Since the creation of the second amendment, social and political debate has filled the topic of gun rights and gun control. Due to this debate, much has been done in ways of research for fact as well as opinion formation. Since it is an issue which, by nature provides no true solution, it becomes a constant conversation of hypothetical situations as well as emotion, making it a social issue. I believe it is a topic in which every American citizen has some stake for either more gun control, more gun rights, or for a continuation for the present firearms legislation.
There are three sources of popular media reports which I believe show some of the reasoning behind the opinions of each side of the arguments as well as describing some of what legislation is changing and why there may be issues in any form of legislation that is put into play in the United States. Links to these sources are found below for your convenience.
-http://www.npr.org/2016/07/12/485726439/mass-shootings-influence-spike-in-gun-related-laws-at-state-level
-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4o6yhv6-3LQ
-https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/15/opinion/guns-silencers-congress.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FGun%20Control&action=click&contentCollection=timestopics®ion=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=2&pgtype=collection
Though these sources do not cover all of what the gun debate is about and why it is such a complex social issue.
The sociological perspective provided by these articles rest on the presentation of the reaction they believe to get from their projected audience. Examples of showing current changes in firearm legislation such as the article from reporter Gail Collins of the New York Times, where she mentions the radical changes some politicians are attempting to pass reported n such a way as to provide a reaction. There is also a good source of sociological and structural perspective within the NPR radio report by Nathan Rott and Jeff Landa, as they provided several statistic based facts rather than opinion to provide their point.
More sociology based perspective in these articles would provide two added aspects to these reports. One being that there would be less bias within them, and the second being that the purpose of the work would be one based solely on empirical data. Similar to what I am attempting to accomplish here, sociological perspective is based entirely off of well collected and documented data, not baed on opinion or the desire to prove a point.
However, some things to consider while taking in these articles or any piece of information about this topic should revolve around considering who is writing the article and why. The majority of information about this topic is heavily seeded in the belief that a point needs to be proven for one side or the other. This tends to make the information biased even slightly. There has been a fair amount research done to provide more sociological based statistics on this topic, but to truly see the whole picture one must see all of the research and not just whatever may help their beliefs on this issue.
Monday, September 25, 2017
Monday, September 11, 2017
Sociology has been on a downward decline of public relevance and has taken a backseat as such decline has increased. The relationship between sociology and politics have shown a noticeable separation in modern times, for what seems like good reason. Some sociologists were unaware that they were only doing studies based entirely on what is popular which then itemizes the people they would study and leave them forgotten once a new trend of interest came around. Within this separation sociology became more academia based and less public which gave sociologist a bad reputation in that there was a focus on data collection and empirical data but with the exception of sociological journals there was very little exposure of it all.
As members of society we need the studies done by sociologists to make well informed decisions, however there needs to be a balance of education and activism. Catching the attention of a crowd as well as powerful people requires more than simply self-education and journal publications. Sociologists need to be able to take their knowledge and make it creative and simple for everyone to be able to appreciate and hopefully be able to get on board with. It takes a crowd and coverage to the masses to turn education into a positive change in the society we live in.
That all being said, there needs to be education within activism. A well based platform finds its stability in a research based fact, and builds from there. Especially when it comes to sociology, fact gathered from research and data must be more important than what may be considered professional opinion. Though journals are a primary tool for measuring sociology success, they have become outdated and are to the point where they are reaching irrelevance when it comes to getting data and research out to the public, so we are forced to think outside of the journal. Mainstreaming ideas and rewording our work to make it easier to digest is essential for the survival of public sociology. However, this should not be mistaken for one sided evidence. Especially in politics we see where political toxicity leads to the assumption that factual evidence was collected simply to use in a debate when in reality sociology is not based in proving opinion, it is used to determine trends and facts in society through data and research. The spread of which should be public domain, and therefor should be portrayed in such a way that anyone can understand and learn from it.
Citations:
Anon. 2014. “How Sociologists Made Themselves Irrelevant.” The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved September 11, 2017 (http://www.chronicle.com/article/How-Sociologists-Made/150249/).
Anon. n.d. Everyday Sociology Blog. Retrieved September 11, 2017 (http://www.everydaysociologyblog.com/2013/07/the-promise-and-perils-of-public-sociology.html).
Anon. 2013. “Why activism and academia don’t mix.” orgtheory.net. Retrieved September 11, 2017 (https://orgtheory.wordpress.com/2013/03/31/why-activism-and-academia-dont-mix/).
Pages, The Society. 2012. “How Academics Can Become Relevant.” Cyborgology. Retrieved September 11, 2017 (https://thesocietypages.org/cyborgology/2012/01/23/how-academics-can-become-relevant/).
Journals.sagepub.com. (2017). Available at: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1536504213476244 [Accessed 12 Sep. 2017].
As members of society we need the studies done by sociologists to make well informed decisions, however there needs to be a balance of education and activism. Catching the attention of a crowd as well as powerful people requires more than simply self-education and journal publications. Sociologists need to be able to take their knowledge and make it creative and simple for everyone to be able to appreciate and hopefully be able to get on board with. It takes a crowd and coverage to the masses to turn education into a positive change in the society we live in.
That all being said, there needs to be education within activism. A well based platform finds its stability in a research based fact, and builds from there. Especially when it comes to sociology, fact gathered from research and data must be more important than what may be considered professional opinion. Though journals are a primary tool for measuring sociology success, they have become outdated and are to the point where they are reaching irrelevance when it comes to getting data and research out to the public, so we are forced to think outside of the journal. Mainstreaming ideas and rewording our work to make it easier to digest is essential for the survival of public sociology. However, this should not be mistaken for one sided evidence. Especially in politics we see where political toxicity leads to the assumption that factual evidence was collected simply to use in a debate when in reality sociology is not based in proving opinion, it is used to determine trends and facts in society through data and research. The spread of which should be public domain, and therefor should be portrayed in such a way that anyone can understand and learn from it.
Citations:
Anon. 2014. “How Sociologists Made Themselves Irrelevant.” The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved September 11, 2017 (http://www.chronicle.com/article/How-Sociologists-Made/150249/).
Anon. n.d. Everyday Sociology Blog. Retrieved September 11, 2017 (http://www.everydaysociologyblog.com/2013/07/the-promise-and-perils-of-public-sociology.html).
Anon. 2013. “Why activism and academia don’t mix.” orgtheory.net. Retrieved September 11, 2017 (https://orgtheory.wordpress.com/2013/03/31/why-activism-and-academia-dont-mix/).
Pages, The Society. 2012. “How Academics Can Become Relevant.” Cyborgology. Retrieved September 11, 2017 (https://thesocietypages.org/cyborgology/2012/01/23/how-academics-can-become-relevant/).
Journals.sagepub.com. (2017). Available at: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1536504213476244 [Accessed 12 Sep. 2017].
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