台灣人口「問題」的建構： 以少子化新聞框架為例

Abstract

本研究從社會建構論的角度切入，以van Gorp框架包裹分析的取徑，探討新聞論述中與低生育率相關的媒體再現。我們以政府開始倡導鼓勵生育計畫的2004年初作為觀察起點，以2007年底本研究開始進行時作為觀察日期終點，至《中國時報》、《聯合報》、及《蘋果日報》的新聞資料庫進行相關資料搜尋。根據2,147則的有效新聞文本蒐集與分析結果，我們發現，新聞論述多半將少子化框架成導致教育、經濟、家庭關係、性別、甚至族群失衡或危機的負面問題；以帶來契機思維的框架，或是以較不帶價值判斷的角度聚焦在現象改變面的描述，不論是在報導量或是論證可信度的鋪陳上，都不及負面社會問題框架論述來得有力道，也出現商業行銷置入新聞。據此，我們進一步探究少子化作為一社會問題在建構過程的新聞論述特色，並就當今新聞傳播實務如何再現公共政策進行反思討論。

By taking a social constructionist perspective and using Van Gorp’s framing package approach, this study analyzed how frames are represented in the news discourses. It specifically focuses on the reconstructed social problem related to policies on promoting childbearing in Taiwan. Two thousand and one hundred forty seven relevant news stories from China Times, United Daily News, and Apple Daily, dated from January 2004 to December 2007, were collected via the newspaper web databases. The results indicated that news stories framed as negative social problems in terms of education, economy, family relationship, gender, or ethnicity were the most predominant type. Although stories related to declining fertility rate were sometimes framed as merely descriptive of the phenomenon, or as suggestive of new opportunity, discourses of the two frames were subject to trivialization. It was due to the choice of news sources and news pages on the one hand, and to the interference of the product placement as well as the public relations in the news production process on the other. Based on the findings, the study went further to discuss and evaluate news patterns, features, and performances of reconstructing declining fertility rate in Taiwan as an emerging social and public policy issue.