RELIGIOUS FREEDOM VERSUS CHILDREN'S RIGHTS: CHALLENGING MEDIA FRAMING OF SHORT CREEK, 1953 by Marion Alison Munn A thesis submitted to the faculty of The University of Utah in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science Department of Communication The University of Utah May 2014 Copyright © Marion Alison Munn 2014 All Rights Reserved The University of Utah Graduate School STATEMENT OF THESIS APPROVAL The thesis of Marion Alison Munn has been approved by the following supervisory committee members: Maureen Mathison , Chair 3/7/2014 Date Approved Thomas Huckin , Member 3/7/2014 Date Approved Marouf Hasian , Member 3/7/2014 Date Approved and by Kent Ono , Chair/Dean of the Department/College/School of Communication and by David B. Kieda, Dean of The Graduate School. ABSTRACT The media’s ability to frame a news story, or to slant it in a particular direction and thereby shape public perceptions, is a powerful tool with implications for material effects in society. In this thesis, a Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis of the words and photographic images used in the framing of Life magazine’s September 14, 1953 article, “The Lonely Men of Short Creek,” is combined with contextualization of the story within the historical, sociological, and regional settings that may have affected its ideological content. This provides insights into Life’s editorial perspectives and potential audience response. “The Lonely Men of Short Creek” is an account that some writers have suggested contributed to a laissez-faire attitude towards the polygamist community of Short Creek, Arizona, in which a failure to enforce state laws allowed child sexual abuse to continue unhindered there for the next half century. This analysis of Life’s account demonstrates its overall sympathetic framing of Short Creek in 1953, particularly of male community members, and the construction of a narrative with significant absences and misrepresentations that obscured or concealed darker themes. Life’s construct has in certain aspects been replicated today in what some consider to be the “definitive” account of the story, which repeats a persistent tale of religious persecution, compromised constitutional rights, and an overbearing state’s “kidnap” of the children of an apparently innocent and harmless rural polygamist community. Such a narrative has deflected attention from an alternative frame—that of a community charged with multiple crimes, including the statutory rape of children manipulated by adults within a religious ideology that demanded plural “wives.” This thesis contends that in 1953, these children were overlooked, or ignored in a fog of often taken-for-granted US national ideologies and editorial perspectives relating to religious freedom and the “sacred” nature of the family in the post-Korean War and Cold War era. Such findings raise questions about the ethics of partisan framing of news stories in which alleged victims are implicated, acceptable limits of religious and family rights, and the often un-interrogated national ideologies sometimes used to justify harmful or criminal behaviors. TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................................... iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .............................................................................................. vii Chapters 1. THE STATE, THE PRESS, AND SHORT CREEK ..................................................... 1 Arizona, 1953 .......................................................................................................... 2 Reactions to the State’s Actions .............................................................................. 3 Short Creek’s Long Reach ...................................................................................... 6 The Literature .......................................................................................................... 8 2. TEXTS, METHODS, AND THEORIES ..................................................................... 14 Research Texts ...................................................................................................... 14 Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis ............................................................... 17 Symbolism of Words, and Images ........................................................................ 20 Ideologies, Ethics, and Materiality of Discourse .................................................. 23 3. THE STORY ACCORDING TO LIFE ....................................................................... 31 Life Magazine September 14, 1953 ....................................................................... 31 “The Lonely Men” ................................................................................................ 32 “Violations” ........................................................................................................... 36 Religion ................................................................................................................ 43 Family .................................................................................................................... 48 4. NATIONAL IDEOLOGIES CONCERNING FAMILY, FREEDOM, AND RELIGION IN AN “AMERICAN CENTURY” ......................................................... 54 Life’s Editorial Policies ......................................................................................... 55 An “American Century” ........................................................................................ 56 The American Family, a Bulwark of Democracy ................................................. 61 Religion, a Manifestation of American Tradition ................................................. 67 5. COMPETING FRAMES AND THEIR IDEOLOGICAL IMPLICATIONS, PAST AND PRESENT ................................................................................................ 76 Victims and Perpetrators ....................................................................................... 81 Dissonant Ideologies ............................................................................................. 87 Short Creek’s Legacy ............................................................................................ 90 Children’s Rights in the United States .................................................................. 96 Responding to Media Frames ................................................................................ 98 REFERENCES ................................................................................................................ 101 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS As I complete my thesis and degree, many people deserve my gratitude and acknowledgements. My committee chair, Dr. Maureen Mathison, must be thanked for her keen questions and useful suggestions that helped shape this finished manuscript. Dr. Thomas Huckin not only shared his immense expertise in the field of Critical Discourse Analysis, but also showed the relevance of critique as a means of addressing vital issues of social justice. Dr. Marouf Hasian’s classroom culture of rigorous academic expectations, his advice to “critical” scholars to write about matters that are meaningful to them and to society, and his wry sense of humor have made studies in visual rhetoric and rhetorical theory challenging, captivating, and often fun—for me, a perfect combination. In addition, I thank my fellow students, too many to name, who have accompanied and encouraged me on this always fascinating and often challenging journey of learning—I wish you well. My final acknowledgement is to my wonderful children who supported my quest for further education and have demonstrated a faith in my ability that sometimes exceeded my own. CHAPTER 1 THE STATE, THE PRESS, AND SHORT CREEK This thesis is concerned with media framing, politics, and ideologies connected to the reporting of an historical event in Short Creek, Arizona in 1953. It questions what became a dominant narrative of religious persecution, compromised constitutional rights, and an overbearing state’s “kidnap” of the children of an apparently innocent and harmless rural polygamist community. It argues that Life magazine’s September 14, 1953 article, “The Lonely Men of Short Creek,” demonstrated a deliberate editorial policy of partisanship combined with an editorial worldview that reflected national ideologies of the time relating to religion, family, and freedom (intensified within the Cold War era). Life’s overall sympathetic framing of the Short Creek community, in a narrative that contained silences and misrepresentations, served to deflect attention from an alternative frame—that of a community charged with multiple crimes, including the statutory1 rape of child victims manipulated by adults to sustain a religiously mandated obligation to practice polygamy. This thesis contends that Life’s reporting obscured not only the multiple legal charges against the community, but also the plight of the community’s 1 See Arizona revised statutes for the relevant definition of rape under Arizona law from 1939 to at least 1956, “Rape is an act of sexual intercourse accomplished with a female, not the wife of the perpetrator, under any of the following circumstances: 1. Where the female is under 18 years of age” (1956, p. 255). # children, who virtually disappeared in a fog of often taken-for-granted US national ideologies and editorial perspectives relating to religious freedom