Policy of free Lunches for Children from Unprivileged Families in the Czech Republic - Discourses and Frames
Abstract
In most countries of the EU, the risk of poverty is higher for children than for the rest of the population. It is very problematic from the moral point of view because poverty can affect all their lifetimes ("deprivation cycle").
Although everybody agrees that child poverty is a serious problem, the actors find it difficult to achieve the consensus on the tools and ways of its solution. Child poverty is an unstructured problem, however, if we focus only on one of its aspects (or dimensions), we can raise the level of the "structuredness" and increase chances of achieving the political output.
This has happened in the Czech Republic, in the case of the policy of free lunches when the whole problem was restructured and narrowed to "food deprivation of children". Thanks to its clarity and framing, policy of free lunches has gotten into the media agenda and is generally supported by the public.
The main goal of my paper is to identify frames and media discourse connected with the policy of free lunches. The paper stays on the concept of Discourse and Framing Theory.
I conducted a case study on policy of free lunches for unprivileged children, and I tried to get a deep insight into the issue and especially to map the media discourse. I made a content analysis (thematic and discourse) of selected media messages with the goal to examine discourses and identify frames connected with policy of free lunches.
Finally, two main competing discourses of poverty's causes were identified - "uncaused poverty" and "parental irresponsibility". When we examine them more closely, it is obvious that they are ideologically conditioned.
Discourse "uncaused poverty" is closely connected with topics "deprivation circle", single-parents and "children's home" and it is influenced by socialist ideology. Discourse "parental irresponsibility" is closely connected with (abusing of) social benefits and negative attitude to the policy of free lunches and it uses liberal rhetoric.
Discourses determine what is considered to be true, valid, normal, or correct so they affect public opinion and the whole process of policy making. Proper framing (or reframing) can influence all policy process.
Nowadays, the dominant discourse is "uncaused poverty" and positive attitude prevails. It can help us to explain why is this policy so growing and generous, why it is successful in achieving and maintaining political outputs.
In this way, policy of free lunches can be used as an example of good practice and the inspiration for other policies designed (not only) against child poverty.