The document discusses the social issue of labeling and the controversies surrounding it. Labeling has both positive and negative impacts - it can bring social change but also stigma. It has led to policies regarding product labeling, film ratings, and avoidance of stigmatizing language by health professionals. Experts and media play a role in addressing labeling by promoting transparency and understanding impacts. Policies on labeling have sought to inform consumers while accounting for globalization. Overall labeling has effects that must be carefully considered and addressed through policy.
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This paper is originally mine and has not been presented by any other person in this institution or
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Abstract
This paper generally discusses about labeling as a social problem and the controversies that
surrounds it. The main objective is to find out the existing claims and claims making, the role of
the media and experts in addressing the issue, public relations and policy making in relation to
the theory and the policy outcomes in addressing the issue. Labeling has led to controversial
debates among critics. Some view it as a tool to bring about social change in the society while
others view it as a stigmatizing tool to various groups in the society. Labeling has triggered the
development of policies that are friendly to the consumers such as policies addressing issues of
product labeling country of origin so as to minimize misleading information from getting across
the public and also creating of films and tapes labels to make consumers aware of the source of
the material. Labeling has also enabled the change of ways in which health professional handle
their clients by avoiding the use of terms that may affect their treatment.
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Introduction
Labeling theory is basically concerned with individual’s identity and behaviors that may
be determined or influenced by the existing terms that are used to classify or describe them.
Labeling has become a social issue due to various reasons. According to Hastak & Mazis,
sometimes consumers of a particular product are always mislead due to a particular label on the
products they do consume(2011, p.157). Dermer et.al. , points out that, the terminologies used
to label and identify discrimination, oppression and sexual prejudice has led to negative impacts
on the way lesbians and gay men are viewed by the society at large (2010,p.325). In addition to
that, the use of negative labels to alcohol and other drug addicts has resulted to the existing
professional tensions in addressing the problems of stigma alongside shame manifestations.
The use of psychiatric labels can be beneficialor be harmful to a community even though
there have been controversial debates over the issue for a coupleof decades (Wright et.al. 2007,
p.2444). It has been argued that, labeling always sets up expectations of extraordinary behaviors
that are always fulfilled by individuals and it has been proved useful for early detection of mental
disorders(which often requires labeling) thus enabling an individual to get treatment before it
becomes a burden.
Given the existing confusion generated among the public and media concerning the
labeling theory, the purpose of these paper is therefore to bring the reason for the controversies
that exists concerning the labeling theory and also check on the role of the media and the public
concerning the issue and the policies that have been generated to address the issue so as to bring
harmony amongst various groups.
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Claims and claim makers
The public policy researchers have been using the consumer behavior theory to come up
with predictions on consumer response to information’s that are misleading. Marketers of a
particular product often makes claims on product labels or advertisement that are logically true
but misleading because an important fact or material has been omitted completely from the label.
For example, a marketer may decide not to include limiting conditions that may be of help in the
accurate interpretation of a particular claim. Moreover, without efficient qualifications, consumer
will tend to depend on the appearance of the product or previous experiences to draw their
inferences.
In order to work and advocate effectively for gay men, lesbians and their families, an
individual has to be aware of their existing relational and societal forces that often have negative
impacts on them. Therefore one has to focus on the terminologies that are used to identify and
label oppression, sexual prejudice and discrimination.For along period of time, homophobia has
been a term used to describe the alienated and disenfranchised group (lesbians and gay men.). As
a matter of fact, those who have been stigmatizing homosexuality view it as individual’s
pathology arising from problems in development of psychosexual, sinful lifestyle or abuse. The
label resulted to creation of fear about homosexuality which eventually opened the doors to
oppressions that focused on sexual orientation which later triggered the creation of movement
amongst the mental health professionals whose main objectives was to normalize orientations
that were non-heterosexual. Even though the label was created to stir up irrational fear on gay
men and lesbian,the word expanded to include even the sexual minorities such as the
transgender,bisexuals, intersexindividuals thus creating negative impact on them as people
started questioning about their gender identity or sexuality.
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The alienation and isolation manifestation of shame among the alcohol and other drug
abuse clients has resulted due to professional tensions that have been explored in three themes
namely; Use of labels that negatively impact on the clients such as” addicts “and” junkies”, the
impact of stigmatization and labeling on service production and the stigmatization of the alcohol
and other drugs (AOD) client settings. These often pose a barrier to the potential treatment and
counseling of clients in the AOD setting. In addition, rather than having a forum whereby clients
negotiate their own perspective of their use of drug, statements from participants always
demonstrate ways through which AOD settings can establish labels that identifies clients as
sober citizens or addicts. This cause of action is limiting as it does not allow complex discussions
that are characterized by working alliances that are therapeutic.
The use of psychiatric labeling has been found to be useful in the community for many
decades as it helps in the early recognition of mental disorders that result into treatment before
the situation gets worse. There exist benefits of treating mental disorders early enough especially
among the adolescents and young adults as lack of recognition of the disorder result in delayed
aid seeking. In addition to that, it may result to noncompliance or concordance when assistance
has been sough thus leading to the utilization of inappropriate methods e.g. use of alcohol and
other drugs. Correct labeling of the mental disorders is an extremely important part of the mental
health literacy as it involves the beliefs and knowledge about mental disorders thus helping in
their recognition, prevention and management. In order to improve mental health literacy,
various strategies have been put in place such as carrying out of campaigns to improve on
community awareness, use of school based interventions and the application of the mental first
aid. The main aim of these strategies is to improve the recognition of mental disorders through
labeling and therefore facilitate the appropriate help seeking by patients.
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The use of labeling theory has been effectively in controlling behaviors that are against
the community values and beliefs. For example the label adultery may be taken as a violation of
an official rule and might be criminalized depending on the status of an individual such as
married, religion and morality within a community setting. However in western countries, it is
not a crime to conduct adultery but attaching the label adultery may create some unfortunate
consequences though not severe unlike in Islamic countries where adultery is considered a crime
and those involved pay for it dearly.
Role of Media and Experts in addressing labeling
Labeling of the source of video news release (VNR) is an important and ethical decision
that can be made by the media companies (Nelson, 2008, p.231). However, people argue that the
availability of the knowledge leads to the decrease in effectiveness of the VNRs as people will be
aware of its public relations tactics. When VNRs stories are produced and aired in the media,
they resemble new true stories a fact that is not true, because the stories have been produced on
the client’s behalf in order for the media station to gain free airtime. VNRs main task is to offer
content information, however they have been labeled as a soft-sell an approach to marketing
communications. This is because they do not identify their sponsoring companies or organization
and their products and logos do not often appear inconspicuously in the news segment.
The public relations professionals in conjunction with news organizations are on the fore
front to help the public in understanding the contexts of the messages through identification of
the sources and origins of the new messages since media literacy in the public domain is very
high. Majority of the consumers are often naive as they do not understand much on how news are
produced , even that talk shows and not broadcast news and the editorial pages need to be
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opinioned (Nelson, 2008, p.232). Currently the publics have realized the importance of source
disclosure. Thus the TV Guide editors pointed out that,those viewers who are informed about the
source of news they read or view are not vulnerable to potentially misleading or persuasive
messages. In addition to that , they recommended that whenever a news organization TV
includes a tape or film that has been produced by the outside source in the broadcast, should
include a label such as “Video supplied by………………..” displayed on the screen.
The Public Relation Society of America(PRSA, 2004,p.21), declares that the use of
footage or VNRs that are source provided rather than providing the network or station , should
be taken into consideration when being aired by media outlets. In addition to that the code of
ethics designed by the Radio-Television News Director (RTNDA, 2000) pointed out that
professional electronic journalists should unfold clearly the source of information provided to the
public and also ensure that all materials from the outside are labeled.
Public relation and policy making
The country-of-origin product labeling has always provided an important clue to
consumers about a product attributes such as durability, reliability and quality. However,
majority of these labeling have been utilized to misinform consumers about the originality and
content of the products. In order to curd this behavior, various countries have reacted by creating
standards that are mandatory when labeling the country of origin in the product. This has been
achieved through the availability of legislations related to health and food standards, market
competitions and consumer protection. For example in the U.S, the Farm Bill formed in 2002
required that livestock and agricultural products should contain information touching on country-
of –origin (Saunders, 2010, p.1474). The impact of globalization has made it impossible to
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clearly label the products, as some contents in the product come from all over the world. To
address this challenge, countries have come up with policies on the utilization of the label while
some manufacturers of a product or company generate their own labeling policy that is
differentiated from others. The Federation Communications Commission (FCC) sponsorship has
created rules that do not necessitate mandatory labeling of VNR Company sponsored. The rules
highlight that; the sponsorship is only required when VNR relates to controversial public
important issues and political matter and issues touching on station broadcast. A disclosure of
information always affects viewers’ attitude.
Social problems wok and policies outcome
The policies generated as a result of labeling has led to the increase in knowledge on products
and information used by consumers. For example the use of country-of-origin labeling has been
important to consumers as they are able to determine the economic value of the product
especially for those high technology products. Besides that, the health professionals have been
able to understand the stigmatization that comes along with the use of particular labels to the
clients hence the adjustment to use labels that are friendly and also the professional counselors
have gone a milestone a head in understanding oppression and therefore developedtheir cultural
awareness thus promoting social justice and advocating for the elimination of prejudice and bias
and the struggle against unintentional or intentional discrimination of the sexual minorities hence
advocating for their overall wellness.
From the interviews conducted on the impacts of shame on alcohol and other drug settings client
counseling, it was clear from that shame and stigmatization were the obstacles to counseling of
patients. The findings also indicated that shame was compounded by the stigma of using the
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drugs and negative labels associated with them such as Junkie or addicts. From the second
interview carried out on the importance of labeling video news release, I established that the
viewers are able to be transformed from being relatively naïve to learning more about VNRs
sponsored companies thus altering the way they perceive VNR segments from pure news to
commercial contents that are greater.
Summary
From the above discussions it has been established by various claim makers that labeling has
been a tool used to improve or destroy the existing relations in the public domain. For example
the use of various labels among the alcohol and other drug settings (DOD) has led to
stigmatization of the clients seeking medical attention thus affecting their counseling program .In
addition to that the sexual minorities have been discriminated in the society as they are going
against the values and norm of a particular setting thus making them to fill oppressed and
discriminated. However labeling has been found to be useful in the treatment of mental disorders
as labeling has enabled the detection of particular mental disorder leading to early treatment by
individuals. Labeling has also helped transform deviant behaviors such as adultery and criminal
activities as people fear the consequences that come along with them. It has also been found to
be useful in media coverage as the labeling of programs and professional electronic journals
enables consumers to come up with valid decisions when in need to consume a particular
product.
The social problem (Labeling), is being addressed and people have understood the impact of
using certain labels to address a particular issue and are changing accordingly. From the study of
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the labeling theory, I have been able to clearly understand the impact a label can cause to
someone hence being conscious on the labels that I use in my daily endeavors.
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Michelle, R., Nelson. (2008). Social utility theory: Guiding labelingof VNRs as ethical and
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