Social Problems
Throughout the semester, students will be required to keep a journal cataloging the development and resolution of current social problems by following several news sources (e.g. local broadcasts, news/public radio, online news sources). Several acceptable news sources have been provided for you on the prof space page. DO NOT USE THE ADDITIONAL ARTICLES I HAVE PROVIDED. Students need to search these news sources for articles they find relevant to course topics. Students should use at least three different outlets (e.g. Television, Radio, Print, and Internet) with various political leanings (conservative, liberal, centrist etc.). Students should write in their journals Weekly, and evaluate each article in the following way:
Summarize: What are the articles main points and main ideas?
Relevancy: How does this relate to the analysis of social problems and the class?
Effect: How will the issue impact individuals on a micro and macro level?
Critique: Critically analyze both the article and their proposed experts. Consider the source: How is the information delivered? What are its biases? What is it trying to make you believe/understand.
Each entry should only be a meaty 8-10 sentence paragraph (roughly) and multiple entries are required per each Journal collection a minimum 8-10 entries per collection.
Each journal should include an ASA style cover page, abstract page and reference page.
Journal Collection Page Order
Title page
Abstract Page (summary of all journal entries with keywords)
8-10 Journal entries of content (each entry 8-10 sentences)
Reference Page (Page of your cited references in ASA Style)
A Sample Journal Entry:
HUMAN RIGHTS
Provisional rights
November 6, 2017.
The article About 2,500 Nicaraguans to Lose Special Permission to Live in U.S. by The New York Times talks about how the removal of the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) program is going to affect thousands of Nicaraguan immigrants. It was enacted to help primarily Central Americans, but later extended to Haiti, Nepal, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Yemen, to help those people fleeing war, natural disasters, and catastrophes (NYT 2017). The Trump Administration hopes to deport those under this designation despite them spending decades legally here in the US under this program. The immigrants have been given a time frame in which to either plan their departures or change their immigration statuses. However, Democrats and other advocates see the removal of this status and deportation as inhumane (NYT 2017). This relates to this class regarding our human rights lecture and specifically the provisional rights topic of shelter being a provisional right (Brutlag 2017). But as this report indicates it is being treated as conditional. On a micro level, people in this program who have lived here all their life are now being stripped of their rights and making them move back to places that are now foreign to them; forcing them to start over. On a macro level, the Trump Administration is using fear mongering against those in the TPS program while scapegoating them as a social problem (Brutlag 2017). This article has a liberal bias, because it proceeds to get democratic perspectives and opinions without any other perspectives given or taken into account.
