| |
| |
| |
Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
 | |
|
| Entitlement, generational equity, and public-opinion manipulation in Kansas City | | Author(s) | David J Eckerdt |
| Journal title | The Gerontologist, vol 38, no 5, October 1998 |
| Pages | pp 525-536 |
| Keywords | Social security benefits ; Services ; Ageism ; Public opinion ; Communication media ; United States of America. |
| Annotation | To sow public doubts about Social Security and other federal old-age programmes in the US, one would need to erode their bases for support. This case study describes a year-long editorial campaign by the Kansas City Star - a major daily newspaper - which repeatedly argued for retrenchment of federal old-age programmes. In essence, the newspaper promoted the policy agenda of the Concord Coalition which describes itself as a "non-partisan, grassroots movement to eliminate the deficit and bring entitlements down to a level that's fair to all generations", and which propounds a view that entitlement spending will one day absorb all federal revenues. A strong series theme of the newspaper's campaign was generational inequity. Readers, especially young people, were recruited to participate in public events that manufactured quotable support for the paper's stance. Throughout, shrill and unflattering portrayals of age-group interests did little to advance civic understanding of policy issues, or to forestall intergenerational tensions. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-990309001 A |
| Classmark | JH: I: B:TOB: U5: UD: 7T |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
|
| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
| |
|
|