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Experts Analyze Media's Representation Of RFRA

Governor Mike Pence has defended the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and says it does not intend to discriminate.

When outrage over Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act erupted across the nation late last week, local and national media took notice. Journalists from across the country descended on the Statehouse to follow the story as opponents of the law voiced their claim the act would legalize discrimination, particularly against LGBT people.

Even as he called for clarifications to the law, Gov. Mike Pence reiterated his view that the law did not permit discrimination. Instead he blamed the public’s reaction on what he called irresponsible and sloppy reporting.

“The gross mischaracterizations of this bill early on and some of the reckless reporting by some in the media about what this bill was all about was deeply disappointing to me and to millions of Hoosiers,” Pence said in a press conference Tuesday.

He says the coverage has gotten better and fairer, and Pence says he’s grateful for the media that are articulating what the now-amended act is actually about.

Steve Sanders, professor in the Indiana University Maurer School of Law, says the “traditional” media have done a reasonable and responsible job in reporting on the law.

“I think it’s social media that may be more what the governor was talking about,” Sanders says. “Things do get boiled down and oversimplified and sloganeered and bumper stickered when your Facebook feed or Twitter feed is blowing up about something like this. So there was a fair amount of misinformation and oversimplification I think spread in those avenues.”

Amy Bartner, digital engagement manager for the Indianapolis Star, says the paper worked hard to speak with unbiased third parties to sort through the legal jargon and come up with a humanized translation of what the bill actually entails. Despite the thorough reporting, she says the message can still change as it gets shared on the Internet.

“Twitter is a game of telephone,” Bartner says. “So we are reporting on the nuances of the bill and responding to that, but when it gets shared, that’s not necessarily the message that goes from ear to ear or computer screen to computer screen.”

In Tuesday’s press conference, Pence answered, “Heavens no!” when asked if he anticipated the kind of backlash he and other Indiana legislators have received for endorsing the legislation. But Rebecca Townsend, Vice President of the Society of Professional Journalists, Indiana Pro Chapter, says the elements of this law led to a predictable course in terms of coverage.

“This issue involves religion and discrimination and LGBT rights,” Townsend says. “Fundamentally, we’ve got a political situation here: a bill brought about by lobbyists who have been pushing these types of issues for a long time and politicians who seem to bend to their will on a pretty frequent basis and we see the predictable fallout. This just happened on a massive scale.”

And Roy Peter Clark, Vice President and Senior Scholar of the Poynter Institute, says to analyze news coverage, it’s important to realize that journalists approach topics through a frame. Even a journalist acting fairly and without bias will approach a story through a particular lens.

“In this case, there’s a legal frame, there’s a political frame, there’s an ethical frame, there’s a cultural frame and we certainly saw a powerful business frame,” Clark says. “When people criticize coverage, I think it’s important to ask the question, ‘How was the journalist framing this?’ and what frames of reference are perhaps missing that should be included?”

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