Lobbying the Collective Consciousness

Crusaders, Entrepreneurs, and Panics

Ten Claims about Social Control

1. Crime is normal and deviance is relative.2. Social environments create deviance.3. Social control can amplify deviance.4. Breaking rules can be good for society.5. Deviance can be a form of conflict resolution.

6. Every rule is somebody's rule.7. Social control is the dependent variable.8. Legal social control is rare.9. Organizations present special problems.10. Social Control can get out of hand.

Schedule

• Lecture 1: Overview & Rhetoric Intro• Lecture 2: How to create a social problem• Lecture 3: Moral panics

Readings

• Becker (entrepreneurs)• Gusfield (alchohol)• deYoung (daycare)• Potter (cyberporn)• Reinarman (drugs)• Best (missing children)

From Yesterday to Today

• Society/Groups as boundary maintaining– normal

• Boundary testers may be good/necessary– Functions, innovation

• Boundary testing as complaint– From Klasse an sich to Klasse für sich

• Now: Rules do not change spontaneously

It takes (social) work

What is a moral crusader?

What is symbolic politics?

What is a moral panic?• associated with Stanley Cohen, British sociologist, Folk Devils and Moral

Panics (1972). • DEF. Process in which an individual, group, or practice gains (sudden)

notoriety as a threat to society resulting in efforts to control it. • Paradigmatic examples

– Salem witch scare (Erikson in Wayward Puritans)– Red scare (1950s).– Also more local : crime panics.

• Characteristics: a social response that involves – rapidly spreading concern– growing hostility towards the group or practice– broad and unquestioned acceptance of the threat– disproportional response– volatility whereby the issue can disappear as quickly as it surfaced

Rhetoric & Claimsmaking

• aka “how to create a social problem” (or target for social control)

• RHETORIC : language intended to persuade• Rhetorical work : effort undertaken to get an

audience to reach a conclusion

Components of an Argument

• Grounds –basic facts as foundation for discussion

• Warrants – how to reach conclusions from grounds

• Conclusions – calls for action – "what must be done"

Example

• I am a British citizen.• I was born in Bermuda.

Example

• You should wear a hearing aid• I notice you don’t often hear what I’m saying• Hearing aids help people hear.

Example

• Congress should ban animal research because animals are tortured in experiments that have no necessary benefit for humans such as the testing of cosmetics. The well being of animals is more important than the profits of the cosmetics industry.

• Congress should ban animal research (Claim #1) because animals are tortured in experiments that have no necessary benefit for humans such as the testing of cosmetics (Data). The well being of animals is more important than the profits of the cosmetics industry (Warrant).

Let’s Look at Best

What is the warrant?

• Needle exchange programs should be abolished [claim] because they make it safer to use drugs. [grounds]

The unstated warrant is: “when you make risky behavior safer you encourage more people to engage in it.”

Common Warrants• Generalization

What is true of an example holds for larger population• Analogy

Extrapolating from one case based on similarity to another

• Argument via Sign/ClueCertain types of evidence are symptomatic of something bigger. Smoke>Fire.

• CausalityY is the result of, or is affected by, factor X.• Mixing up correlation with causation• Falling into the post hoc, ergo propter hoc trap. ('after the fact, therefore because of the fact').

• Argument from AuthorityX said so and X is an authoritative source on the issue

• Argument from PrincipleThis is based on a principle/value that is widely regarded as valid

Components of an Argument• Grounds – the basic facts which provide foundation for discussion

– Definitions– Domain Statements – “discovery” (ADD, hyperkinesis, depression, PTSD, “do you …., then you may have …”).

Definitions, setting of bounds, helping people to recognize it.– Orientation Statements – Including redefining problems as medical, say, or legal.– Examples– Estimating extent of problem– Incidence estimates– Growth estimates– Range claims

• Warrants – Statements that justify drawing conclusions from grounds (Selective list)– Blameless victims– Affiliated Evils– Deficient Policies– Historical Continuity– Rights and Freedoms

• Conclusions – calls for action – "what must be done" – best expert plans as to how to intervene – symbolic steps that are called for at once – what you all should demand– Awareness– Prevention– Social Control Policies

Becker (entrepreneurs)

Gusfield (alchohol)

deYoung (daycare)

Potter (cyberporn)

Reinarman (drugs)

Best (missing children)

Warrants

• Generalization• Analogy• Indication• Cause• Authority• Principle

Toulmin Model of Argumentation

Grounds Claims

Backing

Warrant

Qualification

Reservation

Argument based on Generalization

• What is true of a well chosen sample holds for larger group or population.

http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/~digger/305/toulmin_model.htm

Argument based on Analogy

• Since A is like B, some aspect of A has an analog in B.

http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/~digger/305/toulmin_model.htm

Argument via Sign/Clue

• One thing is evidence or symptomatic another. • Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.

http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/~digger/305/toulmin_model.htm

Causal Argument

• A thing is result of, or effected by, factor X. • But watch out for:– Mixing up correlation with causation– post hoc, ergo propter hoc fallacy– (after the fact, therefore because of the fact).

http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/~digger/305/toulmin_model.htm

Argument from Authority

• X is expert and X says so

http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/~digger/305/toulmin_model.htm

Argument from Principle

• A widely accepted principle applies

http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/~digger/305/toulmin_model.htm

Checking in with Facebook Comes with Hidden Dangers

A simple click on your smart phone could unknowingly put you in danger. Social networking sites have made it easy, but do you know who is watching your every move?

On Facebook, it is as simple as hitting the "check in" button. It's not just about what can happen to you when you're away from home, but what could be happening when you're not there that could really cost you.

A cell phone and a car is all we needed to find Cathy Howell. She checked in at the Sugar Patch Lounge. A quick tap on the screen gave us a map and directions to the bar in West Baton Rouge Parish.

A quick drive over the Mississippi River and we were there. It didn't take us long to find Howell. She was sitting at the bar, just feet from the front door.

"I'm here because you checked in on Facebook that you are at the Sugar Patch Lounge," Reporter Cheryl Mercedes said. "Oh, yeah, we did," Howell replied. "It was really easy to find you. Do you normally check in here," Mercedes asked. "Uh huh, to let people know where I'm at," Howell explained.

Howell says she checks in everywhere.

"So these are all the places you've checked in," Mercedes asked. "In my bed, house, John Deere tractor," Howell said.

Everyday act is actually dangerous

Easy for the bad guys

Checking in with Facebook Comes with Hidden Dangers

She's not the only one who checks in at home. A lot of people do.

Facebook puts you in the neighborhood. While it won't always take you to the exact spot on the map, if someone really wants to find you, it does not take that much effort.

Misty Baker checked in at home. The Google map took us to a neighborhood in Zachary, but did not give us a street name. No problem. We explored Baker's profile a bit, saw she was married to "Reggie", looked it up in on Whitepages.com, and there was an address and a list of people in her household.

When we knocked, a guy named Jesus Ramos came to the door.

"It took me here, to your house," Mercedes said. "But she's not living here. She's living somewhere else," Ramos said.

It appears the Bakers moved recently. Their listing had not been updated.

In Baton Rouge, Peggy Johnson was working on a painting at "Corks and Canvas." We spotted her first from the window, and asked her to step outside. She did not seem too concerned with the fact that we found her.

Checking in with Facebook Comes with Hidden Dangers

"The people on my Facebook are friends and family," Johnson said.

She changed her mind after 9 News shared a story with her out of Indiana. A woman there reportedly caught a childhood friend on camera ransacking her house while she was out listening to a band. The woman in Indiana's status update said, "Heading to the Hill with Kurt to see Fire Department." That was enough for a pair of burglars to walk off with $11,000 worth of her stuff.

David Ferris supervises the State Attorney General's High Technology Crime Unit. He said so far this year his team has spoken to about 180,000 people about "checking in." Ferris said social networking sites, like Facebook, keep him and his team busy.

"The trends are constantly changing, so it's been difficult for us to keep up with the new trends," Ferris said.

Ferris said while the fads will always advance, the concept remains the same.

"If you post online that this is where I am. I want everybody to come see me. Again, you're saying this is also where I am not. It's the same as giving the key to your house to a burglar," Ferris said.

Because the "check-in" feature is still pretty fresh, the Attorney General's Office does not yet have a report that shows exactly how many cases stem from people checking in.

Atrocity tale

Extent of problem

Deficient policies/practices

On a scale of one to ten, how important is your child's safety? If you answered with a resounding TEN please read on.On a scale of one to ten, how important is your child's safety? If you answered with a resounding TEN please read on.

Today, nearly all parents possess an arsenal of safety products. From car seats and bike helmets, to house alarms and smoke detectors, parents use anything they can to keep their children safe. Unfortunately, neither a loud alarm nor the best helmet money can buy will keep your children safe from the most serious threat your children face…the dangers found on social networking sites like facebook and Myspace. Today's predators don't need to stalk their victims from a distance. Today's bullies don't need to physically hit your child to inflict serious pain. Today, stalking takes place on computer screens where bullies are typing their threats on facebook’s profile pages. Before social networking sites came into existence, parents had to worry about keeping their children safe out in the real world but their home was considered a sanctuary. However, this is no longer the case. Today, children and teens live in a world where the most serious dangers they may encounter could be their “friends” online!

As a coach and mentor of children and teens in my local community, I realized most parents are aware these sites can be dangerous but lacked the knowledge and understanding of how to protect their children from them. I also realized it wasn't the parents fault; there was a serious lack of information available to them. Even parents who use these sites seem relatively clueless as to how to keep their kids safe from the potential risks. In an effort to solve this problem by educating parents, I created A Parent's Guide to Social Networks.

A Parent's Guide to Social Networks arms parents with straight forward information that can be easily understood and applied. When I wrote A Parent's Guide to Social Networks, I wanted parents to see all aspects of social networks. I wanted them to realize that some common aspects of social networks considered by many to be "safe" can actually be dangerous. I also wanted them to understand that some of the dangerous aspects of social networks can, in fact, be used to a parent's advantage to keep their children safe. The information contained within this guide will undoubtedly open the eyes of all its readers. It is the most important piece of literature you will read regarding the safety of your children this year!

FACTS

• The alarming results of the Teenspeak survey of 500 13- to 17-year-olds found 18% had come face-to-face with a stranger they first came into contact with on the social networking site.• Social networking sites do

not have a way to regulate and verify ages!• Social networking sites do

not have a way to regulate true identities!• Registered sex offenders

can sign up for social networking sites under false identities!• Children/teens are the

most likely to become friends online with people they don't know!• 42% of children/teens

have been bullied online!

Think About It…

• You know your child has 20 good friends, who are the other 700 friends they have on Facebook?•Half of all 12-year-olds in

the U.S. are using social network sites, despite not meeting the minimum age requirements for sites like Facebook.• 13 million users under the

age of 18 may be allowed to share their personal information just like adult users.•MORE THAN 50% list

mobile numbers and email addresses - on their Facebook or MySpace profile.• 64% of 13-year-olds are

social networking.• 82% of 14 to 17-year-olds

are social networking.

You worry about X but

not Y?!

Parents don’t know. Not their fault. (innocent)

The 5 Facebook Dangers Perils That Have Nothing to Do With Internet Predators

By Jackie Burrell, About.com Guide

Posting on Facebook, MySpace and other social networks is a favorite pastime for teens and 20somethings - and they remain a great way for families to keep in touch - but recent headlines have yielded some caveats that have nothing to do with the usual “predators lurk everywhere” issues. Here are five Facebook dangers your college kid or young adult may never have thought about.

Facebook and college admissions: It's a bad idea to post dicey photos or racy prose on social networking sites, no matter how private teens may think they are. According to a 2008 Kaplan study, one in 10 college admissions officers routinely check out college applicants’ Facebook and MySpace pages. And some 38% of them found posts and pictures that reflected poorly on those prospective students. It wasn’t even necessarily that they’d posted provocative or hard partying photos. In some cases, students had simply written disparagingly about the campuses they toured.

Grad school and careers: Business and medical school admissions officers surf social networking sites in even greater numbers than their undergrad brethren. So do prospective employers, none of whom are impressed by posts that holler “Par-tay!

Fellow students: It’s not just admissions officers doing the surfing. Some upper classmen at the University of Redlands were so incensed by partying comments made by several incoming freshmen on the Redlands Facebook group site, they showed the posts to college officials. College administrators said they called the teens’ parents a few weeks before school began to have a little talk.

Courtroom consequences: Unfortunate Facebook postings can have serious legal repercussions too. One of the first things attorneys do with a new case is search online for information about plaintiffs, defendants and witnesses alike. In one Rhode Island case, a 20-year-old’s drunk driving accident, which severely injured another youth, could have resulted in a relatively light stint at county jail or the considerably more severe state prison. But, as the prosecutor in the case quickly discovered, two weeks after the accident, while his victim was still in the hospital, the youth posted photos on Facebook of himself at a Halloween party, prancing around in a prisoner costume. He was sentenced to two years in state prison.

Child pornography charges: Posting or sending photos of oneself or friends in scanty clothing or sexually suggestive poses may be a popular pastime among the younger set, but if any of the people posing are under 18, the practice may result in child pornography charges. There were several such cases in 2008, including an Ohio 15-year-old who was charged with child pornography after sending nude cell phone images of herself to friends. At the time, officials in Licking County considered charging recipients of those images as well. It's one thing to be charged with sending or receiving child pornography as a minor, but those charges in adult court may carry not only prison time, but a lifetime of registering as a sex offender.

May 11, 2010 5:39 PMFive Hidden Dangers of Facebook

By CBSNewsFacebook claims it has 400 million users. But are they well-protected from prying eyes, scammers and unwanted marketers?

Not according to Joan Goodchild, senior editor of CSO (Chief Security Officer) Online.

She says your privacy may be at far greater risk of being violated than you know when you log onto Facebook, due to security gaffes or marketing efforts by the company.

Facebook came under fire this week, when 15 privacy and consumer protection organizations filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission, charging that the site, among other things, manipulates privacy settings to make users' personal information available for commercial use. Also, some Facebook users found their private chats accessible to everyone on their contact list - a major security breach that's left a lot of people wondering just how secure the site is.

In two words, asserts Goodchild - not very.

On "The Early Show on Saturday Morning," she spotlighted five dangers she says Facebook users expose themselves to, probably without aware of it:

• Your information is being shared with third parties

• Privacy settings revert to a less safe default mode after each redesign

• Facebook ads may contain malware

• Your real friends unknowingly make you vulnerable

• Scammers are creating fake profiles

Is Facebook a secure platform to communicate with your friends?

Here's the thing; Facebook is one of the most popular sites in the world. … Security holes are being found on a regular basis. … It is not as inherently secure as people think it is when they log on every day.

Certainly, there are growing pains. Facebook is considered a young company and it has been around a few years now. It is continuing to figure this out. They are so young they are still trying to figure out how they are going to make money. They don't even have a revenue model yet. It is hard to compare this to others; we have never had this phenomenon before in the way people are communicating with each other - only e-mail comes close.

The potential for crime is real. According to the Internet Crime Complaint Center, victims of Internet-related crimes lost $559 million in 2009. That was up 110 percent from the previous year. If you're not careful using Facebook, you are looking at the potential for identity theft, or possibly even something like assault if you share information with a dangerous person you think is actually a "friend." One British police agency recently reported the number of crimes they've responded to in the last year involving Facebook climbed 346 percent. These are real threats.

Lately, it seems a week doesn't go by without some new news about a Facebook-related security problem.

Earlier this week, a publication called "TechCrunch" discovered a security hole that made it possible for users to read their friends' private chats. Facebook has since patched it, but who knows how long that flaw existed? Some speculate it may have been that way for years.

May 11, 2010 5:39 PM Five Hidden Dangers of Facebook By CBSNews

Last month, researchers at VeriSign's iDefense group discovered a hacker was selling Facebook user names and passwords in an underground hacker forum. It was estimated he had about 1.5 million accounts - and was selling them for between $25 and $45.

And the site is constantly under attack from hackers trying to spam these 400 million users, or harvest their data, or run other scams. Certainly, there is a lot of criticism in the security community of Facebook's handling of security. Perhaps the most frustrating thing is that the company rarely responds to inquiries.

Do people really have privacy on Facebook?

No. There are all kinds of ways third parties can access information about you. For instance, you may not realize that, when you are playing the popular games on Facebook, such as Farmville, or take those popular quizzes, every time you do that, you authorize an application to be downloaded to your profile that you may not realize gives information to third parties.

Does Facebook share info about users with third parties through things such as Open Graph?

Open Graph is a new concept for them - they unveiled it last week at a conference. It actually is basically a way to share the information in your profile with all kinds of third parties, such as partner websites, so they can have a better idea of your interests and what you are discussing, so they can - as they portray it - "make it a more personal experience."

The theory behind Open Graph - even if they have not implemented it - is their whole business model, isn't it?

Well, that is the business model - they are trying to get you to share as much information as possible so they can monetize it by sharing it with advertisers.

Isn't it in Facebook's best interest to get you to share as much info as possible?

It absolutely is. Facebook's mission is to get you to share as much information as it can so it can share it with advertisers. As it looks now, the more info you share the more they are going to with advertisers and make more money.

It is not only sharing the information: Isn't there a security problem every time they redesign the site?

Every time Facebook redesigns the site, which happens at least a few times a year, it puts your privacy settings back to a default in which, essentially, all of your information is made public. It is up to you, the user, to check the privacy settings and decide what you want to share and what you don't want to share.

Facebook does not notify you of the changes, and your privacy settings are set back to a public default. Many times, you may find out through friends. Facebook is not alerting you to these changes; it is just letting you know the site has been redesigned.

Can your real friends on Facebook also can make you vulnerable?

Absolutely. Your security is only as good as your friend's security. If someone in your network of friends has a weak password and his or her profile is hacked, he or she can now send you malware, for example. There is a common scam called a 419 scam, in which someone hacks your profile and send messages to your friends asking for money - claiming to be you - saying, "Hey, I was in London, I was mugged, please wire me money." People fall for it. People think their good friend needs help - and end up wiring money to Nigeria.

A lot of websites we use display banner ads, but do we have to be wary of them on Facebook?

Absolutely: Facebook has not been able to screen all of its ads. It hasn't done a great job of vetting which ads are safe and which are not. As a result, you may get an ad in your profile whey you are browsing around one day that has malicious code in it. In fact, last month there was an ad with malware that asked people to download antivirus software that was actually a virus.

Is too big a network of friends dangerous?

You know people with a lot of friends, 500, 1000 friends on Facebook? What is the likelihood they are all real? There was study last year that concluded that 40 percent of all Facebook profiles are fake. They have been set up by bots or impostors. If you have 500 friends, it is likely there is a percentage of people you don't really know and you are sharing a lot of information with them, such as when you are on vacation, your children's pictures, their names. Is this information you really want to put out there to people you don't even know?