SCANDAL, SOCIAL CONDITIONS, AND THE CREATION OF PUBLIC ATTENTION - ARBUCKLE,FATTY AND THE PROBLEM OF HOLLYWOOD

Although social constructionism is the dominant perspective for examin ing the growth of social problems, this orientation systematically neg lects the conditions that produce the recognition of social problems. The approach examines the effects of claims without attending to condi tions that lead to these claims - conditions grounded in the interacti on between culture and agency: looking forward from the claim, not bac k. In contrast, I argue from a position of ''cautious naturalism'' tha t sociologists should analyze conditions that generate public attentio n, seeing structure as providing constraints an interpretations. If th ese conditions are not ''objective,'' neither are they ''mere'' rhetor ical constructions. To this end I draw upon Smelser's ''value-added'' model, incorporating it within a constructionist model and applying it to the depiction of scandals. Specifically, I examine conditions that led to the public attention given to the 1921 trial of comedian Rasco e ''Fatty'' Arbuckle for manslaughter, and how this event played out t hrough claimsmakers' activities.