Florida Teen Commits Suicide with Live Web Audience (AP)

News report about a man who broadcast his suicide via webcam. He’d told others in the chat room his intentions and then allowed them to watch him swallow an overdose of pills. No one tried to stop him.

Discussion Questions:

1. The young man was physically alone when he took the overdose, yet others were, in a sense, present. Use the sociological imagination to develop ideas about why no one intervened.
2. How do the people interviewed explain the suicide? Do they reference personal or social factors?
3. Durkheim cited “integration” as an important factor in suicide. How might the concept apply here?

Country Boys 

This Frontline special project introduces us to Chris and Cody, two teens living in Appalachia. The program follows them for four years and documents their daily struggles and successes.

Discussion Questions:

1. Use the sociological imagination to describe how Chris and Cody’s lives were shaped by social forces.
2. How did Chris and Cody try to resist the effects of their environments?

The Old Man and the Storm

In 2005, the U.S. Congress designated $126.4 billion in aid money for Gulf Coast communities devastated by hurricanes Rita and Katrina. This program offers a glimpse into the politics of economic relief and rebuilding efforts that followed.

Discussion Questions:

1. Use the sociological imagination to explain the link between the individuals featured and society that is central to these programs.
2. Note and describe the social forces at work in the situation presented in each program.
3. How were these people affected by the larger social forces? How did they resist them?