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.