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Framing Generational Equity: how media and academic discourse shape policy
Renée L. Beard, Ph.D.,University of California San Francisco, USA
ABSTRACT:
In the United States frame analysis is increasingly being used to analyze debates over
social policy issues. This article explores how different frames help or hinder the
advancement of alternative policy agendas, specifically how academic and media
discourse shaped by two competing ideological frames are being used to influence
age-related social policies. This paper presents an overview of frame analysis
followed by a description of the generational equity frame and the opposing
generational interdependence frame. The article then uses these competing
interpretative frameworks to discuss current debates over old-age security (Social
Security) and health care (Medicare) policy. The paper argues that in recent years
the generational equity frame has been the more influential of the two and that if this
continues the health and economic status of older Americans will be put at risk. A
major limitation of the generational equity frame is that it provides a rationale to
base policy on age or age cohort and to discount other forms of equity based on race,
ethnicity, class, gender, and sexual orientation.
Keywords: generational equity, social security reform, frame analysis
The study of political strategies for presenting information to the public about
controversial policy issues has long been of interest to political scientists and
sociologists. Frame analysis (Goffman, 1974) is being used with increasing frequency as
a way to describe and analyze such efforts. A frame can be conceptualized as a lens
through which one views the world, which organizes how the acquisition of new
information gets processed and is based on previously held beliefs or patterns of
perception and interpretation. Frames can also be conceived of as underlying structures
or organizing principles that integrate diverse symbols and ideas into packages (Gamson
& Modigliani, 1989). The influence of specific groups in defining the way an issue
comes to be framed is an essential mobilization tool for social movements and can have a
major impact on the outcome of social policy debates (Creed, Langstraat & Scully, 2002;
Gamson & Modigliani, 1989; Schon & Rein, 1994). The concept of frames or framing
has been used to discuss how individuals and groups approach a variety of contentious
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