隱沒的追求正義論述：1987-2007年報紙再現社工員實務行動的框架分析

Pursuing Justice Became an Overshadowed Discourse: News Framing of Social Workers in Taiwan, 1987-2007

本研究的主要目的是探討臺灣解嚴後的廿年，也是〈社工師法〉通過的前、後十年間，媒體再現社工員實務行動的框架及其演變。本研究針對《中國時報》以及《聯合報》兩大報共3,249 則新聞文本進行框架分析。研究結果發現，兩大報在1987-2007 年間，主要是以「特定社會問題或議題的發現者／教育者」、「特定邊緣／弱勢個人或群體的協助者」、「法令執行者」，以及「資源的中介或募集者」這四個框架來報導社工員平日所從事的工作。而在1997 年後的十年間，社工員是「特定邊緣／弱勢個人或群體的協助者」成為兩大報再現社工員實務行動的主要框架，顯示主流報紙媒體視社工員是社會中有問題、偏差、邊緣、弱勢個人或群體的照顧者、協助者這樣的論述，在〈社會工作師法〉通過後更被突顯。若與解嚴後社工員多元且豐富的實務行動相對照，這兩大主流報紙媒體觀看與理解社工員實務行動的框架，完全隱沒了社工員透過草根、集體行動為弱勢者發聲、追求社會正義這樣的角色與作為。據此，本研究進一步討論及反思分析結果，並就社會工作社群如何更具主體性地呈現自己以及與社會大眾溝通進行討論。

This study aims to analyze the status change of social workers in the media during the last two decades. We explore how the news media were representing and reconstructing social workers’ day-to-day jobs. The findings are from an analysis of 3,249 news stories from the two mainstream print media, United Daily and China Times from January 1987 to December 2007, that is, from the decade before the passing of Social Worker Act until the decade following the passing. The Social Worker Act of Taiwan was promulgated in 1997, enabled social workers to acquire professional statuses similar to those in other fields (e.g., medicine, law, and accounting) by undergoing a national examination. The findings indicate that followed the promulgation of the Act the media have frequently reported social workers in playing the roles of social control and caretakers for the less attractive, more problematic, deviant, dangerous, or deficient groups in our society. It however overshadowed or weakened the role of social workers as spokespeople for the socially vulnerable and their pursuit of social justice through grassroots and collective forces. The result indicates that the pursuing justice has become an overshadowed discourse by the mainstream media. Based on the findings we go further to discuss the action strategies that social work community of Taiwan could employ in communicating with the populace from social workers’ own perspective.