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Has media reporting become too independent? When covering policy debates, to what extent do the national media promote their own messages and frames or those provided by policymakers and advocates, and why should we care? Media involvement in framing policy issues matters because many citizens rely on the media´s interpretation of these issues to determine their own support or opposition for policy reforms, some of which could have a significant impact on their lives and economic well-being. Therefore, the public needs balanced and unbiased information from the media. To better understand the media´s use of framing, national print media coverage of the Social Security privatization debate from 1993 to 2004 was analyzed to evaluate whether the media provided balanced coverage of the risks and benefits of privatizing Social Security. The extent to which the print media play an autonomous role in framing public policy debates and use their own messages or those derived by other policy elites is also examined.

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Brenda Sulick is the Vice-President of Congressional Affairs and Advocacy at the National PACE Association. She was a former national recipient of the John Heinz Senate Fellowship in Aging, and worked in Washington,DC for Senator Blanche Lincoln. She holds a Ph.D. in Public Administration and Policy/Gerontology from Portland State University.

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