Covering the LDS Church in the Media

How is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints covered in the media?  Often the Church is painted as a bizarre, impersonal religion in the journalism world.  Often journalists find themselves side-stepping certain vernacular when mentioning the LDS Church in the news to avoid offending the growing population of Church members throughout the world. 

 

In an article written by religionwriters.com (1), several suggestions for covering the LDS Church are listed. For example:

 

1. Labeling Mormons as Christians in the news: “Whether or not Mormons are Christian is a contentious matter. Journalists should always be clear that the Mormons regard themselves as Christian but that Catholics, Protestants and Orthodox Christians say Mormon beliefs do not agree with Christianity and its creeds. When this distinction is not important to a news report, journalists use phrases such as “Catholic, Protestant and Mormon churches are involved …” to avoid the issue. Journalists should avoid phrases such as “Christian churches, including Catholics, Protestants and Mormons,” which make a theological judgment about the church’s beliefs.”

 

2. Using accurate information to explain the Church’s beliefs: “Journalists should take care to describe Mormon beliefs and practices in accurate and nonjudgmental ways. When teachings are controversial, journalists can state as fact or quote scholars explaining how they differ from traditional Christian teaching.”

 

3. Calling Church members by their correct titles: “The LDS church has changed its position on the term Mormon. Most recently, the church asked not to be referred to as the Mormon church, but it does not object to adherents being referred to as Mormons. For journalists, the Mormon church is acceptable in references to the LDS church, though the church’s full name should be used on first reference.”

 

4. Distinguishing between church service meetings and the temple. “Mormons welcome visitors in churches, but visitors are not allowed to enter Mormon temples. (Churches, or meeting houses, are used for Sunday worship, while temples, which serve numerous churches, are used only on weekdays for special rituals.) Even family members who are not Mormon cannot enter a temple for weddings and funerals. For that matter, only Mormons who are deemed sufficiently “worthy”— by paying their tithe and being active in their ward — are allowed in.”

 

5. How the LDS Church works as far as leadership goes: “The LDS church has an unusual structure. The top authority is the First Presidency, made up of a president and two counselors. When the president dies, the First Presidency is dissolved and the Council of the Twelve Apostles selects a new president. Under the First Presidency is the three-member Presiding Bishopric, which governs in temporal affairs. There is also the First Quorum of Seventy, which oversees missionary work. The church is divided into territorial groups called stakes, and each stake is headed by a president, two counselors and a stake high council. Individual congregations are called wards. The pastor of a ward holds the title of bishop but is not salaried or a professional religious leader. The terms minister or the Rev. are not used.”

 

Often readers find contrasting articles about the LDS Church—all contrasted by the words the author chooses to use.  It is easy to understand when an article is biased toward the particular topic all based on the connotation of the words.  One session of the Mormon Media Studies Symposium entitled “Comparing Two Moments: Changes in Media Coverage of Mitt Romney’s Mormonism Between the Campaigns of 2008 and 2012” compared the usage of certain words in description of the LDS faith between 2008 and 2012 while Mitt Romney was running for president.  Following are some of the statistics: (2)

 

                                                                                2008                       2012

Polygamy                                                            25.71%                  18.01%

“Book of Mormon”                                         22.86%                  17.39%

Welfare                                                               .71%                      2.48%

Service                                                                 0%                          .62%

Tithes/Tithing                                                    2.86%                    8.07%

Secretive                                                             6.43%                    3.11%

Cult                                                                        27.14%                  21.74%

Joseph Smith                                                     29.29%                  18.63%

Temple                                                                 31.43%                  12.42%

Racist                                                                    5.71%                    1.24%

Baptisms for Dead                                           7.86%                    3.73%

Family                                                                   7.14%                    10.56%

 

As we can observe, words that usually have a negative connotation to the world went down in use in 2012 compared to the 2008 campaign of Mitt Romney.  His campaigns helped bring the Church into the limelight, and as journalists faced the often challenging and sensitive topic of covering the LDS Church in the media, they seem to understand more about what words are allowable to use and which are unacceptable in description of the Church. 

 

As the LDS Church gains prominence in the media world, journalists are going to have to learn how to cover the peculiar subject in their articles and broadcasts.

 

Sources:

(1) http://www.religionwriters.com/tools-resources/reporting-on-religion-a-primer-on-journalisms-best-beat/a-roundup-of-religions/beyond-the-big-three/church-of-jesus-christ-of-latter-day-saints

(2) Mormon Media Studies Symposium, BYU Campus, November 8-9, 2012. “Comparing Two Moments: Changes in Media Coverage of Mitt Romney’s Mormonism Between the Campaigns of 2008 and 2012”

Mormon Media Studies Symposium

                I attended three sessions of the Mormon Media Studies Symposium held November 8th and 9th:   “Perceptions of Mitt Romney within the Mormon Community” by Clark Callahan, Christina Chatfield, Derek Johanson, and Kate Zeller; this session was combined with “Comparing Two Moments: Changes in Media Coverage of Mitt Romney’s Mormonism between the Campaigns of 2008 and 2012” by Lane Williams; and finally “Baptism of Fire: A Comparative Analysis of Media Coverage of the LDS Church’s Practice of Proxy Baptisms” by Joel Campbell and Kris Boyle.  Each of these sessions had their positives and negatives, but the two I found I enjoyed the most were “Perceptions of Mitt Romney in the Mormon Community” and “Baptism of Fire.”  There was also one section of “Comparing Two Moments” that interested me that I will include in this description.

                In the session “Perceptions of Mitt Romney in the Mormon Community”, I found it interesting that the researcher found four different ‘types of Mormons’, if you will, within the LDS world.  Each of these types had different perceptions of Mitt Romney and his campaign while being an LDS figure himself.  The researcher divided them into the following four sections: Primary Mormons (who were “particularly favorable toward Romney’s values,” “believe Romney represents the Church well to media and the public,” who are “defensive about media or public critiques of faith,” and often use the phrase “I think every Mormon should vote for Mitt Romney”); Sovereign Mormons (usually democratic in their political views, these Mormons are “more discontented with ‘mainstream’ Mormon culture that they are opposed to the candidate,” “actively exclude faith from politics,” and often “feel isolated from the body of the Church”); Aesthetic Mormons (who are “more concerned with how Mitt Romney reflects on the Church than his actual candidacy” and “believe that faith should play an important role in politics”; they are often worried about reputation rather than the campaign); and finally, the Doubty Zealots (who don’t particularly “favor Mitt Romney’s politics,” “wish the public would be more aware of the church’s values,” but who are nonetheless more likely to vote for Mitt because he is a Mormon; they often use phrases such as “I couldn’t care less about politics, but I know my religion” and “Anyone can be evil, never mind religion.”).  I find myself relating to mostly the Primary and Aesthetic Mormon groups.  The researcher explained that most individuals he surveyed fell into the first two categories far more than the latter two. 

                In another session, “Comparing Two Moments”, the researcher pointed out the word usage in articles, etc., that are common to Mormon culture varied between the 2008 and 2012 elections.  For example:

                                                                2008                                       2012

Polygamy                                            25.71%                                  18.01%

“Book of Mormon”                         22.86%                                  17.39%

Welfare                                              .71%                                      2.48%

Service                                                 0%                                          .62%

Tithes/Tithing                                    2.86%                                    8.07%

Secretive/Secret                              6.43%                                    3.11%

Cult                                                        27.14%                                  21.74%

Joseph Smith                                     29.29%                                  18.63%

Temple                                                 31.43%                                  12.42%

Racist                                                    5.71%                                    1.24%

Baptisms for Dead                           7.86%                                    3.73%

Family                                                   7.14%                                    10.56%

The researcher further explained these findings, that most of the negatively connoted words such as ‘polygamy’ and ‘cult’ and ‘secret’ went down in mention from the 2008 campaign, whereas words such as ‘welfare’ and ‘family’ went up in mention.  I found this interesting to see a visual of how mention of certain words in media has changed between the 2008 and 2012 Mitt Romney campaigns.

                Overall, each session was unique and informative in their own ways.  I’m grateful I had the chance to attend a few sessions (less than I would have liked) and learn more about the church in the media.  It was an enlightening experience, one that I will definitely keep my notes from.