ABSTRACT
Social constructionist approaches have transformed the sociology of social problems by shifting the analytic focus from social conditions to the processes by which issues come to public attention. The social problems process typically involves a series of stages: claimsmaking (involving various figures, including activists and experts, as claimsmakers); media coverage; public reactions; policy-making; the social problems work of implementing policy; and policy outcomes. At each of these stages, individuals reconstruct the troubling condition to reflect their cultural and structural circumstances, so that social problems and social policies can be understood as products of continually shifting arguments and interpretations, emerging through interactions between those making claims and their audiences. Scholars of communications may find the literature on social problems theory useful in their own research.
