THE CASE OF THE BRITISH PRESS ON MALE YOUTH SUICIDE Term Paper

THE CASE OF THE BRITISH PRESS ON MALE YOUTH SUICIDE - Term Paper suitThis memoire describes how the issue of male youth suicide can be studied using Beeghleys (1999) methodology. A large part of the memoire has gone into introducing the concept of suicide and the varying definitions of suicide, followed by setting the context for further discussion of the subject. An analysis of press articles is done to study how the press troubleatised the issue.Male youth suicide rank more than doubled between 1970-1998, and became a major concern for the society. In such a situation, the medias role in acting as the honourable entrepreneur, as per Cohens theory of moral panic, is worth noting. The main aim of the memoire is to investigate how the private issue of suicide was made a social problem by the press. Beeghleys methodology was used for this purpose because unlike the methodologies by Rubington and Weinberg (2002), Best (2007) and Mooney (2011), his methodology assumes a more empiric al approach through shot testing. The memoire begins with the varying definitions of a social problem and the methodologies that are used to studying social problems. It goes on to state the justification for using Beeghleys methodology in detail. This section is followed by a detailed description of Beeghleys methodology and how it can be applied to studying social problems. The trey aspects of the methodology take studying the extent of harm of a social problem, identification and political recognition of a social problem, and need for improvement of a social condition. These three components correspond to the correspond to the objective, subjective and optimistic components of social problems.