It is an old idea in my field of sociology that SOCIAL CONDITIONS EXIST but SOCIAL PROBLEMS ARE DEFINED. The process of taking a social condition and getting people to recognize it as a social problem often entails ADVOCACY.

According to a foundational statement by John Kitsuse and Malcolm Spector, social problems are “the activities of individuals or groups making assertions of grievances and claims with respect to some putative conditions” (Constructing Social Problems, 1977, p. 75). Joseph Gusfield’s analysis of the movement against drinking-driving in The Culture of Public Problems (1980) is an exemplar of understanding how science and law helped to construct “drunk driving” as a social problem. The emergence of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) highlights the way that interest groups and social movements “contend for ownership of a problem” and seek “the power to define and give public prominence to it.”

I was thinking of this recently in connection with gun violence and The Trace. I receive emails from The Trace every day and learn a great deal from their reporting on gun violence in America. At several points in my book, Gun Curious, as well as in my ongoing webinar on guns in America, I refer to work by The Trace.

At the same time, it has always seemed to me that The Trace functions as an advocacy organization making assertions of grievances, contending for ownership of a problem, and seeking the power to define and give public prominence to it.

Consequently, in an early draft of Gun Curious, I referred to The Trace as a “gun violence newsadvocacy organization.”

Although I thought the term “newsadvocacy” was descriptively accurate, I changed the language in my book to “gun violence reporting organization” so as not to unintentionally offend anyone.

A recent email from James Burnett, Managing Director of The Trace, gave me second thoughts about this decision.

Burnett wrote, “At The Trace, improving understanding of gun violence through deeper reporting is a core part of our mission as a nonprofit news organization.”

Improving understanding. Terrific goal for a newsroom.

What makes The Trace a newsadvocacy organization is what it sees as the necessary result of that improved understanding.

Again, to quote Burnett’s letter, “There are indications that our work is getting results — for one, poll respondents now accurately rank gun violence as a top public health problem.”

So, an improved understanding of gun violence will necessarily — and “accurately” — get people to see gun violence as a top public health problem. That is advocacy.

I’m not saying this is right or wrong for The Trace to do. I am simply highlighting the fact that The Trace functions as an interest group advocating for the social construction of gun violence as a top public problem in American society. The work of The Trace — as evidenced by the results it seeks — goes beyond news reporting.