Mormon Media Observer: The 'perfect storm' goes global
By Joel CampbellPublished: Tuesday, Apr. 15, 2008
While most American Latter-day Saints have known what it feels like to be scrutinized by the U.S. news media during the past few years -- recently referred to by Dr. Richard L. Bushman as a "perfect storm" of LDS-oriented stories and media interest -- what has been the media perception on the international stage.
New research shows that the "perfect storm" wasn't isolated. It also went global.
During the past three years, there has been a steady increase in coverage of Mormons and the LDS Church in international media sources culminating in record coverage during the first three months of 2008. The reasons: Mitt Romney, the death of President Gordon B. Hinckley and the calling of a new First Presidency.
The findings, shared recently at the LDS International Society meeting at BYU, showed that more than 1,300 references to the word “Mormon” were found between January and March 2008 in non-U.S. newspapers and wire services. In non-English language news sources there were 750, up from just 50 three years earlier. In those two categories the number of news stories referencing the church has grown steadily since the beginning of 2006.
The research was based on a review of default categories used by the database provider Lexis-Nexis Academic.
According to Dr. Bushman, the Mormon media story in the United States read like this: before Mitt Romney announced his candidacy at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Mich., in February 2007, Mormonism’s “perfect storm” had already started during the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City and began a crescendo during 2005 with the 200th birthday of Joseph Smith. It picked up fury through the landmark PBS series, “The Mormons,” in 2007, and Romney’s nearly one-year official run for the presidency in a religious and political maelstrom.
Themes in the international coverage of the past three years mostly parallel the U.S. experience, except there was little coverage of the Joseph Smith 200th anniversary, and “The Mormons” and the HBO series on polygamy, “Big Love,” started airing in international markets only this past year. Both caused confusion and inaccuracies.
During the Romney campaign, the themes in the U.S. media were also much more developed and varied when compared to those found in the foreign press coverage. Among the U.S. media, including both opinion and news stories, themes included “religion shouldn’t matter,” “LDS are good people,” “bigotry” along with “negative opinion polls,” “unorthodox beliefs and practices,” “secular and atheist voices” and “anti-Mormon voices from other faith groups.”
The U.S. media also widely used non-LDS sources to define LDS Church beliefs and frequently used the “Mormon vs. Evangelical” frame to define the Romney’s religion.
The foreign press discourse was less sophisticated, with U.S.-based correspondents often parroting the coverage of their U.S. counterparts, particularly using the Evangelical-Mormon frame. There was little attempt to use original sources in their coverage from either inside or outside the church. Click on these links to see an example from South Africa and Spain (Note: you can use translate.google.com to view some of the non-English articles mentioned in this article in a rough translation).
Here are a few examples of themes and coverage of the LDS Church (some already seen in earlier columns):
* A positive story about the LDS Church in Slovakia, "Young Men in White Shirts," where the story was localized, including references to LDS history in that nation.
* A BBC reporter finds that Mormons are not so bad after all.
* A reporter for The Press in Christchurch, New Zealand interviewed local members in March 2007 to bring home the story of the LDS Church. Here’s the lead of the story: "Nicola Mills has greeted a journalist's fact-finding mission to her Mormon household with the kind of response it deserves: humour. You don't expect self- deprecation. Mormons are meant to be 19 and ardent, riding a 10-speed into a southerly to bring a message of hope to the doomed. They are supposed to be secretive, although how covert can a church be when it comes knocking on your front door? They are said to be clannish and a little too fond of making money. All those old suspicions are once again being aired in the United States as a result of a Mormon's bid for the Republican presidential nomination. . . It's a long way from Washington to the house in north New Brighton, but Mills and her family know the nature of what Romney is up against."
* An Oxford professor says the church is based upon "moronish wisdom," while a Times of London columnist takes religionists to task for alienating Mormons.
Here are some examples of continuing stereotypes, myths and inaccuracies:
* "I had to learn that the New Jerusalem was in Kansas," a French reporter for Paris-based Le Monde incorrectly said in an interview on Public Radio International.
* "The FLDS Church, like the Mormon Church, practices polygamy.” -- columnist in the Manila Standard (Philippines)
* "Obscure cult” -- Sueddeutsche Zeitung (Munich, Germany)
* The “mistrusted” church now has 13 million members across the world, but is “secretive in its practices: non-members are banned from services.” -- Agence France Press
* Missionaries use "dubious methods" --Berlin Morgenpost (Germany).
Some other headlines and themes:
* "Mormon women tortured children to instill discipline" -- A story about two women in England who whipped children and made them eat chilies. What if they had been Anglican would readers had know their religious affiliation?
* "Mormons rally behind blonde Bec." A story about an LDS member on Australia’s version of “Big Brother.”
* LDS rugby stars continue to make headlines in both New Zealand and Australia
At the end of the perfect storm, some of the negativity of the foreign media was turned on its head with the passing of President Gordon B. Hinckley and installation of a new First Presidency. See the LDS Church's Newsroom for a collection of these tributes to President Hinckley. The coverage was marked by positive coverage of President Hinckley and his faith. Common themes included growth of the church, growth in temples, missionary work, openness, communicator, a world traveler, vibrancy and “prophet of the people.”
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