1. 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
ICA 2012 Phoenix bin Laden. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the International
Communication Association, Phoenix.
(about) a year
ago, either
‘We Got the
Bastard’ or
‘He Died’
Bowman, Bryand (WVU)
Lewis (Texas)

2. 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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3. 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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4. 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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5. 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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6. 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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7. Audiences and Morality
MIME (Tamborini, 2011)
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8. 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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9. Current Study
• Five moral foundations from MIME/MFT coded for:
– Presence or absence
– Adherence or violation* Foundations are:
– Benign or charged* Harm/Care
– Proportion of page devoted to OBL Fairness/Reciprocity
Ingroup/Loyalty
• Moral subculture of audience Authority/Respect
Purity/Sanctity
– Political ideology
• 2008 election results
• Adelman (2004) conservative and liberal rank survey
– Dominant faith/religion (Albion College Survey)
– Story source
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10. Adelman (2004)
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11. You can’t hide

12. How we killed bin Laden

14. bin Laden killed by US

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

17. 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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18. Results – General Presence
Tables 1 & 2. Moral foundations represented in US newspaper
Pattern of
headlines surrounding the death of Osama bin Laden.
distributions for
Coding Category Binomial Test
(against .50 distribution) subheads is
Presence of foundation Absent Present nearly-identical
Harm/Care 36 365 p ~ .000 to what is
Fairness/Reciprocity 371 31 p ~ .000 reported here.
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 Proportion of
distribution)
front-page
Foundation Vector Charged Benign Benign Charged
violation violation upholding upholding
coverage devoted
Harm/Care 13 352 0 0 p ~ .000
to OBL was M =
Fairness/Reciprocity 0 0 23 8 p = .007 54.9% (SD = 26.9);
Ingroup/Loyalty 0 0 63 3 p ~ .000 Mode = 20%,
Authority/Respect 0 0 23 1 p ~ .000 Median = 57.5%
Purity/Sanctity 0 1 1 0 p ~ 1.00
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19. Results – Liberal vs. Conservative
Headlines
Liberal Rank Conservative Rank
All AP only All AP only
Presence of foundation (n = 141, 62)a
Harm/Care -.21* -.22+ .18* .13
Fairness/Reciprocity .15+ .22+ -.13 -.13
Ingroup/Loyalty -.16+ -.10 .16+ .09
Authority/Respect .01 .04 -.01 -.06
Purity/Sanctity -.105 -.193 .106 .196
Foundation vectorb
Harm/Care (n = 125,57) -.07 -.16 .07 .16
Fairness/Reciprocity (n = 16,5) .56* n/a -.65* n/a
Ingroup/Loyalty (n = 25,9) .07 n/a -.08 n/a
Authority/Respect (n = 10,4) -.50 n/a .50 n/a
Purity/Sanctity (n = 1,1) n/a n/a n/a n/a
Subheads
Presence of foundation (n = 114, 62)
Harm/Care .12 .13 -.12 -.11
Fairness/Reciprocity -.02 -.03 .01 .02
Ingroup/Loyalty .04 .04 -.03 -.02
Authority/Respect .07 .02 -.08 -.04
Purity/Sanctity -.10 n/a .10 n/a
Foundation vectorb
Harm/Care (n = 98,42) -.08 -.13 .06 .10
Fairness/Reciprocity (n = 39,16) .37** n/a -.38** n/a
Ingroup/Loyalty (n = 82,39) -.07 .19 .06 -.21
Authority/Respect (n = 50,24) .28* .26 -.28* -.26
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Purity/Sanctity ( n = 1) n/a n/a n/a n/a

20. 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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21. 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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22. Thank you!
• In progress research, so for information:
Nicholas David Bowman, Ph.D.
Nicholas.Bowman@mail.wvu.edu
@bowmanspartan
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