Bowman, N. D., Lewis, R., & Bryand, M. (2012, May). The morality of May 2, 2011: A content analysis of US headlines regarding the death of Osama bin Laden. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the International Communication Association, Phoenix.

Bowman, Bryand (WVU)Lewis (Texas)

(about) a year ago, either ‘We Got the Bastard’ or ‘He Died’

ICA 2012 Phoenix

Overview

• “Good evening. Tonight, I can report to the American people and to the world that the United States has conducted an operation that killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaeda, and a terrorist who was responsible for the murder of thousands of innocent men, women, and children” ~Barack Obama

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Overview

• While bin Laden’s death was pervasive in world headlines on Monday, 2 May 2011…

• …cursory readings reveal anecdotal variance in the framing of the event

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Overview

• News largely broke via social media (Parr, 2011) in advance of press conference

• 95% US public approval of “military action;” support in different shapes and sizes

• Newspapers were not a primary source of early information, but rather (re)affirmation after-the-fact

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Morality and News Framing

• News is a morality play (Altheide, 1997)– Iraqi Revolution ‘no fear’– War on Drugs impurity, disorder– 2012 Election Matter of Faith

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Frames and Audience Reaction

• Use of news frames can influence audiences responses to news and events– Weighting of justice > care (Lind, 1996)– “good” or “bad” news as a function of moral

salience (Zillmann et al., 1998)– Reactions to “Hot-Button” issues a function of moral

considerations of intended audiences• Producers are aware of these moral

considerations, and frame content accordingly

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Audiences and Morality

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MIME (Tamborini, 2011)

Current Study

• Can Δ in framing of OBL coverage be explained as a function of moral subculture?

• Content analysis of N = 403 US newspaper front pages from 2 May 2011 (72% AP)– Two coders analyzed:

• Headlines• Subheads• Photography

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Current Study

• Five moral foundations from MIME/MFT coded for:– Presence or absence– Adherence or violation*– Benign or charged* – Proportion of page devoted to OBL

• Moral subculture of audience– Political ideology

• 2008 election results• Adelman (2004) conservative and liberal rank survey

– Dominant faith/religion (Albion College Survey)– Story source

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Foundations are:

Harm/CareFairness/Reciprocity

Ingroup/LoyaltyAuthority/Respect

Purity/Sanctity

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Adelman (2004)

You can’t hide

How we killed bin Laden

bin Laden killed by US

Many cheer death of al-Qaida leader nearly 10 years after 9/11

Results

• Newspapers– All 50 states represented

• (n = 1 in Vermont; n = 40 in California)

– n = 270 stories sources to AP– 63% (n = 253) from liberal regions– 66% (n = 262) Catholic; 29% (n = 115) Baptist– Circulation

• M = 71K, Min = 4118, Max = 915K,Mode = 15000, Med = 35K

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Proportion of front-page

coverage devoted to OBL was M =

54.9% (SD = 26.9); Mode = 20%,

Median = 57.5%

Results – General Presence

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Coding Category Binomial Test (against .50 distribution)

Presence of foundation Absent Present

Harm/Care 36 365 p ~ .000

Fairness/Reciprocity 371 31 p ~ .000

Ingroup/Loyalty 335 66 p ~ .000

Authority/Respect 378 24 p ~ .000

Purity/Sanctity 400 2 p ~ .000

Coding Category Chi-square Test (against .50 distribution)

Foundation Vector Charged violation

Benign violation

Benign upholding

Charged upholding

Harm/Care 13 352 0 0 p ~ .000

Fairness/Reciprocity 0 0 23 8 p = .007

Ingroup/Loyalty 0 0 63 3 p ~ .000

Authority/Respect 0 0 23 1 p ~ .000

Purity/Sanctity 0 1 1 0 p ~ 1.00

Tables 1 & 2. Moral foundations represented in US newspaper headlines surrounding the death of Osama bin Laden. Pattern of

distributions for subheads is nearly-identical to what is reported here.

Results – Liberal vs. Conservative

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HeadlinesLiberal Rank Conservative Rank

All AP only All AP only

Presence of foundation (n = 141, 62)a

Harm/Care -.21* -.22+ .18* .13Fairness/Reciprocity .15+ .22+ -.13 -.13

Ingroup/Loyalty -.16+ -.10 .16+ .09Authority/Respect .01 .04 -.01 -.06

Purity/Sanctity -.105 -.193 .106 .196Foundation vectorb

Harm/Care (n = 125,57) -.07 -.16 .07 .16Fairness/Reciprocity (n = 16,5) .56* n/a -.65* n/a

Ingroup/Loyalty (n = 25,9) .07 n/a -.08 n/aAuthority/Respect (n = 10,4) -.50 n/a .50 n/a

Purity/Sanctity (n = 1,1) n/a n/a n/a n/aSubheadsPresence of foundation (n = 114, 62)

Harm/Care .12 .13 -.12 -.11Fairness/Reciprocity -.02 -.03 .01 .02

Ingroup/Loyalty .04 .04 -.03 -.02Authority/Respect .07 .02 -.08 -.04

Purity/Sanctity -.10 n/a .10 n/aFoundation vectorb

Harm/Care (n = 98,42) -.08 -.13 .06 .10

Fairness/Reciprocity (n = 39,16) .37** n/a -.38** n/aIngroup/Loyalty (n = 82,39) -.07 .19 .06 -.21

Authority/Respect (n = 50,24) .28* .26 -.28* -.26Purity/Sanctity ( n = 1) n/a n/a n/a n/a

Discussion

• Δ in moral subcultures qua political ideology was associated with differential framing of a prominent news story– Conservatives focused on harm/care

violations (“killing” and “slaughtering”) and ingroup/loyalty (“Americanism”)

– Liberals focused on justice restoration and fairness (Obama and “Justice has been done.”)

• Patterns in-line with known moral code variance between “reds” and “blues” (Graham et al., 2007)

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Future Research

• Expand beyond print newspapers– Less institutionalization = More framing?

• Expand beyond US/domestic coverage• Replications considering other events

– More distal events (eg: Qadafi, Arab Spring)– Less ubiquitous events (eg: abortion, gay rights)

• Closer examination of story text

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Thank you!

• In progress research, so for information:Nicholas David Bowman, Ph.D.Nicholas.Bowman@mail.wvu.edu@bowmanspartan

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