Journal article 1399 views 307 downloads
‘Unhappy News’: Process, Rhetoric, and Context in the Making of the Happiness Problem
Ashley Frawley 
Sociological Research Online, Volume: 23, Issue: 1, Pages: 43 - 66
Swansea University Author:
Ashley Frawley
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DOI (Published version): 10.1177/1360780417744791
Abstract
This article examines the emergence and spread of happiness as a social problem, drawing on a study of UK national newspapers. It draws on insights from social problems constructionism and related social movement theory to analyse the rise of the phenomenon in terms of the processual, rhetorical, an...
| Published in: | Sociological Research Online |
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| ISSN: | 1360-7804 1360-7804 |
| Published: |
Sage
2018
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| Online Access: |
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| URI: | https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa39093 |
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| Abstract: |
This article examines the emergence and spread of happiness as a social problem, drawing on a study of UK national newspapers. It draws on insights from social problems constructionism and related social movement theory to analyse the rise of the phenomenon in terms of the processual, rhetorical, and contextual factors involved in its construction, transmission and institutionalisation. Issue ownership, flexible syntax, experiential commensurability, empirical credibility and narrative fidelity are argued to have contributed to the discursive spread of happiness as a social problem in this public arena. A cultural context hospitable to claims about social issues constructed in highly individualised and personalised terms is argued to have contributed to the issue's widespread embrace. |
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| Keywords: |
happiness, master frames, social construction, social problems, well-being |
| College: |
Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences |
| Issue: |
1 |
| Start Page: |
43 |
| End Page: |
66 |