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Chapter 2

Claims

Rhetoric of Claims Slide 1

Claimsmakers attempt to persuade others that

something is a social problem.

What are some examples of this?

Rhetoric of Claims Slide 2

 Rhetoric is the study of persuasion.

 Constructing social problems is rhetorical.

 Three fundamental components of

persuasive arguments:

 Grounds

 Warrants

 Conclusions

Rhetoric of Claims Slide 3

 Grounds: identifying the troubling condition

 Grounds often follow a rhetorical recipe with

three ingredients.

Rhetoric of Claims Slide 4

1. Grounds often start with a typifying

example of the problem.

 These stories do not always reflect

“typical” cases.

2. The problem is named and given an

orientation.

 Type of medical condition, abuse, etc.

3. Statistics imply how bad the condition is.

Rhetoric of Claims Slide 5

 More rhetorical devices used to establish

grounds:

 Claiming that the problem is getting

progressively worse

 Categorizing the problem as a recognizable

type, such as crime or disease

Rhetoric of Claims Slide 6

 More rhetorical devices used to establish

grounds:

 Painting the groups involved as either victims

or villains

 Claiming that many different kinds of people

are hurt by the troubling condition

 Challenging preexisting ways of constructing

the social problem

Rhetoric of Claims Slide 7

 Warrants: explaining why people should care

 A claim’s warrants justify doing something.

 Claims utilize values.

 Since different people have different values,

claimsmakers use multiple warrants to cover

the reasons why people might care.

Rhetoric of Claims Slide 8

 Conclusions: what should be done

 The proposed solutions must be in line with

the grounds and warrants.

 Conclusions can include both short-term and

long-term goals and policy changes.

Claims and Audiences Slide 1

 Valence issues:

 Conditions that nearly everyone will agree are

significant social problems

 Position issues:

 Divisive, controversial topics

 It is more difficult to find agreement, so

claimsmakers target sympathetic audiences.

Claims and Audiences Slide 2

 Audiences for claims can be segmented.

 Segmented audiences may have different interests and ideologies.

 Certain demographic groups worry more about certain social problems than others.

Claims and Audiences Slide 3

 Audiences are not passive.

 They may seek out some claims and reject

others, picking and choosing social problems.

 Successful claimsmakers pay attention to how

audiences respond to their claims.

Claims and Audiences Slide 4

 Social problems marketplace

 Audiences hear claims about many problems.

 Claimsmakers struggle to get and keep the

attention of the audience.

 Even if an issue is well-established,

claimsmakers need to keep refining claims.

 They risk losing the attention of policymakers, the

media, and the general public.

Claims and Audiences Slide 5

 How do claimsmakers refine claims?

 Domain expansion: claimsmakers broaden

the definition of the problem, adding in more

victims to help and villains to confront.

 Piggyback: claimsmakers can rely on

established problems and allow newer claims

to build upon older ones.

Claims and Audiences Slide 6

 Most claims inspire counterclaims.

 Counterclaims often involve disputes over

grounds or warrants.

 “Stat wars” focus on which statistics are true.

 Debates over ideologies are usually linked to

warrants.

 Both sides modify claims as a response to

counterclaims.

Cultural Resources Slide 1

 Claimsmakers can make any kind of claim.

 However, their claims need to make sense to

the intended audiences.

 Claimsmaking requires an understanding of

the cultural context in which claims are made.

Cultural Resources Slide 2

 Claimsmakers tap into cultural resources, the

well of words, ideas, and images that most

people (of that culture) respond to.

Cultural Resources Slide 3

 Culture is constantly changing.

 Claimsmakers are not always consistent in

the cultural resources that they use.

 They might frame the same issue in many

ways to appeal to a variety of audiences.

Cultural Resources Slide 4

 Cultural resources both enrich and limit the

claimsmaking process.

 They provide a broad range of words, images,

and ideas to use.

 They constrain claimsmakers by making them

ground claims.