Media's Influence On Social Work

When referring to social problems, society generally looks at them from a larger objective or standpoint. The problem is going to include some typified examples, general terms that are associated with the problem, and statistics created in the claimsmaking process. This macrosociological approach relies on what the media has portrayed the problem to be. It is the job of social problems work to narrowly tailor aspects of a social problem in order to attempt to solve or address it in a practical and immediate manner (Best 227). Best explains that social problems workers, such as doctors and teachers, have encountered stereotypes of their roles that require them to perform grand feats but they work in highly regulated systems and industries. Bureaucratic
As expected, social problems workers expect for the subjects to cooperate with their plan of action in order to help eliminate their issues, but when they do not, the workers are left to deal with the consequences. “Social problems worker try to control the flow of information about their activities. They generally prefer that others learn about the work they do directly from them…” in order to prevent the possibility of information being distorted by media outlets looking to portray their work in a certain way (Best 248). Some social problems workers go the extreme and tamper with the information they submit to reporting agencies to ensure that they are seen in the best possible light. They are able to get away with this because there are many situations in which workers are required to use their own personal discretion with out having to defer power to their supervisors or bosses until
Doing this can benefit certain claims by bringing an actual face and story to a social problem. It does not only create the perfect victim, but it gives a face and a personal account of how the social problem has directly affected their life or wellbeing. Activist as claims makers would benefit from using social problems workers, their subjects, and cases as a method to personify their claim. Experts as claims makers would only be able to capitalize off of social problems work by using the possibly skewed data and statistics they provide in order to give an overall picture. By looking at individual workers and cases, there is a chance they can encounter a unique situation that is not consistent with the data or point they are trying to