elections within our state and country. The motivational frame in our project was to inform the eligible voters of America that felons should have the right to vote after they have completed their time and probation in full. When they have done their time, then they should be able to vote, because they would be able to have a voice in the government. The passing of this law in some states could change outcomes across the country, but would also give rights back to the felons that they once had before and that they have also earned back as a free person in the society.

Prognostic frame is a social movement’s description of what needs to be done about a particular troubling condition. How we engaged other students is by educating them, explaining how their vote is important in order for felons voting rights to be restored.

Our group used multiple frame alignment techniques but we made it a priority to use motivational frame. We wanted to explain why it is so important for felons to have the right to vote after they are released. We were able to attract people with our Photo Booth to take pictures in outside the cafeteria. We then read them the statistics of how many felons are not allowed to vote, and once we got talking to them we explained how important it is for felons to earn their right to vote back and how it affects the voting population.

Cultural Opportunity is when a shift in popular ideas, making it possible to change how a particular troubling condition is addressed. In society today, social media is a huge platform to spread news quickly. In our opinion, there are more liberal views being put out, there for, making it easier to influence young minds. For example, for our case, in some states people lost their right to vote once they have been convicted of a felony. There are people who will argue that this law isn’t fair, in certain cases. Felony charges can range from murder to burglary. Which makes the argument, why does someone who only has a minor/non-violent felony have to lose their right to vote? Also another factor that can come into play, is that of the age of the felon during the crime. Is it fair to take the right from someone who, at the time, may not have known any better? We took advantage of the age factor in cultural opportunity by spreading awareness to college age students.

Political opportunity is a situation when a shift in power makes it possible to change how a particular troubling condition is addressed. With the upcoming election, Florida will vote on Felon’s right in future elections. Statistics of each state could be helpful with this. We could research how many votes decided the last election vs. how many felons couldn’t vote. This would be a major voting block. This could question how the last election would have turned out if felons could have voted. How many votes have we lost in elections because of this block on felon voting. We took advantage of the upcoming election for political opportunity. We raised awareness and encouraged people to go out and vote and to push for laws to be changed. We used the Florida’s success to show people and motivate them on having a voice.

(Photo By NCSassyCats)

Madison’s Input:

I personally think the most successful part of our project was getting individuals to come take pictures. Many people were interested in our cut out of a jail cell. They stopped to take a picture with us and read our information board. We offered candy, which also made some people stop. We also had a few professors offer extra credit, such as Professor Mayhall, which helped us in spreading the word of our project.

Trying to figure out a day and a time was the hardest part. Our group members have very different schedules with sports and school and jobs. It was hard finding a day and time that worked for everyone.

I think we did well getting people engaged in our troubling condition and claim. People were drawn to the “jail” and the candy helped too. While they were there, they would stop and read and ask questions. Many people didn’t even know that felons can’t vote in most states. We spread the awareness.

I think that more hands on stuff gets people more engaged in voting and elections. Nobody wants, let alone has time, to sit and listen to boring speeches or presentations. You need fun, exciting, and hands on. Which is what we did with the cut out jail cell. We gave the opportunity to teach people while doing something different and hands on.

The students that didn’t stop and question why we were out there bothered me most. They would stare at us interested, but keep walking. I wish they would have asked us what we were doing and why.

If I was personally responsible for redesigning my groups project based on what I know now, I would plan better and spread the word more. We didn’t know it was college night at the fair and a lot of students were off campus. We also emailed some professors too late about extra credit and didn’t get as many to respond as we had hoped.

Brianna’s Input: 

For me personally, I felt that our jail cell prop was a huge success. This was our way to draw attention to ourselves and engage students. The use of textured spray paint on the cardboard cutout gave the jail cell a realistic feel.

What I found challenging is figuring out a day and time that fit everyone’s schedule in our group. Some of us work during the week, play sports, or go home during the weekend.

I think we did well on engaging and educating people on our claim. Our prop, the use of candy, as well as everyone’s, especially Chad’s, inviting personality. Just like ourselves at the beginning of this project, a lot of our fellow students had no idea this was a law in certain states.

A technique I think that helps engage students is rewarded them for coming and engaging themselves. When students approached us and allowed us to discuss our claim and took a picture with our prop, we rewarded them with candy. And some professors even gave extra credit for coming out to see us. What I have learned is that students like to be rewarded for giving us their time, thus being the most effective in my opinion.  

The responses from students that frustrated me the most was when a few students wouldn’t acknowledged us. Because of the time we picked, a lot of students were on their way to have dinner, causing them to be focused on getting something to eat rather than being curious on what was going on.

Something I would change is our timing. As I answered in the previous question, we had troubling picking a time, causing us to have to do our project at a later time, 6:00 p.m. Tons of people were either going to dinner, in their dorm rooms, or not on campus at all. If we were able to pick an earlier time, like during classes, we could have educated a ton more people.

(Photo By NCSassyCats)

Samantha’s Input:

For me, the most successful part of the project would be the fact that our project was fun and interesting.  We wanted to be creative and wanted to draw people in so that we could get more people to find out about how many people in the US alone cannot vote because of a felony that is on their record.  

Probably the most difficult part of planning and completing this project was the fact that some people in the group would have difficulty communicating as well as the schedules that everyone had.  Some have work while others do not as well as playing sports.

I believe we were able to successfully gather people and have them be engaged with our project because it made people interact with it.  Plus, we offered candy so that would help them be dragged into our general location.

I believe one of the more successful techniques is by getting them involved with the project, like take pictures.  We had a jail cell cut out and it seemed like the students loved that because it made them want to get involved and learn about what is actually going on.  The candy also worked out because it gave them a little incentive to come out.

Some responses that we got from the students that frustrated me was that they kind of just brushed us off or just didn’t care about this issue.  Since our schedules wouldn’t fit in with having it earlier in the day, many students were just thinking about food or just going to dinner to hang out with their friends.

I would hopefully change the time as well as maybe the place.  Maybe the time could be earlier in the day or it could have been closer to election time so more people would care about it because more people care about an issue the closer it is to that event.  I would also just select the place to be outside of the dinner hall rather than outside the building.

Chadwick’s Input:

In my opinion, I think that our project was successful because we were able to interact with our peers about a topic that is very important in today’s society. We set up a stand outside of the dining hall with a cardboard jail cell and a table full of interesting facts that were informative. I believe that it was successful due to the amount of people who seemed interested in our topic and stopped by our table. It was good information about felons rights to vote, all while having a little social aspect to it. It was educational as well as a very friendly environment.

Honestly, the most difficult part of our project was finding time for everyone to meet up and create our project, as well as presenting it to others. We all seem to have moderately busy schedules (work, classes, practice), but we managed to find time within our day to all work on the task at hand. We all were able to make it to the location of the presentation of our assignment on time, but it was definitely the most challenging.

I think that we were able to make a good impact on others outside of our classroom. We had plenty of useful information that was factual and had supporting evidence. We were able to catch students walking by and they seemed to find our setup very interesting. They were able to ask questions and take photos of our final product, which also kept them engaged in our topic.

A specific technique that would allow students to stay interactive with a project would be to get them involved. Hands on or situational projects are very interesting to myself, so i believe that if students are able to interact with a project, they seem to stay more focused and engaged in it. What i mean by situational would be to actually have the topic and put them in the situation, where they can see the other side of the project so that they can feel what could possibly occur. I think these two techniques would be able to keep others engaged with any project, even if they do not find it appealing at first.

The thing the frustrated me most would be if we were trying to reach out to someone and they would ignore us, or even walk right past us like we weren’t there. It was annoying because this could possibly affect them immediately like it did in Florida this past week when they passed the law for felons being able to vote. We were just attempting to get the word out there so they would be able to understand a hot topic in society and how it could affect the country.

To be specific, I would change the times we had chosen. Although we were able to reach out to nearly 50 students on campus, if our schedules would have allowed us to do the project around lunch time, we possibly could have gotten double the students. Not to mention that the faculty was gone by the time our project was occurring, we could possibly gotten many faculty members to stop by and give their opinion on our project.

Rebekah’s Input:

I believe the most successful part of our project was getting people to come over and learn about how unfair it is for felons having their right to vote taken away. It made people think about that this is one of the things our country fought for in our fight for independence. The pilgrims had their right to vote and voice their opinion just like felons are in today’s time. It seemed like a lot of people had a light bulb moment and just had a connection.

I believe the most challenging part was trying to figure out a time when everyone was available to do the actual demonstration because all of our schedule are so hectic. Most days I honestly wake up go to school come home and go to work then back to bed, I very rarely have free time because I have to work to help my mother pay for my college.

Outside of our event I don’t know how many people will actually do anything about the fact felons have their right to vote taken away, but they at least realized how much of an issue it is and know have knowledge of a growing problem that is coming more important in today’s time.

I don’t think it really matters on what the topic is but as long as they have a personal reason or it somehow will benefit them personally. Most people are willing to do whatever as long as they get something out of it.  

When we would try to get people to come over and see what we were talking about and they would just be like no I’m good or I don’t want to. I understand you don’t want to because if it was me I wouldn’t want to, but if I know the person who is doing something I do at least try to stop if I walk by it.

I honestly don’t really know what I would change related to this project. The only this I would want to change would be the topic, something that related more to me. Like getting people to adopt shelter pets or adopt children.

Mitchell’s Input:

I believe that our group was most successful at being able to share and inform people about the problem at hand. While outside the cafeteria we were able to attract many people to take pictures in our photo booth and at the same time inform them and explain to them why it is so important for felons to earn their rights to vote back

One of the aspects that was most challenging for our group was finding a way to get people to want to listen to our cause. Another was finding a time to meet up for all of us since we all have different schedules.

We were able to successfully get people engaged our claim. We are very social outside of the cafeteria by calling people over to read our board and asked them if they wanted to take a picture in our Photo Booth. We even had a donation jar that some people dropped change in for funds  towards our claim.

I believe that putting yourself in front of students and getting their attention is much more effective than instead of putting up posters and asking them to meet up somewhere. This will get  many students more engaged in these issues. Since we put ourselves right in front of the cafeteria where there is a lot of traffic so we were able to talk to a lot of students.

The only thing that would’ve frustrated our group was the students who refused to stop and listen to us. But for the most part were not frustrated because we understand that many students have busy schedules and don’t always have the time to stop and listen.

I believe that our group did a great job this time and that we executed our project successfully. I don’t think that there is much for us to improve on, I believe that we got the results that we wanted.

 

Update

Since we have done our project, Florida passed Amendment 4, which restored voting rights to 1.4 million felons!

Read more here

(Screenshot by NCSassyCats)

 

 

Blog #5 – Social Problems Process & McDonalds

(Photo from Google Images)

In the McDonald’s Broke My Heart podcast, Malcolm Gladwell starts by telling listeners how “McDonalds betrayed him so many years ago.” This happened because they stopped frying their fries in beef tallow. His ultimate goal was to help the fries return to how they once were. However, the podcast was focused on the goals of Phil Sokolof. Sokolof spent millions of dollars going against saturated fat and cholesterol in fast food establishments, especially McDonalds. He convinced McDonalds to swap the beef tallow for vegetable oil on July 23, 1990. While this may have been slightly healthier, there were other factors. Fryers started letting off a mist that left McDonalds sticky and the workers overalls could spontaneously combust. The new oil left dangerous compounds called aldehydes. Gladwell conducted experiments to see what people would choose, the new fries, or the old beef tallow ones. The vote was unanimous to the old ones.

 

(Photo by Google Images)

Grounds	Warrants	Conclusion
Sokolof used his  heart attack at the age of 43 as a typifying example to show the seriousness of the consequences of a poor diet. 90-95% of beef tallow was used to fry french fries. Big companies like; Kellogg, Pillsbury, Wendy’s, McDonald’s, etc.	“Making America sick.” “Fountains of fat” “Cut fat intake and live longer”These quotes are used to give reasons why something should be done about the troubling condition. Oil used today are breaking down and producing “aldehydes.” People becoming addicted to food.	To possibly fix the troubling condition: Cook fries in natural oils rather than beef tallow. Use pre-frozen russet Burbank potatoes to prevent sogginess.

 (photo from google images)

The Basement Tapes Episode was about a study that Ivan Frantz Jr. did with saturated fats and how it affected the human body in terms of heart disease.  The podcast talks about the “traditional diet-heart hypothesis,” a study that wanted to show the world how saturated fats could give people a higher risk of heart disease.  They wanted a group of individuals to eat foods with vegetable oil while the other group had foods cooked with saturated fats.  The group of individuals came from six different mental hospitals and one nursing home. This totalled to more than 9,000 individuals.  In the end, a part of the study worked like they had hoped. The people who ate the foods with vegetable oil did have lower cholesterol than those who ate foods with saturated fats.  However, they did not live longer like they thought. Once Frantz got the results that he did not want, he just kinda hid them from the public, only letting a little be known to the world.  After a couple of decades, a man named Christopher Ramsden wanted to look at the study that Frantz did.  Ramsden wanted to take a second look at the study to find out where it possibly went wrong.  His team wanted to investigate what Frantz investigated. They wanted to know how saturated fats affected the body in health relations.  What they found out through this study and the Sydney study was that the replacement of the bad fats with linoleic acid does lower serum cholesterol, but it does not support the hypothesis that Frantz was trying to achieve.  Substituting saturated fats with linoleic acid does not help people to live longer.

 

(Photo by Google Images)

(Photos by Google Images)

 

The McDonald’s episode informed us that fast food restaurants were using animal oils and fats to fry their food in. After realizing how bad this was for you they switched to vegetables oil which was much healthier for you. However, according to the Ramsden and Frantz study vegetable oil was unhealthy for you as well. Vegetable oil contains Linoleic acids which can be very bad for you if not eaten properly! So according to Ramsden and Frantz not only animal oil is bad for you but also vegetable oil.

Science is forever changing, but science is broken down into many different disciplines. We believe that due to the disciplinary sciences, the way people view problematic ideals are altered. A disciplinary science is a particular branch of science that provides information on a particular subject. This would affect the way that people view problematic ideas because of the consistent changes in the sciences. For example, if a large shopping center was built out in the middle of nowhere, economically it would be a bad decision due to location. If the business was built-in the low-income suburbs, it would be both good and bad. Economically it would be a great idea because of the amount of people in the location coming to the business. It also would give more jobs to people surrounding. But it also would be a bad move because then it could run out the little guy businesses and the local low-income families because then the prices of the houses could go up. In the podcast, we can say that if we were to diet more and eat healthier, America wouldn’t be so unhealthy, but people love the taste of the food more than they think of the effects it has on the body. The point of the example is that there is two sides to the problem. Using the disciplinary sciences, we are able to understand both sides of the situation and alter the way we go about doing things.

(Our Original Chart)

Too much Linoleic Acid is a health hazard and can lead to Heart Disease

 (Photo from Google Images)

In the basement tapes podcast, we get a first look at the discovery of problems with dietary linoleic acid. We are trying to show the people in America that too much Linoleic Acid is a health hazard and can lead to heart disease. We may have to do Geographic Segmentation where we focus on certain states or cities of residence with more fast food chains. We would possibly even segment by social class to determine who eats more of the fast foods with linoleic acids.

While it is suggested that linoleic acid may reduce the risk of heart disease and early death while also helping with weight loss, it is also a risk to our bodies when eaten too much.  According to results from the Sydney Diet Heart Study, it showed that replacing saturated fat with vegetable oil, rich in linoleic acid, actually increased the risk of death from heart disease. According to Alive by Nature, now the intake is quite high at about 7% of total calorie intake, on average. This compares to the 2-3% intake of calories 100 years ago.

These false acquisitions contributed to a high intake of linoleic acid through vegetable oil in all throughout the US. We increased the intake of linoleic acid through fast food establishments such as McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Burger King, and others. The appeal to these food establishments grows with the idea of a fast-paced life. People want something quick and simple and go to these places for just that. As stated above, the intake is quite high at about 7% of total calorie intake, on average. This compares to the 2-3% intake of calories 100 years ago. There was even a re-evaluation of the Minnesota Coronary Experiment.

Linoleic acid is an essential amino acid that’s healthy in moderate amounts. Although we don’t exactly know why linoleic acid is unhealthy in large amounts, there are some ideas. A high ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 in the diet may promote systemic inflammation. Also, higher linoleic acid intake increases the levels of oxidized linoleic acid in many body tissues. Oxidized linoleic acid has been associated with several chronic diseases, including heart disease.

We need to do something about this problem. We could promote a healthy lifestyle and add healthier choices to the menus of fast food restaurants. We could also study to find a healthier option to the linoleic acid in vegetable oils. Or maybe even limit the serving size on the fast food orders.

 (Photos from Google Images)

Cultural Opportunity is a situation when a shift in popular ideas makes it possible to change how a particular troubling condition is addressed. Sokolof took advantage of a cultural opportunity by changing the minds of Americans on their diets and the CEO’s of fast-food companies.  By going along with his example, our group could give statistics on how bad fast food really is to our health. We could also take advantage of this opportunity by showing parents how to meal prep for the week to make sure they know what they are eating and they know that it is healthy for them.

(Photo from Google Images)

Political opportunity is when the claims arise when the distribution of the power between groups shift so that changes that would have been successfully resisted can now be put into action.  Our group could take advantage of these political opportunities by taking some past protests and turning them into something new and more understanding of the current population. We could also help get a movement going for a new and healthier alternative to the bad fats and acids that are currently taking over the fast food industry.

 

Blog #4 – Science, Experts & Social Problems

Bullying and School Shootings

We need to reduce bullying in high schools to decrease school shootings in the United States.

Photo By: theconversation.com

Medicalization is the process of defining a social problem through medical language. Children and adolescents who fall victim to a bully are put at high risk of developing mental health problems; such as, depression, anxiety, and self-esteem issues. These students that suffer the side effects of bullying are put at a higher risk of turning to substance abuse, which will only add the problems associated with their mental health. The combination of the mental health issues and or the substance abuse can lead the students to act out with violence. These students who are bullied, will eventually be pushed to their breaking point. This can be released through violence which will most likely be directed at the ones who caused them harm. An article published titled the Tragic Consequences of Bullying in School, directly explains how bullying leads to school shootings.

Photo By: motherjones.com

The medical model lets us look at a problem through a medical standpoint. First a disease is discovered, then the symptoms are diagnosed and finally a treatment is found. The medical model for school shooting would be first the disease which is bullying. Then the symptoms would be the mental health problems like, depression, anxiety, and self-esteem issues. Finally the treatment is stopping the bullying all together and helping students deal with the effects of bullying, like through counselling.  

Social science would be the best example of why kids choose to do a school shooting. Bullying is one of the four examples of social science that I have chosen. Bullying leads to depression and built up anger that makes the youth feel unaccepted to society. It’s a huge reason why there is school shootings. Anxiety is another example. It ties into in bullying because it’s also like a pressure to fit in with others in school. If you have anxiety, you’re susceptible to feelings that are uncontrollable. Abuse would be another example of why school shootings happen. People whom are abused are damaged mentally and physically. They have been exposed to things that are life altering. Lastly, the final example would be, mental health. There are people who specific diseases that make them think the way that they do and gives them the thought process that allows them to do things that are exactly acceptable to society. They are mentally ill and can hurt others due to their disease. These four example are all under social science and are very dangerous when it comes to such a deadly event.

For our topic, we have chosen the non-profit organization, Kind Campaign.  They are a group that campaigns for the ones who are being bullied, mainly girl on girl bullying, and to stop the bullying that goes on in today’s world. Some of the grounds that they have are that the founders have experienced girl on girl bullying themselves, so they have had it first hand.  Once they started working together, they started working on a documentary, trying to show what is going on, trying to show the adults that this is happening and that it can get worse.  The warrants that they have are that bullying can lead to depression, low self-esteem, and even suicide. The conclusions, or changes that they want or have discussed are bring women together, show them how they can lift them up and show them how they can empower one another.  They also have a donation link to where you could donate to this organization or you can become an ambassador to this cause.  

Photos By: kind campaign

The evidence that is being given by them are supported by the social sciences because they physically went to different schools and talk to the girls themselves to find out whether or not bullying was a huge issue at that particular school.  Lots of variability should be expected because everyone deals with bullying differently. Some people just shrug it off and others take it so heavily that they take their own life or others lives. Variability gives us the chance to look at all the different aspects of the way it is helping or not helping.  One claim that can be interpreted differently across the country would be that they don’t really try to help those who have been bullied by guys or guys on guys bullying since they only focus on girl on girl bullying.

One statistic about this organization would be that “90% of girls surveyed agreed that they did not want to participate in gossip or drama after experiencing a Kind Campaign Assembly.”  Another statistic is that “90% of girls surveyed realized they were not alone because of the Kind Campaign Assembly.” Both of these statistics were found on their statistics link on their website.  These numbers came from the data that were collected in a survey given after the assemblies between August 2014 to May 2015. About 4,000 students took this survey and it was analyzed by HK Impact Advisors.  Basically, these surveys were self reports about how each girl felt after the assemblies to see how they changed or to see if they did change. A risk that relates to this group is that the bullying could still continue and if it didn’t work, it could be felt like they failed as a mentor on diminishing this issue.  Some people may not want to do what Kind Campaign is doing is that they do not want to get involved because these people may become attached to these mentors or speakers because they can relate to them on an emotional level.

Photo By: google images

In recent years, school shootings have become a very real thing. In our society today, we are exposed to the existence of school shootings through news outlets, as well as the multiple social media apps. Rosalind Duplechain, PHD, and Robert Morris,PHD, of University of West Georgia, discuss the 310 documented U.S. shootings that have taken place in their article, “School Violence: Reported School Shootings and Making Schools Safer.” Duplechain and Morris provide a data chart, showing the disturbing spike in school shootings. Between 1760 and 1900 there were only 25 school shootings in the United States that were documented in newspaper reports. Which isn’t too alarming for it being an 140 year time period. But between 1990 and 2014, there were 190 school shootings within that 24 year time period. And this is in 2014, imagine what that number would be today in 2018. It’s terrifying as a student, to know that only 21 weeks into 2018 and there had already been 23 school shootings.

Photo By: andreamarson.com

In Michael H. Popkin’s “Youth Violence in our Communities–and What We Can Do,” in the Journal of Individual Psychology, he discusses the history of violence and how past violences and discoveries impacts us today. Making it evident that violence has always existed. Popkin points out how our history is filled with violence: everything from rape to war. Some even gaining pleasure from such horrible acts such as Vlad the Impaler of Romania and Jack the Ripper. Popkin explains how kids get the idea for doing such awful things from role models and peers. His example was Eric Harris and Dylan Kleibold, whose hero was Hitler and going as far as carrying out their shooting on Hitler’s birthday, April 20th. Humans have been obsessed with weapons, and have found news ways to create more destructive weapons. “The sad truth is that we have made far more progress technologically in developing weapons than we have psychologically in learning how to control our impulses to use them against each other.”

Photo By: huffingtonpost.com

There are many ways that have been researched to alleviate the school shootings in America.

One way to diminish school shootings was addressed by Thomas F. Brezenski, an Associate Professor of Political Science at St. Thomas University in Miami Gardens, Florida. Brezenski writes about one possible solution in his article “Inside the 23rd Congressional District (FL) Gun Violence Task Force: Real-Time Crisis Policymaking in the Wake of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas School Shootings.” In Brenzenski’s article, he addresses the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, where seventeen people died on February 14, 2018. Nicolas Cruz, the gunman, used a semi-automatic rifle to murder the seventeen innocent people. Brezenski goes on to talk about Sandy Hook shooting in 2012 and how shooter Adam Lanza used a Bushmaster XM15-E2S semi-automatic rifle. Following Sandy Hook, task forces formed and demanded greater gun control. Brezenski states that “we should not be a nation where children are afraid to go to school, but that is exactly where we are, as many children and families across the country have felt that no child is immune to gun violence.” He then continues to say how “there is no waving of a magic wand and solving the problem of gun violence in the U.S.” and concludes his article with the support of the above mentioned task forces and gun laws.

Another discussed way to reduce school shootings was addressed by Lori A. Hoffner, an ASIST Certified Trainer and SafeTALK Master Trainer with a B.A. in Psychology. Hoffner writes on a way to respond to the shootings in her article “Ready to Respond Versus React.” Hoffner writes on the responses to the school shootings happening since 1999. She states that a compassionate community leadership is the way to alleviate the violence. Hoffner expresses how “tragic, traumatic events, whether natural or manmade, are a part of our world. However, we can choose to be an integral part of recovery through thoughtful and intentional policies and practices.” Calling for a need for councils and groups to prepare more for similar situations. She supports the programs “help-seeking climate” by reminding individuals to be healthy, get plenty of sleep, and engage in activities.

Photo By: myajc.com

 

Blog #3 – Claimsmaking & Frame Alignment

Felons Right to Vote

Felons should earn their right to vote back after serving their time.

“When felons leave prison, should they regain the right to vote?” Many states struggle with this question. Places such as New York and Florida struggle for this restoration. There are around 6 million Americans who can’t vote due to felon convictions.

Photo from: politifact.com

Felon voting laws vary by state and in only two states, Maine and Vermont, felons never loses their right to vote. The number of people who can’t vote due to felonies increases yearly.

Photo from: felconvoting.procon.org

In 2016, Florida was number 1 on the list of top 10 states with the highest percent of disenfranchised voters. Florida topped the list with 1,686,318 (10.43%) disenfranchised voters.

Photo from: felconvoting.procon.org

 

Political opportunity is a situation when a shift in power makes it possible to change how a particular troubling condition is addressed. Think about this, say that an election could be changed based on only 1,000 votes. Those 1,000 votes could be felons who cannot vote due to the state’s law.

Felon Voting Right Restoration Campaign

(Photo from floridarrc.com)

The FRRC works for the right to vote of formerly convicted persons

History:

“FRRC is a grassroots, membership organization run by Formerly Convicted Persons who are dedicated to ending the disenfranchisement and discrimination against people with convictions, and creating a more comprehensive and humane reentry system that will enhance successful reentry, reduce recidivism, and increase public safety.”

 

The Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, FRRC is run by Desmond Mead, Jessica Younts, Devin Coleman, and Neil Volz. Desmond, the president of the organization, is a formerly homeless returning citizen who works for the benefit of many returning citizens.

 

 

Partnerships:

The FRRC has many partnerships involved with their organization. Their coalition partners, which can also be classified as their beneficiaries, are: Southern Coalition for Social Justice, Vote From Chains to Change, and LSPC.  They are the ones who are here for a temporary amount of time in order to support their causes, which happened after FRRC began gaining momentum.  Their allied partners, which can be also classified as their constituents, include: Alliance for Safety and Justice, LIVEFREE, Center for Community Change, and The Leadership Conference. They are the ones who have been there, supporting them no matter what.  

 

Audience:

FRRC wants to reach out to convicted felons so they can help teach them skills that will help them achieve better job opportunities and relationships so they can be beneficial to society. They also want to connect with everyday people so they can help spread the word and influence others to join the initiative. These two main audiences are trying to be persuaded to agree with the FRRC’s main goal of giving felons that rights to votes because it can make a difference whenever country-wide elections happen or even when local elections happen.  Everyone is always saying that every vote matters, so why not the felons as well? The audience can make a donation or even join their community and fight alongside them.  The audience should be agreeing because they give testimonies on how being labeled a felon has affected their lives and everyone around them.  

photo from Google Images

 

 

Segmentation:

Some segmentation that the FRRC might have to deal with are people who do not think felons should really get any of their rights back because they broke serious laws.  Another example might be those who do not believe that this is a real issue because felons chose their own paths when they created their own paths to live on. Another one would be that older people believe that those who have committed the crime, knows the path that they decided to take so they should take the consequences while a younger generation is all about giving people second chances in life to show that they can potentially rehabilitate themselves.

Location:

While FRRC is located and focuses on Florida’s returning citizens, their cause is reaching out to millions of families.The FRRC is trying to re-enfranchise over 5 million returning citizens nationally that cannot vote. They are assisted by the Live Free Campaign. They are representing 1 million families in 150 cities and 17 states.

Frame alignment techniques:

What is frame alignment and the four steps of fame alignment? Frame alignmentt is the research method used to analyze how people understand situations and activities. As a group, we use frame alignment techniques to help people understand why we want to allow felons to vote. We explain that there are states that don’t allow felons to vote because of their past crimes. Although the felons did have a criminal past, that doesn’t mean that they don’t have a right to cooperate in society after they have done their time. Frame bridging is when activist seek support from people thought to hold frames similar to their own. Frame amplifications when activist call on values and beliefs that presume that many people hold in order to rally others to their cause. Frame extensions are when activist enlarge their frame to encompass concerns that prospective supports are thought to have. Frame transformation is when activist call on perspective supporters to reject the typical worldview that they take for granted and adopt a new and different frame. We have used all four frame techniques within our blog such as the FRRC and other felons being a voice in the movement. The audience that we are trying to reach would be the people whom are able to vote, prior felons from other states that can vote because they have a voice, and the state officials that can help with the situation at hand. As the felons in other states go, this target audience would help because they are able to relate to the felons and understand their struggles. They have done their time and should be able to have the same rights as others. The FRRC can be of help as well because they are rejecting the view of the lawmakers that don’t believe that felons should vote. That would be transformation because they are going against the view of the opposing. This is helpful for our group because it provides factual information that could possibly persuade others to vote for felons rights. As the felons voting in other states goes, it would be a huge step toward the right direction because then there would be an example of what could happen in states whom aren’t letting the ex felons vote. We believe these frame techniques are a great way to persuade lawmakers and to let the public know that the felons do have rights and when they are completely done with all of their probation, that they should go back to society.

Inside Information and Mobilization:

Desmond Mead is the president of FRRC. He is a formerly homeless returning citizen himself. He has overcome many obstacles to get where he is today. The FRRC is very active in their community and they take action all throughout Florida. They create petitions and accept donations. They go to multiple towns in Florida and set up booths to raise awareness. There are links on their page to donate or sign up to join.

(All above photos from: floridarrc.com)

Warrants:

Warrants are what helps to justify doing something about a specific troubling condition.  Our troubling condition is the fact that felons do not get their right to vote back after being convicted.  With the FRRC, they are trying to show why people, mainly Florida right now, should care about giving felons their rights to vote back.  One reason is that it can possibly change the outcomes of elections if their 1.6 to 1.7 million felons vote in future elections, such as the presidential election and state elections.  Another reason is that if Florida goes ahead with allowing their felons to vote again, other states may do this as well because it shows that felons do care and want to make a difference after they are released from prison.  We think that the FRRC presents their warrants to help address issues of audience segmentation by educating the audience on the statistics of felons and giving them actual stories of past felons who cannot vote, but want to.  

Cultural Opportunity: 

A cultural opportunity is when there is a shift in popular ideas, making it possible to change how a particular troubling condition is addressed. Why we think people care, is the fact that it’s unfair to individuals who are convicted felons that have served their time, pay that debt, and still have their right to vote taken away. It’s especially unfair to the people who have been convicted with non-violent and or minor felonies, as well as the age at the time of being convicted. Or what if someone was convicted in one state and moved to another with different voting laws. The reason for this, we think, is because social media being such a huge platforms nowadays. It’s so easy to spread news fast and expressing your opinion on a variety of topics. Young minds are exposed to more liberal views, making it easier to persuade someone on what’s right and wrong.

Typifying Example:

One typifying example would be Rodrick Kent. Kent is a Florida resident who is big in politics. But Kent had his rights suddenly taken away from him because of an event that had happened 30 plus years ago. Watch the rest of Kent’s story in the video below.

Worsening Situation:

As time goes on, our issue will continue to get worse because a large portion of the population will not be able to vote. Thus, leaving out certain groups, as well as their opinions on who they think should be in office. Causing a certain type of bias for leaving out so many people.

 

Kinds of people involved:

Obviously, the victims in our issue are the felons who have served their time, but are still unable to vote. While the villains would be the people in charge of the lawmaking that are not giving those who want to vote, their chance to make a difference. For example someone who is 100% willing and ready to change their life around after serving their time would not be  able to make a difference by voting.

Ownership:

Ownership is “given” to an organization by becoming recognized and acknowledged, for their claims, as the best way to understand an issue.  The FRRC does seem to have ownership in the state of Florida, where most of their campaigns are. They actively got their petition to get through to the state legislature to ensure that it would be on this years ballot.  The reason why it seems like they have ownership over this troubling condition is that they have actually gotten media coverage from the Orlando Times because they had “More than 300 people heard heartfelt testimonies from ex – felons trying to lead productive lives…” which also helped them to get this law onto the November 2018 ballot.  People hardly hear anything about how felons do not get their right to vote back in certain states, but this organization is bringing more light to it and how it affects anyone and everyone.  They are paving the way for felons to get their rights to vote back by starting the movement in Florida.

They Did It:  

The FRRC took advantage of political opportunity. They successfully gathering more than 799,000 certified signatures just a week before the deadline. The November 6th ballot will allow Floridians to vote to restore voting rights to 1.5 million felons. Click here to read the full story.

 

 

Blog #2: The Social Problems Process

The Plastic Waste Problem: The Great Plastic Tide

Claimsmaking:

“The world population is living, working, vacationing, increasingly conglomerating along the coasts, and standing on the front row of the greatest, most unprecedented, plastic waste tide ever faced.”

Also stated in the article linked above, over the past 50 years the production and consumption of plastics have continuously risen. In 2013, ~299 million tons of plastics were produced. This has been a continuing upward trend since 2013. Plastics are used in the production of many products and over-use and over-consumption has led to growing amounts of littering and pollution.

While plastics do compose, they don’t fully and it takes a long period of time (average 100-500 years). The rate we use and dispose of plastics overrun the rate of decomposition of plastics, making it a major troubling condition.

Media Coverage:

The plastic waste problem was brought to the attention of National Geographic where they did a video on their findings.

In 2015, National Geographic conducted a study and found that humans had produced 6.3 billion metric tons of plastic waste. Of the 6.3 billion metric tons, only 9% had been recycled, 12% was incinerated, and the other 79% was discarded in landfills or the natural environment. The study went on to predict that 12 billion tons of plastic waste will end up in landfills or the natural environment by 2050.

Sky News went on to do various episodes on ocean rescue and the plastic pollution Even news channels such as CBS and BBC covered the growing plastic pollution.

A video that had gone viral, and could possibly have been one of the many reasons for environmentalist to strive to cut the amount of single-use plastic, is of a sea turtle. This poor sea turtle had a plastic straw lodged into his nose. As Christine Figgener filmed the straw being removed, you can see pain in the turtles eyes as blood pours from the nose. This heartbreaking video educates the public what happens to that single straw after it is thrown away.

Public Reaction:

People have responded to the plastic waste crisis by creating nonprofit organizations, like the Plastic Pollution Coalition or Clear Blue Sea, to help fight the pollution. These groups not only educate people about how the plastic waste is harming our planet, but they take action themselves by organizing plastic free events or clean our beach days.

4Ocean is a company where you can buy a bracelet made from 100% recycled materials. Each bracelet cost around $20 each, To some, this may be too much for a simple bracelet, but with the purchase of this simple bracelet, the 4Ocean company is able to pull one pound of waste from the ocean. To this day, September 4, 2018, 4Ocean has pulled 1,123,625 pounds of waste out of our ocean. Thus, putting your money to good use in helping save our ocean and marine life.

(Pictures from 4Ocean bracelets)

 

Policymaking:

California has recently came up with a bill that bans restaurants from giving out single use straws to customers unless they request them.  If they fail to comply with the AB – 1884 bill, they are fined $25 dollars a day, but they cannot exceed $300.  It is a small change for now, but it could turn into something that will become huge in the near future by reducing the plastic pollution that harms sea life everyday.  

A major coffee company, Starbucks, has announced that the company will begin using reusable lids, as well as straws made from alternative materials instead of single use plastic straws to help reduce their own plastic pollution.  Starbucks hopes to completely get rid of their plastic straw problem by the year of 2020. Right now, more than 8,000 stores currently have begun using the new lid. When Starbucks first came out with the news, people were taken back and did not understand why they were taking away the plastic straws, which is why people need to learn more about the plastic straw pollution that is taking over the sea creatures lives.  

(photo from Starbucks)

Social Problems Work:

The straw ban only pertains to the restaurants and not to fast food places.These restaurants that don’t follow the ban, could face up to $1,000 in fines with jail time attached. Seems harsh for straws right? Ian Calderon of the California State Assembly, states, “…should it become law, it will NOT make it a crime for servers to provide plastic straws. My intention is simply to raise awareness about the detrimental effects of plastic straws on our environment.” Though the fines could be a way to help eliminate.       

Policy Outcomes:

• California Straw Ban
• Seattle is the first US city that has banned the use of plastic straws and utensils
• Starbucks (other coffee shops) and reusable straws
• Disney has announced a ban on plastic straws

Blog #1: Introductions and Social Constructions

Madison Brock

(My Photo)

Hi, my name is Madison Brock and I am from Whitmire, SC. My interests are photography, drawing, and fishing with my boyfriend, Jorge. I am majoring in Graphic Design. I started pursing this career path when I was in middle school. I have always had a love for the digital world. I started  playing video games at 3-years-old and I started my photography business at 16-years-old. I even coded my own video game my junior year of high school.

One identity I have of myself is that I am a photographer. As stated above, I started my photography business at 16-years-old. I am one of few photographers in my hometown. I have entered three different photography contests where I have placed: first, third, and honorable mention. Others know me as a photographer too. I have done senior sessions, engagement shoots, couple sessions, and individual shoots. I am hired every summer to make the football schedule poster for Whitmire High School. I will also be shooting a wedding in May of 2020.

(My Photo)

(My Photo)

(My Photo)

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Rebekah Pitts

(My Photo)

Hey, my name is Rebekah Pitts and I am from Clinton, SC. I am twenty years old. I am engaged to the love of my life, Wesley Wells. I am a nursing major and an art minor at Newberry College. I love to foster neonatal kittens through the Spartanburg Humane Society and go fishing with my fiancée. My love for fostering the neonatal kittens has influenced me to want to become a neonatal nurse.

At school I’m known as the kitten lady. Yes, I know I am basically a crazy cat lady in training. People know me as this because sometimes when I get my foster kittens they are too young to leave by themselves so I have to carry them with me to school. They are under two weeks of age so they are not old enough to cause someone to have an allergic reaction (I have tested this theory with my best friend who is allergic to cats).

(My Photos)

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Brianna Webster

(My Photo)

Hey everyone! My name is Brianna Webster and I’m from Greenville, South Carolina. I spend most of my days doing anything within the arts. Anything from painting to enjoying a musical production. I am an English Major. I honestly can’t decide on what I hope to be doing career wise. One day I want to go to grad school to become a librarian and another day I want to work for a non-profit like Make A Wish. However, I do know that I want to one day write a book (I have a crazy life story).

I identify myself as a survivor. I was fourteen when I was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. I know I am a survivor because after my thirteen hour surgery to remove the tumor, I had a long recovery physically and mentally. I honestly wouldn’t be the person I am today without this experience. On April 22, 2018 (my 5th year being cancer free) I got a small purple cancer ribbon on my left wrist to represent my journey. I love it when people ask about it because it gives me the chance to share my story.

(My Photo)

(My Photo)

(My Photo)

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Samantha Breeden

(My Photo)

Hello! My name is Samantha Breeden. Some people call me Sammy or just Sam. I am from Anderson, South Carolina but I was born in Havelock, North Carolina. I like all things pink, makeup, crime shows and horror movies. I have one fur baby, named Red, as well as being happily taken for the past two years. I came to Newberry College because I heard that they have a great forensic psychology program, which is my major. I am interested in forensic psychology because Criminal Minds and CSI. I want to do what they do as well as help anyone struggling in life because we all need a little push and a little encouragement, no matter where we are in our lives.

An identity that I see in myself is being that shy kid. I know this because I hardly talk to anyone and I don’t make myself go and talk to other people first. When I do, my heart starts racing and I become afraid because I think I am physically bothering them. One interaction that would reinforce to myself this is my life every day. I sit by myself, hoping someone comes to sit next to me. One interaction that would reinforce this to others is by seeing me with my headphones in my ears, listening to music and not talking to people.

(My Photo)

(My Photo)

(My Photo)

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Mitchell Parraga

(https://newberrywolves.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=2512)

Hello my name is Mitchell Parraga, I am 21 years old and from Millersville, Maryland. Currently a Junior at Newberry College and play for the men’s soccer team. I am in the pre-engineering program which means that I study at Newberry for three years then transfer to Clemson for two to get my engineering degree. During my free time I enjoy working out and watching movies with my roommates.

An identity that myself and others would say I have is that I am resilient. Again and again I have had injuries due to sports but I don’t let them keep me down. My family and teammates both have seen me recover from an ankle surgery in high school and currently recovering from hernia surgery. This is my last year playing for Newberry and when I heard that I had to get surgery this past summer I was very frustrated but I did not plan on letting it prevent me from playing this season. I got the surgery on June 28th and in just a couple of days on September 3rd I’ll be fully cleared to play again. Just in time for our season to start.

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Chadwick Wood

(My Photo)

Hello, my name is Chadwick Wood and I’m from Summerville, SC. My interests include hunting and fishing with my dog. My future profession is with the United States Air Force. The goal would be to become a nurse.

I would say that my identity would be a southern gentleman. I know that this is my identity because I was raised into it. I would say that I reinforced my identity when I pulled over on the side of the road to help an older gentleman change his tire. When it comes to showing others my identity, I would say the little things like holding the door for everyone or opening the car door for any woman who rides with me. I just think little things like that help reinforce my identity.

(My Photo)

(My Photo)