making moves: into sociology (and beyond)
A Katrina article (conceived in 2006, written in 2007, published in 2010) that I worked on is still kickin’! Just heard from a friend-of-a-friend that it showed up a sociology magazine this month? From Contexts, a quarterly publication from the American Sociological Association:
Ben-Porath and Shaker believe the inclusion of a victim photo is a classic example of priming. The photos made white respondents sort of “forget” structural forces and think more abstractly about the person in the picture. Although this loss of critical analysis didn’t hold for all groups, this research reminds us that presentation can change interpretations.
I would say that the contribution of the article is, in part, exactly that the “loss of critical analysis” doesn’t hold for all groups — this sort of illustrates the relative strength of the framing effect. Framing matters, but sometimes you run into real, firmly held beliefs and a little manipulation like switching a photograph can’t alter these convictions.
It’s always interesting to see who finds your work & what they do with it. Along these lines, a friend recently sent me a link to Google Scholar’s new citation tool. The tool isn’t perfect, but it does allow you to quickly & easily tab articles that you’ve written and then peruse articles that have cited them. It picks up some noise and misses lots of signal, I’m sure — but possibly worth a click or two.