• Does something represent a problem (does it have undesirable consequences)?
  • e.g., poverty implies people whose material needs, at a minimum, aren’t being met.
• Are they social? Do they affect a large number of people?
  • There are an estimated 40 million people in the U.S. with incomes below the poverty line. Many scholars think the official ‘poverty line’ grossly underestimates the economic means it takes to survive in our society. Think about who is poor–does it vary by race, ethnicity, age, gender, region of the country, formal education level, etc.?
• What are the possible causes?
  • Many things to consider here–some discuss this as an individual problem–people who are lazy or unmotivated, won’t work, etc. Some discuss it as a moral problem–people having children they can’t afford to get welfare benefits, for instance. Some discuss it as a reflection of power–certain groups benefit from a mass of poor people (e.g., employers offering very low wages, people who don’t want to pay more taxes to support public assistance programs). Some discuss a lack of opportunity that affects some more than others (e.g., people growing up in poor neighborhoods with poorly funded schools, high crime rates, don’t have the same opportunities as others growing up in more affluent suroundings. This group may tend to have a different racial composition than the general population–that is, include more non-white racial and ethnic groups).
• What are the consequences of poverty?
  • Higher rates of hunger, food insecurity, malnutrition, lack of opportunity, poor access to health care and education services–difficulty achieving upward social mobility, lower life expectancy, some amount of social exclusion or stigma, etc.
• Who benefits from poverty?
  • Addressed somewhat above, but keep in mind: If no one were benefiting, the problem would likely go away. So for any social problem, think about who might be benefiting, not in terms of individuals so much, but groups (e.g., why would corporate news media avoid particularly ‘bad’ news, or news that might threaten advertisers or powerful leaders?).
• Who has the ability, the power, to influence public debates about a particular social problem?
  • With respect to poverty, how do the news media cover it? Are they sympathetic to poor people, to single mothers? Do they discuss welfare programs and the need to increase expenditures? Or is poverty often presented as an individual’s problem, resulting from ‘bad choices?’ What kinds of cultural messages do people hear about poverty? Does it go against the idea of the American Dream, available to everyone? Do people’s views on poverty vary–in other words, if we watch lots of TV, are we getting a mostly white, middle class view of what poverty is (from people who probably haven’t experienced it directly)?
• Who should do something about the social problem?
  • This varies, in part based on how a problem is ‘framed’ for public consumption. If the key problem in the world, according to the White House, is the so-called ‘war on terror,’ then that will influence how we deal with terrorist activity, political dissent and protest, debates about war, etc. If poverty is seen as an individual’s problem–that people just need to go out and get jobs, or stop having children out of wedlock, then we’re likely to see ‘welfare reform’ that reflects these assumptions about what causes poverty (and in fact, the 1996 Welfare Reform, called the ‘personal responsibility and work opportunity’ act, stresses just that). Remember our discussion of ‘liberal’ and ‘conservative’ views, too. Conservatives are more likely to seek solutions that don’t involve government (but of course this depends, as we know with the ‘war on terror’). A more liberal view will look to government to solve problems like poverty, lack of access to health care, quality education, pollution, crime, substance abuse, bias in the media, global warming, domestic violence, etc.

Understanding these questions will  help you throughout the course. You should try to identify a problem, run it through these questions, and practice your skill at trying to analyze a social problem, what causes it, who’s harmed / who benefits, who’s in a position to influence public debate, etc. Find examples of how to think about all of these on the week 1 readings page.