How activists and media frame social problems: Critical events versus performance trends for schools

Abstract

This article focuses on the process by which a social problem is redefined in response to a critical event. Critical events are contextually dramatic happenings, such as economic depressions, environmental disasters, intense physical confrontations, strategic initiatives by a social movement organization, or new public policies. A critical event focuses public attention, which is itself a scarce resource in the claims‐making process. It invites the collective definition or redefinition of a social problem when movement activists, media operatives, and others compete over the meaning assigned to the issues evoked. A redefining critical event occurs when the perception of reality surrounding movement issues shifts markedly among elites and mass publics. In a case in Nashville, TN, for example, a tax‐increase referendum became a redefining event when conservative movement operatives successfully shifted “the problem” of the schools from issues of distributive justice to issues of efficient production. The public then substantially lowered its assessment of the public schools in a short period of time, even though performance indicators for the schools seemed not to warrant this diminution in public esteem.