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Creating Deviance: Scenarios of Stigmatization in Postmodern Media Culture

NCJ Number
196889
Journal
Deviant Behavior: An Interdisciplinary Journal Volume: 23 Issue: 5 Dated: September-October 2002 Pages: 419-448
Author(s)
Daniel Dotter
Date Published
September 2002
Length
30 pages
Annotation
This article focuses on social constructions of deviance.
Abstract
The social construction of deviance is addressed in this journal article, highlighting issues of social stigma. After discussing the impact of postmodernism on the American social sciences, the author briefly discusses the relationship between Denzin’s ideas of interpretative interactionism and biography and Mills’s concept of the sociological imagination. Turning to a discussion of the social construction of deviance in contemporary mediated society, the author describes the intersection of deviance labeling and cultural studies by citing issues from the works of Denzin and Mills. Focusing on the creation of deviance, this article presents a postmodern scenario through a discussion of media culture and the stigma movie. Arguing that meaning emerges from the complex interplay among deviant events, media reconstruction, and the stigma movie, the author states that the concepts of deviance and conformity appear as biographical and sociocultural narratives linked to the stigma contest and overlapping with the broader context of social problem construction. References

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