Reading: A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words

QUESTIONS

1. Much of the power that photos have in constructing social problems lies in their ability to convince audiences that the problem affects them directly. Discuss how this claim is conveyed in the photos depicted above.

2. For Illustration 3, how does pairing these two photos side by side reinforce racial stereotypes? Which stereotypes in particular? Use the selection by Gilens (Reading 14) to characterize the depth of these stereotypes.

3. For Illustration 4, what are the implications of using these photos to frame different episodes of school shootings as comprising a pattern? What does this frame suggest is the magnitude of the school shootings problem? Why does this frame carry such credibility even though, as the Joel Best selection "When Kids Become Victims of Violence" in Part Three of this volume indicates, no such pattern actually existed during the late 1990s?

4. How successfully does the pair of photos in Illustration 5 counteract the future-orientation obstacles that Sheldon Ungar describes in the selection "Selling Environmental Problems" contained in Part Three of this volume-obstacles that have prevented global warming from attracting significant public and policymaking attention?