* Read the essay PDF “Ott and Aoki - The Politics of Negotiating Public Tragedy:

communications writing question and need support to help me learn. * Read the essay PDF “Ott and Aoki - The Politics of Negotiating Public Tragedy: Media Framing of the Matthew Shepard Murder”. Be sure it is the correct copy only, the original copy needed is the PDF attached twice. The assignment is to read it, get key concepts together (themes, categories, main ideas, key terms) and write a critical reflection Paper. * In the paper: Give a summary of the central argument (main idea/ summary) Then, Identify and define 2-3 central concepts from the essay that you think are important to understand it. Summarize your reflections. Tell what you learned, what was confusing, why? In the conclusion, offer 2-3 insightful discussion questions that could stimulate a discussion Thanks so much! Requirements: The Politics of Negotiating Public Tragedy: Media Framing ofthe Matthew Shepard MurderOtt, Brian L.Aoki, Eric.Rhetoric & Public Affairs, Volume 5, Number 3, Fall 2002, pp.483-505 (Article)Published by Michigan State University PressDOI: 10.1353/rap.2002.0060For additional information about this article Access Provided by University of Kentucky at 12/08/11 6:01PM GMThttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/rap/summary/v005/5.3ott.html This essay undertakes a detailed frame analysis ofprint media coverage ofthe MatthewShepard murder in three nationally influential newspapers as well as TimemagazineandThe Advocate.We contend that the mediaÕs tragic framing ofthe event,with anemphasis on the scapegoat process,functioned rhetorically to alleviate the publicÕs guiltconcerning anti-gay hate crimes and to excuse the public ofany social culpability.Italso functioned ideologically to reaffirm a dominant set ofdiscourses that socially stig-matizes gay,lesbian,bisexual,and transgendered persons and to hamper efforts to cre-ate and enact a social policy that would prevent this type ofviolence in the future.Aconcluding section considers BurkeÕs notion ofthe Òcomic frameÓas a potential correc-tive for the mediaÕs coverage ofpublic tragedies.Even before Matt died,he underwent a strange,American transubstantiation,seized,filtered,and fixed as an icon by the national news media dedicated to swift and con-sumable tragedy and by a national politics convulsed by gay rights.ÑBeth Loffreda,Losing Matt Shepard1In the blustery evening hours ofTuesday,October 6,1998,Aaron McKinney andRussell Henderson lured 21-year-old Matthew Shepard from the Fireside Bar inLaramie,Wyoming,to a desolate field on the edge oftown.There the two highschool dropouts bound the frail,youthful Shepard to a split-rail fence,viciouslybludgeoned him 18 times with the butt ofa .357 magnum,stole his shoes and wal-let,and left him to die in the darkness and near-freezing temperatures.It was notuntil the evening ofthe next day that Aaron Kreifel,a passing mountain biker,dis-covered ShepardÑhis face so horribly disfigured that Kreifel told police he thoughtTHEPOLITICSOFNEGOTIATINGPUBLICTRAGEDY:MEDIAFRAMINGOFTHEMATTHEWSHEPARDMURDERBRIANL. OTTANDERICAOKIBrian L.Ott and Eric Aoki are Assistant Professors ofSpeech Communication at Colorado StateUniversity in Fort Collins,Colorado.They contributed equally to this essay.The authors wish to thankMatthew Petrunia for his extensive research assistance and Drs.Karrin Anderson,Greg Dickinson,andKirsten Pullen for their insightful comments on earlier drafts ofthis manuscript.©Rhetoric & Public AffairsVol.5,No.3,2002,pp.483-505ISSN 1094-8392 at first it was a scarecrow.The only portions ofhis face not covered in blood werethose that had been streaked clean by his tears.Unconscious,hypothermic,and suf-fering from severe brain trauma,Shepard was astonishingly still alive.He wasrushed to Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins,Colorado,where he would die fivedays later without ever having regained consciousness.McKinney and Hendersonhad been apprehended prior to his death,and as the gruesome details ofthat nightbegan to unfold,it became clear that Matthew Shepard was brutally murdered forbeing gay.In the weeks that followed,Shepard became a symbol ofthe deep preju-dice,hatred,and violence directed at homosexuals.Indeed,news ofthe eventspawned vigils across the country and a nationwide debate about hate-crimes legis-lation.Shortly more than a year later,Henderson pled guilty and McKinney wasconvicted ofmurder.Both men are currently serving life sentences in the WyomingState Penitentiary.The basic contours ofthis story remain vividly etched in our memoriesÑmem-ories that have permanently altered our personal and public lives.Perhaps this eventso profoundly affected both ofus because,as educators in Colorado,we were lessthan five miles from the hospital where Matthew Shepard clung to life for five daysin October 1998.Perhaps the memory still burns brightly for us because several stu-dents at our university mocked the event with a scarecrow and anti-gay epithets ona homecoming float even as Shepard lay comatose in the hospital across town.Perhaps the memory serves as a survival instinct,reminding us that being ÒoutÓinthe community drastically alters the relation ofour bodies to the landscape,andthat cultural politics,discourse,and violence are intricately intertwined.Or per-haps,just perhaps,we fear the consequences offorgetting.We cling to the memoryofMatthew Shepard because we sense that the nation has already forgotten,orworse,reconciled these events.2How has an event that sparked so much interest,concern,and public discussion seeped from the collective consciousness ofa nationand its citizenry? Why is hate-crimes legislation no longer a ÒhotÓpolitical issue?The answers to these questions we believe reside,at least in large part,in the man-ner in which the news media told this story.We also believe that the underlying form ofthe Matthew Shepard story may haveresonance with the news mediaÕs framing ofother public traumas,from the shoot-ings at Columbine High School to the terrorist attacks in New York andWashington,D.C.,on September 11,2001.Our aim in this essay,then,is to identifythe underlying symbolic process and to analyze how it functions to construct andposition citizens relative to the political process,and how it assists them in con-fronting and resolving public trauma.With regard to the Matthew Shepard murder,we contend that the news mediaÕs tragic framing ofthat event works rhetoricallyand ideologically to relieve the public ofits social complicity and culpability;toreaffirm a dominant set ofdiscourses that socially stigmatizes gay,lesbian,bisexual,and transgendered (GLBT) persons;and to hamper efforts to create and enact a484RHETORIC& PUBLICAFFAIRS progressive GLBT social policy.To advance this argument,we begin by examiningthe literature on media framing.SYMBOLICACTION,FRAMEANALYSIS,ANDTHENEWSMEDIAIn The Philosophy ofLiterary Form,Kenneth Burke argues that art forms function asequipments for living,by which he means that discursive forms such as comedy,tragedy,satire,and epic furnish individuals and collectives with the symbolicresources and strategies for addressing and resolving the given historical and per-sonal problems they face.3When there is a traumatic event such as the MatthewShepard murder,then,discourseÑand especially the public discourse ofthe newsmediaÑaids people in Òcoming to termsÓwith the event.For Burke,different dis-cursive forms equip persons to confront and resolve problems in different ways.Ò[E]ach ofthe great poetic forms,Óhe contends,Òstresses its own peculiar way ofbuilding the mental equipment (meanings,attitudes,character) by which one han-dles the significant factors ofhis time.Ó4That different discursive forms offer differ-ent mental equipments is significant because it frames what constitutes acceptablepolitical and social action.Identifying prevailing discursive forms is a never-endingcritical task,as symbolic forming is linked to the environment in which it occursand new discursive forms are continually emerging.In BurkeÕs words,Òthe conven-tional forms demanded by one age are as resolutely shunned by another.Ó5Thus,tounderstand how the public made sense ofand responded to the Shepard murder,one must attend to the underlying symbolic form ofthe discourse surrounding it.One approach to analyzing discursive forms and the attendant attitudes (incip-ient actions) they foster toward a situation is by examining what Burke has calledÒterministic screensÓ6and media criticsÑdrawing on a sociological perspectiveÑhave called Òframe analysis.Ó7Frame analysis looks to see how a situation or eventis named/defined,and how that naming shapes public opinion.It accomplishesthis analysis by highlighting the inherent biases in all storytelling,namely selectiv-ity(what is included and excluded in the story?),partiality (what is emphasizedand downplayed in the story?),and structure(how does the story formally playout?).One example offraming in the news media is the distinction betweenÒepisodicÓstories and ÒthematicÓstories.ÒThe episodic frame,Óaccording toShanto Iyengar and Adam Simon,Òdepicts public issues in terms ofconcreteinstances or public events ...[and] makes for Ôgood pictures.ÕThe thematic newsframe,by contrast,places public issues in some general or abstract context ...[and] takes the form ofa ÔtakeoutÕor ÔbackgrounderÕreport directed at general out-comes.Ó8Though few news reports are exclusively episodic or thematic,the domi-nance ofepisodic frames in the news has been established in multiple studies.9How a story is framed in the news affects both how the public assigns responsibil-ity for a traumatic event and Òhow people following the debate think about policyTHEMEDIAFRAMINGOFTHEMATTHEWSHEPARDMURDER485 options and preferred outcomes.Ó10To appreciate fully the political and ideologi-cal implications offraming,however,the critic must do more than simply classifya news story as episodic or thematic.The subtle ebb and flow ofsymbolic forms is crucial to how they interpellatesubjects and do the work ofideology.To get after these subtleties,we undertook adetailed frame analysis ofthe news coverage ofthe Matthew Shepard murder in theWashington Post,theNew York Times,and the Los Angeles TimesÑthree Òlarge,nationally influential newspapers.Ó11Since we were curious about how this story hasbeen framed over time,we examined the news coverage from October 10,1998(when the story was first reported nationally),to December 2001 (roughly two yearsafter McKinney was convicted).This approach generated a sample containing 71news articles.Wanting to see ifthe coverage varied in publications with notably dif-ferent politics,we also analyzed the news coverage in Time magazine and TheAdvocateover the same period.These magazines allowed us to compare and con-trast the coverage ofthe event in a mainstream weekly with the coverage in an alter-native news source specifically committed to issues affecting the GLBT community.Based on an analysis ofthese five news outlets,we identified four phases in the printmediaÕs framing ofthe Matthew Shepard story:naming the event,making a politi-cal symbol,expunging the evil within,and restoring the social order.In the follow-ing section,we describe each ofthese phases and the symbolic processes they entail.THEMATTHEWSHEPARDSTORYAll stories have form,which is to say they are temporally structuredÑcreating andfulfilling appetites as they unfold.12As C.Allen Carter notes:When the narrative strategy is working as intended,the culmination ofeach episodesets the stage for the next ...The story relieves its audience ofthe burden ofhavingto Ôchoose betweenÕdifferent phases ofits unfolding and,simply by taking themthrough one phase,prepares them for the next.Each successive step ofthe plot leadsinto the next,whether or not it leads its audience astray.13Naming the EventGiven the formal characteristics ofnarrative,how a story begins is crucial to how astory develops.In this section,we examine how the Matthew Shepard story isframed in initial news reports and analyze how that framing functions rhetorically.To fully appreciate howthis story begins,however,we must first look at whenitbegins.TheWashington Post,New York Times,andLos Angeles Timesdid not runfeature articles on Matthew Shepard until October 10,1998,three days after he wasdiscovered.The reason for the mediaÕs delay in treating the story as a national news486RHETORIC& PUBLICAFFAIRS item likely has to do with how the news is made.An event is selected to become amajor news story based on its potential for drama.As W.Lance Bennett notes,ÒIt isno secret that reporters and editors search for events with dramatic properties andthen emphasize those properties in their reporting.Ó14Prior to October 8,little wasknown about the details ofthe attack outside the Albany County sheriffÕs depart-ment.During a local press conference on that day,SheriffGary Puls told reportersthat,Ò[Matthew] may have been beaten because he was gay ...[and that he] wasfound by a mountain biker,tied to a fence like a scarecrow.Ó15Local reporters cov-ering the story immediately seized on the anti-gay aspect ofthe crime and the cru-cifix symbolism ofthe scarecrow imageÑtwo dramatic elements that quickly drewthe attention ofthe national press.16Matthew Shepard was officially Ògood melodramaÓand the reports in the main-stream media that followed focused almost exclusively on two elements,thedeplorable motives ofHenderson and McKinney and the gruesome character ofthescene.Indeed,these aspects ofthe story are evident in the initial headlines from allthree papers we analyzed:ÒGay Man Beaten and Left For Dead;2 Are Charged,Ó17ÒGay Student Brutally Beaten;4 Arrested,Ó18and ÒGay Man Near Death AfterBeating,Burning;Three Held in Wyoming Attack Near Campus;Hate CrimesSuspected.Ó19The qualifier ÒgayÓthat begins each headline constructs the victimÕssexuality as the focal point ofthe story,despite Laramie Police CommanderOÕDalleyÕs public claim at the time that Òrobbery was the chiefmotive.Ó20The news mediaÕs devotion to drama virtually insured that sensationalisticdescriptions ofMatthew ShepardÕs body would lead every story.In its first featurearticle,theWashington Postemphasized the savage and dehumanizing aspects ofthecrime,reporting that ÒMatthew Shepard,slight ofstature,gentle ofdemeanor ...was tied to a fence like a dead coyote ...[with] his head badly battered and burnmarks on his body.Ó21Likewise,the New York Timesbegan,ÒAt first,the passingbicyclist thought the crumpled form lashed to a ranch fence was a scarecrow.Butwhen he stopped,he found the burned,battered and nearly lifeless body ofMatthew Shepard,an openly gay college student.Ó22The ÒscarecrowÓimage was alsoreferenced in the Los Angeles Times,which began,ÒA gay University ofWyomingstudent was brutally beaten,burned and left tied to a wooden fence like a scarecrow,with grave injuries including a smashed skull.Ó23The graphic and gruesome imagesofviolence visited upon ShepardÕs body were shocking and traumatic,and theybegged the question,ÒHow could something like this happen?ÓAs unthinkable andunimaginable as the act seemed,the basic outline ofthe story already portrayed ananswerÑhatred fueled by homophobia.The naming ofthe attack as a Òvicious ...anti-gay hate crimeÓ24would prove pivotal in the heated political discussion toensue.Key details,terms,and structures were already setting the stage for how thestory mustunfold.For instance,the near exclusive focus in early press reports onTHEMEDIAFRAMINGOFTHEMATTHEWSHEPARDMURDER487 the brutality done to Matthew ShepardÕs body functioned in two interrelated ways.First,it personalized the event,making Shepard the centerofthe story.This was not,and never would become,a story about hate crimes in which Matthew Shepard wassimply an example.It was a story about Shepard,in which hate was the motive forviolence.One consequence ofpersonalized news,according to Bennett,Ò[is that it]gives preference to the individual actors and human-interest angles in events whiledownplaying institutional and political considerations that establish the social con-text for those events.Ó25In the Matthew Shepard story,hatred and homophobiaÑaswe will demonstrate shortlyÑwould come to be framed primarily as character flawsofthe chiefantagonists,rather than as wide-scale social prejudices that routinelyresult in violence toward gays and lesbians.Second,the repeated emphasis on thehideousness ofthe crime in both its barbarity and motivation profoundly disruptedthe moral and social order.The images and descriptions were not only traumatic,they were traumatizing;they functioned to unsettle and even undermine the publicÕsfaith in basic civility and humanity.So great was the disruption to the social orderthat even at this early stage it fostered a desire for resolution.26For this story,forMatthew ShepardÕs story,to end (as all news stories must),responsibilityhad to beassigned and order had to be restored.Since this story centered on Shepard,respon-sibility had a face,or rather two faces,Russell Henderson and Aaron McKinney.Butbefore they would come into focus,Shepard would be transformed into a nationalpolitical symbol.Making a Political SymbolEven before his death,Shepard had become Òa national symbol for the campaignagainst hate crimes and anti-gay violence.Ó27A website created by Poudre ValleyHospital to provide updates on his condition Òdrew over 815,000 hits from aroundthe world.Ó28On Saturday,October 10,students,faculty,and community membersfrom Laramie gathered for the University ofWyomingÕs homecoming parade,where Òamid the usual hoopla ...hundreds ofpeople donned yellow arm bands andmarched in tribute to Shepard and the beliefthat intolerance has no place in theEquality State.Ó29Throughout the weekend,candlelight vigils for Shepard would beheld across the country,with a Los Angeles memorial attracting an estimated 5,000concerned citizens.Then,in the early morning hours ofMonday,October 12,1998,one day after National Coming Out Day,Matthew Shepard passed away with hisparents at his beside.With the news ofShepardÕs death,a nation already stricken with griefwasplunged even deeper into emotional turmoil.As Reverend Anne Kitch asked in herhomily at ShepardÕs funeral,ÒHow can we not let our hearts be deeply,deeply trou-bled? How can we not be immersed in despair,how can we not cry out against this?This is not the way it is supposed to be.A son has died,a brother has been lost,a488RHETORIC& PUBLICAFFAIRS child has been broken,torn,abandoned.Ó30The Matthew Shepard story had strucka chord.It had Òelectrified gay America,Ó31and it had done much more.As Postreporters Justin Gillis and Patrice Gaines noted:For the first time,in cities across the United States and Canada,straight people ...marched by the thousands to protest anti-gay violence.More than 60 marches and vigilshave taken place since his death,and others are scheduled for today.People rallied in NewYork,Atlanta and MiamiÑand in West Lafayette,Ind.,Fort Collins,Colo.,and CornerBrook,Newfoundland.Under an indigo sky,on the steps ofthe Capitol,a crowd ofsev-eral thousand gathered last week to hold candles aloft,celebrate ShepardÕs life anddemand that Congress pass legislation to battle hate crimes.ÒNow!Óthey cried.32Among the thousands at the candlelight vigil on the Capitol steps in Washingtonwere actresses Ellen DeGeneres and Kristen Johnson,and numerous congressionalrepresentatives,who not only condemned the beating death ofShepard but alsourged immediate passage ofa federal hate crimes bill.33Earlier in the week,President Clinton had also pushed ÒCongress to pass the Hate Crimes PreventionAct ...[which] would broaden the definition ofhate crimes to include assaults ongays as well as women and the disabled.Ó34As The Advocatewould report a yearlater,there was little doubt that ÒMatthew ShepardÕs murder turned equal rights andprotections for gays and lesbians into topics ofnationwide debate.Ó35But how had Shepard been transformed into a martyrÑÒthe most recognizablesymbol ofantigay violence in AmericaÓ36Ñand what did that transformation meanfor the political debate taking place? The previous year had seen Òat least 27 gay peo-ple murdered in apparent hate crimes....And the murders are only the extremeend ofthe spectrum ofanti-gay attacks.A coalition that monitors anti-gay violenceand harassment documented 2,445 episodes last year in American cities.Ó37Thoughthe motive for ShepardÕs murder was hardly an isolated incident,two aspects ofthisstory made it unique and especially well suited for seizing the publicÕs imagination.The first factor,ofcourse,was the figure at its center.As Brian Levin,director oftheCenter on Hate and Extremism at Richard Stockton College in Pomona,New Jersey,told theWashington Post,ÒYou canÕt get a more sympathetic person to face such abrutal attack than Matt Shepard.He looked like an all-American nice kid next doorwhoÕd look after your grandmother ifyou went out oftown.He looked like a sweetkid and he was.Ó38Shepard was Òwhite and middle-class,ÓÒbarely on the thresholdofadulthood,Óand Òfrail [in] appearance.Ó39Because ofhis slight stature,a mere5Õ2Ó,and Òcherubic faceÓeven those uncomfortable with homosexuality saw him asaninnocent(that is,sexually nonthreatening) victim.The public identified withShepard,viewing him as friend and son.The second factor that contributed to the emerging mythology was the dramaticstructure ofthe narrative.Jack Levin,professor ofsociology and criminology atTHEMEDIAFRAMINGOFTHEMATTHEWSHEPARDMURDER489 Northeastern University,speculates that,ÒIfMatthew had died instantly ofa gun-shot wound to the head,his death may not have gotten as much publicity.Ó40ThatShepard lay comatose in a hospital for several days while people around the coun-try prayed and stood vigil for him functioned to heighten the publicÕs investment inthe story.Moreover,it was during those days ofvigil that the ÒheinousÓandÒmoroseÓdetails ofthe crime were repeated over and over again in the news media.The juxtaposition ofShepardÕs ability to evoke identification with the crimeÕsincomprehensibility shattered societyÕs ÒÔveneer ofcongeniality,Õand prompted acollective self-examination.Ó41In other words,the publicÕs inability to quickly andeasily reconcile Matthew ShepardÕs innocence (unlike most gay men,he didnÕt havethis coming to him) with his ÒlynchingÓwas a significant source ofshame for thecountry and created wide-scale public guilt.As Steve Lopez wrote in Timemaga-zine,ÒShepard has ignited a national town hall meeting on the enduring hatred thatshamesthis countryÓ(emphasis added).42But guilt demands redemption,for asBurke reminds,Òwho would not be cleansed!Óand redemption needs a redeemer,Òwhich is to say,a Victim!Ó43Though guilt can be resolved symbolically in a varietyofways,ranging from transcendence to mortification,the tragic framing oftheMatthew Shepard story foretold that purification would be achieved through vic-timage and the scapegoat process.Expunging the Evil WithinIn A Grammar ofMotives,Burke contends that,ÒCriminals either actual or imagi-nary may ...serve as [curative] scapegoats in a society that Ôpurifies itselfÕby ÔmoralindignationÕin condemning them.Ó44This is not to suggest,however,that thoseseeking to Òritualistically cleanse themselvesÓofguilt can simply blame a chosenparty.The Òscapegoat mechanismÓis a complex process that entails three distinctivestages:Ò(1) an original state ofmerger,in that the iniquities are shared by both theiniquitous and their chosen vessel;(2) a principle ofdivision,in that elementsshared in common are being ritualistically alienated;(3) a new principle ofmerger,this time in the unification ofthose whose purified identity is defined in dialecticalopposition to the sacrificial offering.Ó45For a Òsacrificial vesselÓto perform the roleofÒvicarious atonement,Óit must be,at first,Òprofoundly consubstantial with ...those who would be cured by attacking it.Ó46It must represent their iniquities,because symbolic forms that manage guilt can only be Òsuccessful ifthe audience isguilty ofthe sins portrayed in the discourse.Ó47Though the very earliest newsreports about the hatred and violence directed at Shepard had identified AaronMcKinney and Russell Henderson as the main perpetrators,those same newsreports cast the two as representative ofboth their local and national communities.As McKinney and Henderson were being arraigned,a significant amount ofdis-course was being generated about the state ofWyoming and the Òcowboy cultureÓ490RHETORIC& PUBLICAFFAIRS that had nurtured them.48It was widely reported,for instance,that Wyoming wasone ofonly nine U.S.states to Òhave no hate-crime laws.Ó49Another report notedthat,ÒAlthough Wyoming often bills itselfas the Ôequality state,Õthe state Legislaturehas repeatedly voted down hate crime legislationÓ;the article subsequently quotesMarv Johnson,executive director ofthe Wyoming chapter ofthe American CivilLiberties Union,as saying,ÒWyoming is not really gay friendly....The best way tocharacterize that is by a comment a legislator made a few years back,when helikened homosexuals to gay bulls as worthless and should be sent to the packingplant.Ó50Similarly,Susanna Goodin,the University ofWyomingÕs Ethics Centerdirector,told theWashington Post,Òthe beating [would] ...prompt Wyomingresi-dentsto ponder the price ofintolerance and indifferenceÓ(emphasis added).51Inroutinely referencing the Òhomophobia in the Wyoming legislatureÓ52and notingthat,in light ofthe attack,Laramie,Wyoming,Òwrestled with itsattitudes towardgay menÓ(emphasis added),53the news media initially framed the communityÕsattitudes as consistent with the perpetratorsÕattitudes.In fact,when jury selectionbegan for the trial ofHenderson in March 1999,his defense attorney,Wyatt Skaggs,was rather reflective about this association and told potential jurors,Ò[The media]...has literally injected into our community a feeling ofguilt.The press wants usto think that we are somehow responsible for what went on October 6.Are any ofyou here going to judge this case because you feel guilty and want to make a state-ment to the nation?Ó54Nor was Wyoming alone in being identified with the perpetratorsÕattitudes andmotives.As Lopez observed in Timemagazine,ÒThe cowboy state has its rednecksand yahoos,for sure,but there are no more bigots per capita in Wyoming than inNew York,Florida or California.Ó55In the first few days after the attack,the publicwas forced,ifonly temporarily,to confess the prevalence ofhomophobic attitudesaround the country.First was the incident involving the scarecrow on a homecom-ing float at Colorado State University,which was reportedly painted with anti-gayepithets.56ÒWhile the papers were reluctant to report the full range ofinsults,ÓLoffreda notes,ÒI heard that the signs read ÔIÕm GayÕand ÔUp My Ass.ÕÓ57This inci-dent prompted a number ofreports about the prevalence ofhomophobic attitudesin schools around the country.58Additionally,there were widely circulated newsstories about the protestors at ShepardÕs funeral.Shortly before he was eulogized,Tom Kenworthy writes,Òa dozen anti-gay protestors from Texas and Kansas stageda demonstration across from St.MarkÕs,carrying signs saying ÔNo Fags in HeavenÕand ÔNo Tears for Queers.Õ...[including] a young girl carrying a sign that readÔFag=Anal Sex.ÕÓ59In light ofthese stories,it was hardly surprising that a Time/CNNpoll found that Ò68 percent [ofrespondents] said attacks like the one againstShepard could happen in their communityÓ(emphasis added).60For a few weeksfollowing the attack,the message in the media was that McKinney and Hendersonshared much in common with the country.But all ofthat was about to change.THEMEDIAFRAMINGOFTHEMATTHEWSHEPARDMURDER491 ÒAt one moment the chosen [party] is a part ofthe clan,being one oftheir num-ber,Óexplains Carter;Òa moment later it symbolizes something apart fromthem,being the curse they wish to lift from themselves.Ó61Division or the Òcasting outÓofthe vessel ofunwanted evils is accomplished through vilification and through aredrawing ofboundaries that excludes the scapegoat.Slowly,almost unnoticeably,discourse in the news media was shifting from the countryÕs homophobia to that ofthe perpetrators,where it was being recoded as a character flaw rather than a wide-scale institutional prejudice.In a statement demarcating the new communalboundaries,Wyoming governor Jim Geringer told theWashington Post,ÒWyomingpeople are discouraged that all ofus could be unfairly stereotyped by the actions oftwo very sick and twisted people.Ó62Accounts were also now suggesting that the twoperpetrators were uniquelyignorant.Timemagazine noted that the two men wereÒhigh school dropouts,Óadding that,ÒIn addition to being an unspeakably grue-some crime,it was a profoundly dumb one.Ó63After all,McKinney and Hendersonhad drawn undue attention to themselves by getting into a fistfight with two othermen after beating Shepard.Reports such as this one functioned not only to cast themen as especially dull-witted,but also to highlight a patternofviolence and crimi-nalityÑone that would be further reinforced in subsequent reports about their pre-vious run-ins with the law,including convictions for felony burglary and drunkdriving.Additionally,there was the matter ofdeception,premeditation,and merci-less cruelty.The news media were now reporting that,according to law enforce-ment,the two men had pretended to be gay to lure Shepard out ofthe bar and intotheir pickup truck,and that they had continued to beat him as he begged for hislife.64As time passed,ShepardÕs attackers became ever more alienated from the public.They were uneducated,drug addicted,career criminals,who had maliciously soughtout their victim because he was gay,and they now Òfound themselves called Ôsubhu-manÕand Ômonsters.ÕÓ65In an uncharacteristic moment ofreflective journalism,a LosAngeles Timesstaffwriter comments on Henderson and McKinneyÕs vilification:In the six months since ShepardÕs gruesome death,the protagonists have becomedehumanized...transmuted by the American compulsion for fashioning morallessons out oftragedy.This morality play staged in a Western prairie town hasdemanded simplistic roles:Shepard,the earnest college student who was targetedbecause he was gay and gave his life to advance a social cause.Henderson andMcKinney,the high school dropouts accused ofbeating Shepard to death,have beencast as remorseless killers.66The symbolic distance between the public and McKinney and Henderson greweven wider during McKinneyÕs trial in October 1999,where gruesome new detailsfrom the night ofthe beating were revealed.The news media seized on one detail in492RHETORIC& PUBLICAFFAIRS particular,in which McKinney stopped beating Shepard to ask ifhe could read thelicense plate on his truck.When Shepard replied,ÒyesÓand recited the plateÕs num-bers,McKinney resumed the attack despite ShepardÕs repeated pleas for mercy.Thestory embodied the view that McKinney was not quite human,and prosecutingattorney Cal Rerucha retold it in his closing arguments,calling McKinney a Òsavageand a ÔwolfÕwho preyed on the lamb-like Shepard.Ó67As ifto further distinguishMcKinney from the public,following his conviction the news media widelyreported that various national,leading gay rights groups had,along with theShepard family,publicly condemned the death penalty in this case.As MatthewShepardÕs father,Dennis Shepard,would tell the court in a written statement fol-lowing the trial,Òthis is a time to begin the healing process.To show mercy to some-one who refused to show any mercy.Ó68Mr.ShepardÕs statement captured theessence ofhow the media was naming the difference between the public and theperpetrators,one human and the other not quite.Restoring the Social OrderWith the surrogate ofevil driven from the community,all that remains for creatingsymbolic closure is the punishment ofevil and the reaffirmation ofthe social andmoral order.ÒTragedy,Óexplains Barry Brummett,Òsubjects the erring [figure] totrial,finds him or her to be criminal,and demands condemnation and penance.Ó69In March 1999,Russell Henderson pled guilty,leaving only McKinney to stand trial.The significance ofthe trial to the outcome ofthe story was evident before it evenbegan.ÒThe trial will,Ówrote Kenworthy in theWashington Post,Òclosethe book onan ugly crime that grabbed the nation by the shoulders and forced it to confront theprice ofhate and intoleranceÑand then served as a rallying point ...for gay rightsÓ(emphasis added).70During the case,McKinneyÕs lawyers attempted to advance aÒgay panic defense,Ówhich claimed the victimÕs sexual advances triggered panic andled to the beating.But Judge Barton Voigt ruled it Òinadmissible ...based onWyoming law,Óand on November 3,1999Ñshortly more than a year after MatthewShepardÕs deathÑAaron McKinney was convicted ofmurder and sentenced to twoconsecutive life terms with no chance ofparole.ÒThe trial,Óobserved Phil Curtis inThe Advocate,Òdelivered an emotionally satisfying vindication for ShepardÕs deathand brought closureto the Shepard family and to the public,who had followed thegrim case for the past yearÓ(emphasis added).71As odd,perhaps even unbelievable,as it seems,the verdict did deliver both symbolic satisfaction and closure for some.Explains Robert Heath,ÒAs a dynamic progression ofan idea,each work [that is,story] leads toward some resolution.Ifit is achieved,reader and author experiencea release,the sheer pleasure ofhaving gone through the process.Ó72To the extentthat the story began with the brutal beating ofMatthew Shepard,the convictionand punishment ofhisassailants signals its close.THEMEDIAFRAMINGOFTHEMATTHEWSHEPARDMURDER493 But the conviction ofMcKinney had an additional and important side effect.Inperforming a cathartic function for the public (that is,purging them oftheir guiltthrough victimage) and bringing closure to the story,it also brought a sense ofres-olution to the debate about gay rights and hate-crimes legislation that ShepardÕsdeath had initiated.Since these issues had been framed in relation tothe story aboutMatthew ShepardÕs murder,the storyÕs conclusion functioned to bring closure tothem as well.The national public debate over hate crimes and gay politics dissipatedalmost as quickly as it had emerged.Two weeks following ShepardÕs death inOctober 1998,a Time/CNN poll asked respondents,ÒFederal law mandatesincreased penalties for people who commit hate crimes against racial minorities.Doyou favor or oppose the same treatment for people who commit hate crimes againsthomosexuals?Ó73At that time,76 percent ofthe public favored hate-crimes legisla-tion that protected homosexuals and 19 percent opposed it.74In the months fol-lowing his death,legislation to increase the penalty for hate crimes against gays andlesbians was introduced in 26 states.By the time these bills came up for vote,how-ever,the Matthew Shepard story was winding toward narrative conclusion,and onlyone state,Missouri,passed new legislation.75Perhaps even more telling,TheAdvocatereports that,ÒAfter McKinneyÕs conviction Judy and Dennis Shepard ...traveled to Washington,D.C.,to lobby for federal hate-crimes legislation.Theireffort failed.A hate-crimes measure was removed from a budget bill in congres-sional committee just weeks after the trial.Ó76In fostering symbolic resolutionthrough narrative closure,the news mediaÕs coverage ofthe story re-imposed orderand eliminated the self-reflective space that might serve as the basis for social andpolitical change.FRAMINGANDREFRAMINGHaving described the news mediaÕs framing ofthe Matthew Shepard story and hav-ing analyzed how those frames functioned rhetorically to absolve the public ofitsguilt associated with the motives ofthe murder,we will now take a step back andpose the question,ÒWhat difference do the frames make for the larger world?Ó77That is,how does the news mediaÕs framing ofthat event also function ideologi-cally? How does it invite the public to view the world,social relations,and GLBTidentities? How does it affirm,challenge,and negotiate centers,margins,and rela-tionships ofpower? To get after these questions,we propose to look at the way inwhich the story works to naturalize particular sets ofsocial relations at both thelevel oflanguage (microscopic) and the level ofsymbolic form (macroscopic).78With regard to the linguistic level,we are specifically interested in the consequencesofthe mediaÕs ÒnamingÓofthe victimÕs body and the perpetratorsÕmotives.Prejudice and discrimination against GLBT persons have historically been con-nected to the stigmatization ofthe body as differentorabnormal.79In fact,Erving494RHETORIC& PUBLICAFFAIRS Goffman notes that,ÒThe Greeks,who were apparently strong on visual aids,origi-nated the term stigma to refer to bodily signs designed to expose something unusualand bad about the moral status ofthe signifier.Ó80The homosexual body has tradi-tionally been stigmatized or marked as abnormal in a wide variety ofways;it has var-iously been coded as dirty and unclean,effeminate and queer,and threatening andpredatory to suit the needs ofthose in power.81One way the bodies ofgay men havebeen stigmatized as threatening and predatory,for instance,is Òwith the allegationthat they are disproportionately responsible for child sexual abuse.Ó82The obviousridiculousness ofthis claim has not stopped the media from perpetuating it,and a1998 study ofNewsweekfound that 60 percent ofstories about child molestationinvolved homosexuals.83This pattern ofnaming in the media raises an importantquestion about the Matthew Shepard story:ÒWould Shepard have received the atten-tion he did had his body not so easily been coded as unthreatening?ÓThough there is no way to answer this question with certainty,one thing that isclear is that ShepardÕs body wascoded as unthreatening and hisstory capturednational headlines.Writing in The Progressive,JoAnn Wypijewski speculated thatone reason people uncomfortable with homosexuality may have sympathized withthis case is because for them,ÒShepard is the perfect queer:young,pretty,anddead.Ó84Indeed,it is difficult not to wonder how this story might have been told dif-ferently,ifat all,had the victim been a minority,especially when the murder ofFredMartinez,a 16-year-old transgendered Navajo in Colorado hardly raised an eye-brow,85as did the murder ofArthur Warren,a gay black man,in rural WestVirginia,86and the murder offive black gay men in Washington Òby someoneauthorities believe to be an antigay serial killer.Ó87The mediaÕs double standard herewould seem to suggest that an anti-gay murder is tragic so long as the victim is nottoo gay,which is to say,too different.The issue ofShepardÕs small,non-threateningstature raises still more questions about the intersection ofstigmatization and thegay male body.In McKinneyÕs trial,the defense attempted to shift responsibility for the beatingback to the victim by claiming that ShepardÕs homosexuality had evoked fear andpanic.Though Judge Voight ruled this line ofargument and testimony Òinadmissi-ble,Óhe cautiously reminded the media that his ruling was Ònot intended to send asocial or political commentary,[and rather] was based on Wyoming law.Ó88In otheranti-gay hate crimes where the victim was not as outwardly innocent(that is,frail,youthful,white,middle-class) as Matthew Shepard,the Ògay panicÓdefense hasbeen allowed.89The use ofsuch a defense is not all that surprising,however,whenone considers its ideological consistency with the term used to name the motiveinsuch cases,Òhomophobia.ÓAccording to Byrne Fone,ÒThe term ÔhomophobiaÕisnow popularly construed to mean fear and dislike ofhomosexuality and ofthosewho practice itÓor an Òextreme rage and fear reaction to homosexuals.Ó90Both def-initions Òplace the onus on the oppressed rather than on the agents ofoppression,Ó91THEMEDIAFRAMINGOFTHEMATTHEWSHEPARDMURDER495 effectively revictimizing the victim by making the oppressed the source,the instiga-tor,offear and disruption.The popularity ofthe term ÒhomophobiaÓto describeanti-gay attitudes is just one example ofhow public discourse regarding GLBT per-sons continues to construct homosexuality as abnormal (in this case,Òfear-produc-ingÓ).In the Matt Shepard story,homosexuality was further marked as differentand hence deviant by the mediaÕs consistent and ubiquitous references to ShepardÕsÒgayÓsexuality.There were no headlines that reported,ÒMan Killed by StraightAttackers,Óand no articles that named Henderson or McKinneyÕs sexuality.In treat-ing heterosexuality as invisible,the media both privilege it as the norm and as nor-mal.At the level oflanguage,then,the mediaÕs telling ofthe Matthew Shepard storyfunctions to reproduce a hegemonic set ofsociocultural categories in which homo-sexuality is marginal and Other.Until the unspoken assumptions that frame thedominant discourses about GLBT persons are questioned and interrogated,hatredand the violence it begets are likely to remain prominent features ofour culturallandscape.Like the linguistic particularities,we believe that the underlying symbolic formofthe story matters ideologically,and so we turn now to the Òbig picture,Óto,asBurke explains,the various typical ways that the most basic ofattitudes (that is,yes,no,maybe) are Ògrandly symbolized.Ó92Symbolic forms can be,according to Burke,loosely grouped into Òframes ofacceptanceÓand Òframes ofrejectionÓbased on thegeneral orientation they adopt in Òthe face ofanguish,injustice,disease,anddeath.Ó93Literary forms such as epic,tragedy,and comedy are frames ofacceptancebecause they equip persons to Òcome to termsÓwith an event and their place in theworld.Precisely howthey Òcome to termsÓvaries according to the symbolic form(that is,epic,tragedy,comedy,and so forth) at work,and influences,in turn,wherethey and the world can go with those terms.In shaping attitudes,symbolic formsserve as a basis for programmatic action.Our analysis ofthe Matthew Shepard storysuggests that it was framed primarily in tragic terms,in which the public,throughthe scapegoat mechanism,cleansed itselfofthe guilt associated with prejudice,hatred,violence,and their intersection.The shortcoming oftragic framing is that itbrings about symbolic resolution without turning the event into a lesson for thoseinvolved.By projecting its iniquity upon McKinney and Henderson and attackingthem,the public achieves resolution in this instance,but does not substantively alterits character as to insure that future instances are less likely.On the contrary,thismode aggressively perpetuates the status quo,cloaking but not erasing the publicÕshomophobia (and we do mean the politically loaded term ÒhomophobiaÓ) so thatit can return another day.So what are the alternatives? The media could adopt frames ofrejection such asthose found in the literary forms ofelegy,satire,burlesque,and the grotesque.94The difficulty here is that Òframes stressing the ingredient ofrejectiontend to lackthe well-rounded quality ofa completehere-and-now philosophy.They make for496RHETORIC& PUBLICAFFAIRS fanaticism,the singling-out ofone factor above others in the charting ofhumanrelationships.Ó95By Òcoming to termsÓwith an event primarily by saying Òno,Óframes ofrejection are unable to equip individuals and groups to take program-matic action.A discourse that is wholly debunking is,at least in isolation,ill suitedfor bringing about social change.96A second and preferable alternative,according to Burke,is adopting a Òcomicframe,Ówhich is Òneither wholly euphemistic [as is tragedy],nor wholly debunk-ing.Ó97As numerous scholars have noted,the comic frame is not about seeinghumor in everything;98it is about maximum consciousnessÑÒself-awareness andsocial responsibility at the same time.Ó99The comic frame is one ofÒambivalence,Óa flexible,adaptive,charitable frame that enables Òpeople to be observers ofthem-selves,while acting.Ó100In shifting the emphasis Òfrom crime to stupidity,ÓBrummettmaintains that the comic frame provides motives that Òteach the foolÑand vicari-ously the audienceÑabout error so that it may be correctedrather than punishedÓ(emphasis added).101ÒThe progress ofhumane enlightenment,Óexplains Burke,Òcan go no further than in picturing people not as vicious,but as mistaken.Ó102When social injustices such as the anti-gay beating ofMatthew Shepard are framedin tragic terms,naming McKinney and Henderson as vicious,the public finds expi-ation externally in the punishment ofthose identified as responsible.Framed incomic terms,however,one can identify with the mistaken,become a student ofher/himself,ÒÔtranscendÕhimselfby noting his own foibles,Óand learn from theexperience.103The comic frame Òpromotes integrative,socializing knowledgeÓ104byemphasizinghumility(the recognition that we are all sometimes wrong) overhumiliation(the desire to victimize others).CRITICALREFLECTIONSA frame analysis ofthe print mediaÕs coverage ofthe Matthew Shepard murder rein-forces a number ofprevious findings about how the news is made.The manner inwhich this story,for instance,gained national prominence testifies to the linkbetween the dramatic qualities ofan event and its perceived newsworthiness.105Since drama increases ratings and Ò[n]ews content is influenced by the fact that ...media corporations have a profit orientation,Ó106news outlets both seek out storieswith dramatic properties and emphasize those properties in their reporting.Theprofit-driven focus on a storyÕs dramatic elements accounts,at least partially,for thestriking consistency among news reports in the Matthew Shepard case.All three ofthe national newspapers we analyzed named the event as a vicious anti-gay hatecrime,constructed Shepard as a political symbol ofgay rights,and transferred thepublicÕs guilt onto McKinney and Henderson.Even TimeandThe Advocate,publi-cations with varied political perspectives,framed the story in comparable ways.Though The Advocateoffered more extensive coverage,particularly with regard toTHEMEDIAFRAMINGOFTHEMATTHEWSHEPARDMURDER497 Matthew Shepard and his family,the basic contours ofthe story remained the same.Consistency among news reports is also a product oftraditional journalistic rou-tines and practices.Both the New York Timesand theWashington Postassigned aprimary reporter to the story,while the Los Angeles Times pulled the vast majorityofits stories from the Associated Press.The homogeneity ofthe reports,then,reflects fewer voices gathering data from the same experts and highlighting thesame dramatic properties.107In addition to these broad findings,our analysis points to some specific conclu-sions about how the news media report on public traumas and the attendant socialconsequences ofsuch reporting.The news mediaÕs fascination with personalitiesand drama over institutional and social problems contributes to the Òtragic fram-ingÓofpublic disasters and events.Since tragic frames ultimately alleviate the socialguilt associated with a disaster through victimage,they tend to bring both closureandresolution to the larger social issues they raise.As such,tragic frames do notserve the public well as a basis for social and political action.Though mediaresearch on agenda setting has clearly established that the news media influencewhich political issues are on the publicÕs mind,108few studies have looked at howchanges in the public agenda may be linked to the piggybacking ofsocial issues ontospecific dramatic stories.Future research on agenda setting should attend carefullyto the connection between symbolic forms such as the tragic frame and shifts in thepublic agenda.Our analysis ofnews coverage ofthe Matthew Shepard murderfound that hate-crimes legislation and gay rights were central public concerns untilShepardÕs story came to a close.In light ofthis finding,it would be worth examin-ing how declining coverage ofthe Columbine shootings may have contributed sim-ilarly to the dissipation ofnational public discourse on youth violence.Theimplications ofour analysis extend beyond the matter ofthe mediaÕs role in estab-lishing a public agenda.Since Òframes are fundamental aspects ofhuman con-sciousness and shape our attitudes toward the world and each other,Ó109mediaframes function ideologically.In Matthew ShepardÕs case,we believe that newsmedia reproduced a discursive system ofprejudice that contributed to ShepardÕsdeath.We can,however,learn from this event and the mediaÕs coverage ofit.Tointroduce this essay,we attempted to provide an outline ofthe Matthew Shepardstory that accurately captured the news mediaÕs tragic framing ofthat event.To con-clude,we return to that story and adopt an alternative,more comic frame.Despite commitments to both diversity and equality,the nation continued itspainful struggle with tolerance today,as Laramie,Wyoming,became the mostrecent in a long list ofU.S.towns and cities to witness,experience,and participatein violence motivated by culturally constructed notions ofdifference.In an all-too-familiar scene,two young men,Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson,foolishlyallowed their actions to be guided by social ignorance.Goaded,like a vast majorityofpeople,by a deep desire to feel accepted and acceptable,Aaron and Russell498RHETORIC& PUBLICAFFAIRS assaulted Matthew Shepard,a University ofWyoming student,for what they per-ceived to be an intolerable difference,homosexuality.The assault,which resulted inMatthewÕs death,highlights a pattern ofbehavior in which individuals seek com-munal identification and the comfort and security that accompanies it through theexpulsion ofdifference.Such an impulse is,ofcourse,profoundly misguided as itreduces community to sameness,while ignoring the fact that difference is always amatter ofperspective and depends upon who is naming it.Aaron and RussellÕsactions serve as a powerful reminder that ifwe truly hope to build healthy andhumane communities,then we must aim to bridge the very differences we create.When we cast out others,the attitude is one ofsuperiority and humiliation,and theact is one ofviolence.For us to curb violence like that seen most recently inWyoming,we must all begin to erase the Òbattle linesÓthat are drawn again andagain when we exalt ourselves over others.NOTES1.Beth Loffreda,Losing Matt Shepard: Life and Politics in the Aftermath ofAnti-Gay Murder(New York:Columbia University Press,2000),x.2.We are using ÒmemoryÓin a somewhat more general sense than rhetorical and mediascholars who study Òpublic memory.ÓOur concern is not with how the news media con-struct invitations to a shared sense ofthe past or with the politics ofcommemoration,butwith how the ÒlifeÓofa political issueÑits birth,growth,and deathÑis related to its fram-ing in the news media.For an overview ofthe literature on public memory in rhetoricalstudies,see Stephen H.Browne,ÒReading,Rhetoric,and the Texture ofPublic Memory,ÓQuarterly Journal ofSpeech81 (1995):237Ð65.For variations on this theme,see also CaroleBlair,Marsha S.Jeppeson,and Enrico Pucci,Jr.,ÒPublic Memorializing in Postmodernity:The Vietnam Veterans Memorial as Prototype,ÓQuarterly Journal ofSpeech77 (1991):263Ð88;John Bodnar,Remaking America: Public Memory,Commemoration,and Patriotismin the Twentieth Century(Princeton,N.J.:Princeton University Press,1992);James E.Young,The Texture ofMemory: Holocaust Memorials and Meaning(New Haven:YaleUniversity Press,1993).For an overview ofthe literature on public memory in media stud-ies,see Barbie Zelizer,ÒReading the Past Against the Grain:The Shape ofMemory Studies,ÓCritical Studies in Mass Communication12 (1995):214Ð39.For variations on this theme,see also Martin J.Medhurst,ÒThe Rhetorical Structure ofOliver StoneÕs JFK,ÓCriticalStudies in Mass Communication10 (1993):128Ð43;Thomas W.Benson,ÒThinkingthrough Film:Hollywood Remembers the Blacklist,Óin Rhetoric and Community: Studiesin Unity and Fragmentation,ed.J.Michael Hogan (Columbia:University ofSouthCarolina Press,1988),217-55.3.Kenneth Burke,The Philosophy ofLiterary Form: Studies in Symbolic Action(Louisiana StateUniversity Press,1941),302Ð4.4.Kenneth Burke,Attitudes Toward History,3d ed.(Berkeley:University ofCalifornia Press,1984),34.5.Kenneth Burke,Counter-Statement,2d ed.(Los Altos,Calif.:Hermes Publications,1953),139.THEMEDIAFRAMINGOFTHEMATTHEWSHEPARDMURDER499 6.Kenneth Burke,Language as Symbolic Action: Essays on Life,Literature,and Method(Berkeley:University ofCalifornia Press,1968),44Ð45.7.In media studies,Òframes analysisÓderives from the work ofErving Goffman,Frame Analysis:An Essay on the Organization ofExperience(Cambridge:Harvard University Press,1974).SeeW.Lance Bennett,News: The Politics ofIllusion,2d ed.(New York:Longman,1988);W.LanceBennett,ÒThe News about Foreign Policy,Óin Taken by Storm: The Media,Public Opinion,andU.S.Foreign Policy in the GulfWar,ed.W.Lance Bennett and David L.Paletz (Chicago:University ofChicago Press,1994),12Ð40;Todd Gitlin,ÒThe Whole World is Watching,ÓinTransmission: Toward a Post-Television Culture,2d ed.,ed.Peter dÕAgostine and David Tafler(Thousand Oaks,Calif.:Sage Publications,1995),91Ð103;Shanto Iyengar,Is AnyoneResponsible? How Television Frames Political Issues(Chicago:University ofChicago Press,1991);and Shanto Iyengar and Adam Simon,ÒNews Coverage ofthe GulfCrisis and PublicOpinion:A Study ofAgenda-Setting,Priming,and Framing,Óin Taken by Storm,167Ð85.8.Iyengar and Simon,ÒNews Coverage,Ó171.9.Iyengar,Is Anyone Responsible?,14.10.Bennett,ÒNews about Foreign Policy,Ó31.11.Everette Dennis et al.,Covering the Presidential Primaries(New York:The Freedom ForumMedia Studies Center,1992),59.12.Burke,Counter-Statement,31,124.13.C.Allen Carter,Kenneth Burke and the Scapegoat Process(Norman:University ofOklahomaPress,1996),40.14.Bennett,News,35.15.Quoted in Loffreda,Losing Matt Shepard,5.16.Though the ÒscarecrowÓimage would appear in news reports repeatedly and even in poetrylong after the event,ÒMatt hadnÕt actually been tied like a scarecrow;when he wasapproached first by the mountain biker,Aaron Kreifels,and then by Reggie Fluty,the sher-iffÕs deputy who answered KreifelsÕs emergency call,Matt lay on his back,head proppedagainst the fence,legs outstretched.His hands were lashed behind him and tied barely fourinches offthe ground to a fencepostÓ(Loffreda,Losing Matt Shepard,5).17.James Brooke,ÒGay Man Beaten and Left For Dead;2 Are Charged,ÓNew York Times,October 10,1998,sec.A09.18.ÒGay Student Brutally Beaten;4 Arrested,ÓLos Angeles Times,October 10,1998,16.19.Tom Kenworthy,ÒGay Man Near Death after Beating,Burning;Three Held in WyomingAttack Near Campus;Hate Crimes Suspected,ÓWashington Post,October 10,1998,sec.A01.20.ÒGay Student Brutally Beaten,Ó16.21.Kenworthy,ÒGay Man Near Death,Ósec.A01.22.Brooke,ÒGay Man Beaten,Ósec.A09.23.ÒGay Student Brutally Beaten,Ó16.24.Tom Kenworthy,ÒIn Wyoming,Homecoming Infused with Hard Lesson on Intolerance,ÓWashington Post,October 11,1998,sec.A02.25.Bennett,News,26.26.As Wyoming governor Jim Geringer told the Washington Postshortly after ShepardÕs death,Ò[we all] feel a sense oftragedy and disbeliefthat a human life could be taken in such a bru-tal way.We must now find closure.Ó(Tom Kenworthy,ÒGay Wyoming Student Succumbs toInjuries,ÓWashington Post,October 13,1998,sec.A07).500RHETORIC& PUBLICAFFAIRS 27.Tom Kenworthy,ÒHundreds Gather to Remember Slain Man as ÔLight to the WorldÕ;Anti-Gay Forces Incite Shouting Match at Wyoming Funeral,ÓWashington Post,October 17,1998,sec.A03.28.Loffreda,Losing Matt Shepard,13.29.Kenworthy,ÒIn Wyoming,Ósec.A02.30.Kenworthy,ÒHundreds Gather,Ósec.A03.31.Justin Gillis and Patrice Gaines,ÒPattern ofHate Emerges on a Fence in Laramie;GayVictimsÕKillers Say They Saw an Easy Crime Target,ÓWashington Post,October 18,1998,sec.A01.32.Gillis and Gaines,ÒPattern ofHate,Ósec.A01.33.Allan Lengel,ÒThousands Mourn StudentÕs Death;Beating in Wyoming Sparks New Pushfor Hate-Crimes Laws,ÓWashington Post,October 15,1998,sec.A07.34.Richard Lacayo,ÒThe New Gay Struggle,ÓTime,October 26,1998,34.President Clinton con-tinued to use the Matthew Shepard murder as a rallying cry for the passage ofa federal hate-crimes bill over the course ofthe next year.See ÒClinton Urges Expanding Federal HateCrimes Law,ÓLos Angeles Times,April 7,1999,home edition,4;ÒWhite House to HostMeeting on Tougher U.S.Hate Crime Law,ÓLos Angeles Times,July 10,1999,valley edition,13B;Charles Babington,ÒClinton Urges Congress to Toughen Laws on Hate Crimes,Guns,ÓWashington Post,October 16,1999,sec.A11.35.Lisa Neff,ÒThe Best Defense:Activists Plan Demonstrations in 50 States to Fight for BasicHuman Rights,ÓThe Advocate,March 16,1999,40.ShepardÕs centrality to the nationaldebate surrounding gay rights and hate-crimes legislation is evident in press reports fromthe time ofhis death until the conviction ofMcKinney.ÒShepardÕs brutal murder put a spot-light on hate crimesÓ(ÒNation in Brief/Wyoming,ÓLos Angeles Times,May 22,1999,homeedition,12).ÒThe crime galvanized the gay and lesbian community and became a rallyingpoint in the push for hate crime lawsÓ(John L.Mitchell,ÒVigil Marks Anniversary ofSlayingofGay Student,ÓLos Angeles Times,October 13,1999,home edition,3).ÒThe death ofShepard focused public attention on violence against homosexuals and stimulated at-timesfeverish debate about hate crimes legislationÓ(Julie Cart,ÒDefense Says HomosexualAdvance Triggered Slaying,Los Angeles Times,October 26,1999,home edition,20).Ò[MattShepardÕs] death galvanized those seeking to expand the nationÕs hate-crime lawsÓ(ÒAttackon Gay Was Planned,Witness Says,ÓLos Angeles Times,October 29,1999,valley edition,23A).ÒThe death ofthe college student [Matt Shepard] ignited national debate over hatecrimes and violence against homosexualsÓ(Julie Cart,ÒMan Guilty in Shepard Slaying,Could Get Death,ÓLos Angeles Times,November 4,1999,home edition,37).ÒThe brutalmurder ofthe wholesome-looking Shepard struck a chord across America.It spurred callsfor the enactment ofhate crime legislationÓ(Julie Cart,ÒKiller ofGay Student Is SparedDeath Penalty,ÓLos Angeles Times,November 5,1999,home edition,1).ÒThe murder [ofMatt Shepard] last October gained nationwide publicity and spurred calls by gay and lesbianactivists for enactment oftough anti-hate crime legislation nationallyÓ(Tom Kenworthy,Ò2nd Man is Convicted ofKilling Gay Student,ÓWashington Post,November 4,1999,sec.A1).ÒThe case [ofMatt Shepard] became a rallying cry for states and the FederalGovernment to pass and expand hate-crime measuresÓ(Michael Janofsky,ÒA Defense toAvoid Execution,ÓNew York Times,October 26,1999,sec.A18).See also Carl Ingram,ÒCalifornia and the West,ÓLos Angeles Times,October 3,1999,home edition,24;ÒFamilies ofHate Crime Victims Unite at Rally,ÓLos Angeles Times,October 10,1999,home edition,12;Tom Kenworthy,ÒÔGay PanicÕDefense Stirs Wyo.Trial,ÓWashington Post,October 26,1999,THEMEDIAFRAMINGOFTHEMATTHEWSHEPARDMURDER501 sec.A2;Tom Kenworthy,ÒWyo.Jury to Weigh Motives in Gay Killing,ÓWashington Post,November 3,1999,sec.A3;Bill Carter,ÒShepardÕs Parents,ÓNew York Times,February 3,1999,sec.E7.36.Bruce Shenitz,ÒLaramieÕs Legacy,ÓOut,October 2001,76,110.37.Gillis and Gaines,ÒPattern ofHate,Ósec.A01;A second article reported that Òin 1996,21 menand women were killed in the United States because oftheir sexual orientation,according tothe Southern Poverty Law Center,an Alabama group that tracks violence against minorities.According to the Federal Bureau ofInvestigation,sexual orientation was a factor in 11.6 per-cent ofthe 8,759 hate crimes recorded in 1996.Ó(James Brooke,ÒGay Man Dies from Attack,Fanning Outrage and Debate,ÓNew York Times,October 13,1998,sec.A17).Sexual orienta-tion ranks third behind race and religion as the motive for (reported) hate crimes.See Ò2000FBI Hate Crime Statistics,ÓHuman Rights Campaign,retrieved April 20,2002,from.38.Gillis and Gaines,ÒPattern ofHate,Ósec.A01.39.Shenitz,ÒLaramieÕs Legacy,Ó76,110.40.Quoted in Shenitz,ÒLaramieÕs Legacy,Ó77.41.Kenworthy,ÒIn Wyoming,Ósec.A02.42.Steve Lopez,ÒTo Be Young and Gay in Wyoming,ÓTime,October 26,1998,38.43.Kenneth Burke,The Rhetoric ofReligion: Studies in Logology(Boston:Beacon Press,1961),5.44.Kenneth Burke,A Grammar ofMotives(New York:Prentice Hall,1945),406.45.Burke,A Grammar ofMotives,406.46.Burke,A Grammar ofMotives,406.47.Barry Brummett,ÒBurkean Comedy and Tragedy,Illustrated in Reactions to the Arrest ofJohn Delorean,ÓCentral States Speech Journal35 (1984):218.48.Lopez,ÒTo Be Young,Ó38.49.Brooke,ÒGay Man Dies,Ósec.A17.See also Ò2 Suspects in GayÕs Killing to Face Death,ÓLosAngeles Times,December 29,1998,home edition,14;ÒDeath Penalty Asked in Gay ManÕsMurder,ÓWashington Post,December 29,1998;sec.A6;ÒWyo.Governor Backs Bill on HateCrimes,ÓWashington Post,January 19,1999,sec.A9.50.Brooke,ÒGay Man Beaten,Ósec.A09.51.Kenworthy,ÒIn Wyoming,Ósec.A02.52.Lopez,ÒTo Be Young,Ó39.53.James Brooke,ÒAfter Beating ofGay Man,Town Looks at Its Attitudes,ÓNew York Times,October 12,1998,sec.A12.54.ÒJury Selection Starts in Wyoming Hate-Crime Trial,ÓWashington Post,March 25,1999,sec.A15.ÒLaramie,Wyo.ÑThis small city on the high plains ofsoutheast Wyoming has lookedupon itselfas a peaceful,law-abiding community ever since 1868....Those images becameblurred last fall with the brutal beating death ofMatthew Shepard,a gay university student:To the outside world,Laramie suddenly became the place where a vicious hate crime tookplace,where below the patina oftolerance lurked a deep streak ofcowboy intoleranceÓ(TomKenworthy,ÒAfter Slaying,Community Takes a Punishing Look at Itself,ÓWashington Post,April 5,1999,sec.A3).See also James Brooke,ÒWyoming City Braces for Gay Murder Trial,ÓNew York Times,April 4,1999,sec.14.55.Lopez,ÒTo Be Young,Ó38.502RHETORIC& PUBLICAFFAIRS 56.In one ofour classrooms,a year after the murder,a student connected to individuals heldaccountable for the dehumanizing event in the Colorado State University parade would con-firm,under the promise ofanonymity,the use ofthe anti-gay epithets ÒIÕm GayÓand ÒUpMy Ass.Ó57.Loffreda,Losing Matt Shepard,10.58.James Brooke,ÒHomophobia often Found in Schools,Data Show,ÓNew York Times,October14,1998,sec.A19.59.Kenworthy,ÒHundreds Gather,Ósec.A03.60.Gillis and Gaines,ÒPattern ofHate,Ósec.A01.61.Carter,Kenneth Burke,18.62.The Wyoming governor went on to say,Ò[We] feel a sense oftragedy and disbeliefthat ahuman life could be taken in such a way.We must now find closureÓ(Kenworthy,ÒGayWyoming Student Succumbs,Ósec.A07).63.Lopez,ÒTo Be Young,Ó39.64.ÒBrutal Beating ofGay Student is Condemned,ÓLos Angeles Times,October 11,1998,16.News reports repeatedly emphasized that Matt Shepard was deceived into going with hisattackersÑthat Henderson and McKinney Òposed as homosexuals and lured Shepard fromthe barÓ(Tom Kenworthy,ÒÔIÕm Going to Grant You Life,ÕÓWashington Post,February 5,1999,sec.A2).See also Julie Cart,ÒGayÕs Slaying Spawns Morality Play,ÓLos Angeles Times,March 24,1999,home edition,11;Julie Cart,ÒPlea Averts 1st Trial in Slaying ofGayStudent,ÓLos Angeles Times,April 6,1999,home edition,1;ÒAttack on Gay,Ó23A;TomKenworthy,ÒGay StudentÕs Attacker Pleads Guilty,Gets Two Life Terms,ÓWashington Post,April 6,1999,sec.A2;ÒWyoming Judge Bars ÔGay PanicÕDefense,Washington Post,November 2,1999,sec.A7;Kenworthy,Ò2nd Man Is Convicted,Ósec.A1;James Brooke,ÒGayMurder Trial Ends with Guilty Plea,ÓNew York Times,April 6,1999,sec.A20.65.Chris Bull,ÒA Matter ofLife and Death,ÓThe Advocate,March 16,1999,38.66.Cart,ÒGayÕs Slaying Spawns,Ó11.67.Kenworthy,ÒÔGay PanicÕDefense,Ósec.A2;Cart,ÒMan Guilty,Ó37.68.Phil Curtis,ÒHate Crimes:More than a Verdict,ÓThe Advocate,January 18,2000,36.See alsoCart,ÒKiller ofGay Student,Ó1;Michael Janofsky,ÒParents ofGay Obtain Mercy for HisKiller,ÓNew York Times,November 5,1999,sec.A1.69.Brummett,ÒBurkean Comedy,Ó219.70.Tom Kenworthy,ÒSlain Gay ManÕs Mother Tries to Show HateÕs ÔRealÕCost,ÓWashington Post,October 10,1999,sec.A2.71.Curtis,ÒHate Crimes,Ó34Ð35.The notion that McKinneyÕs conviction signaled the end formore than just the trial was evident in other news reports as well.ÒFor the citizens ofWyoming,who often felt that their stateÕs Western philosophies were on trial,the end oftheyearlong ordeal was welcomeÓ(Cart,ÒKiller ofGay Student,Ó1).ÒThe verdict,which cameafter 10 hours ofdeliberations over two days,brought a swift end to a case that has beenwatched closely because ofthe brutality ofthe crime and the sexual orientation ofthe vic-timÓ(Michael Janofsky,ÒMan is Convicted ofKilling ofGay Student,ÓNew York Times,November 4,1999,sec.A14).72.Robert L.Heath,Realism and Relativism: A Perspective on Kenneth Burke(Macon,Ga.:Mercer University Press,1986),246.73.In Lopez,ÒTo Be Young,Ó38.THEMEDIAFRAMINGOFTHEMATTHEWSHEPARDMURDER503 74.What is significant about this poll is not the distribution,which was likely a product ofhowthe questions were asked,but that the poll was published in a news report at all.The inclu-sion ofthe poll contributes to the perception that this issue is significant.After McKinneyÕsconviction,polls like this one disappeared from the public eye.75.Curtis,ÒHate Crimes,Ó38.Since January 2000,four states have passed hate-crimes legisla-tion,including Texas,which approved a hate-crimes bill in 2001.A similar bill,however,wassuppressed two years earlier in Texas because it specifically included protection for gays.SeeRoss E.Milloy,ÒTexas Senate Passes Hate Crimes Bill that BushÕs Allies Killed,ÓNew YorkTimes,May 8,2001,sec.A16.The five states,as ofApril 16,2002,that still have no hate-crimes laws are Arkansas,Indiana,New Mexico,South Carolina,and Wyoming.Ofthe 45states with hate-crimes laws,18 states have laws that do not explicitly include sexual orien-tation.See ÒDoes Your StateÕs Hate Crimes Law Include Sexual Orientation and GenderIdentity?ÓHuman Rights Campaign,retrieved April 16,2002,from .76.Curtis,ÒHate Crimes,Ó38.77.Gitlin,ÒThe Whole World,Ó96.78.We are suggesting that there are multiple layers offraming.A picture frame,for instance,shapes how viewers perceive a picture,but so too does the pictureÕs presence in a larger struc-ture such as the frame ofa building.Indeed,individuals respond very differently to pictureshanging in a private home than to those hanging in a museum.79.See George Chauncey,Gay New York: Gender,Urban Culture,and the Making ofthe Gay MaleWorld,1890Ð1940(New York:Basic Books,1994),13.80.Erving Goffman,Stigma: Notes on the Management ofSpoiled Identity(Englewood Cliffs,N.J.:Prentice-Hall,1963),1.81.Byrne Fone,Homophobia: A History(New York:Picador USA,2000),5.82.Gerhard Falk,Stigma: How We Treat Outsiders(New York:Prometheus Books,2001),74.83.See Falk,Stigma,73Ð74.84.Quoted in Shenitz,ÒLaramieÕs Legacy,Ó110.85.See Shenitz,ÒLaramieÕs Legacy,Ó111.86.Tracey A.Reeves,ÒA Town Searches its Soul:After Gay Black Man is Slain,W.VA.ResidentsAsk Why,ÓWashington Post,July 20,2000,sec.A01.87.Fone,Homophobia,413.88.Curtis,ÒHate Crimes,Ó35.89.One ofmany cases where the Ògay panic defenseÓwas allowed is that ofMichael Auker,whowas stomped and beaten by Todd Clinger,18,and Troy Clinger,20,in Pennsylvania.ÒAfterrendering Auker unconscious,the two allegedly transported him to his home where he wasfound comatose two days laterÓ(Barbara Dozetos,ÒBrothers Claim ÔGay PanicÕafter Beatingthat Left Man in Coma,ÓThe Gay.com Network,retrieved December 13,2001,from).We foundthis example especially intriguing because ofhow closely the crime mirrored the MatthewShepard beating.90.Fone,Homophobia,5.91.Warren J.Blumenfeld,introduction to Homophobia: How We All Pay the Price,ed.Warren J.Blumenfeld (Boston:Beacon Press,1992),15.92.Burke,Attitudes,introduction.504RHETORIC& PUBLICAFFAIRS 93.Burke,Attitudes,3.94.ÒÔRejectionÕis a by-product ofÔacceptanceÕ...It is the heretical aspect ofan orthodoxyÑandas such,it has much in common with the Ôframe ofacceptanceÕthat it rejectsÓ(Burke,Attitudes,21).Burke also posits,ÒCould we not say that allsymbolic structures are designedto produce such ÔacceptanceÕin one form or another?Ó(emphasis added,Attitudes,19Ð20).95.Burke,Attitudes,28Ð29.96.Burke,Attitudes,92;see also William H.Rueckert,Encounters with Kenneth Burke(Urbana:University ofIllinois Press,1994),118.97.Burke,Attitudes,166.98.Stanley Edgar Hyman,ÒKenneth Burke and the Criticism ofSymbolic Action,Óin LandmarkEssays on Kenneth Burke,ed.Barry Brummett (Davis,Calif.:Hermagoras Press,1993),29;Timothy N.Thompson and Anthony J.Palmeri,ÒAttitudes toward Counternature (withNotes on Nurturing a Poetic Psychosis),Óin Extensions ofthe Burkean System,ed.James W.Chesebro (Tuscaloosa:University ofAlabama Press,1993),276.99.Rueckert,Encounters,121.100.Burke,Attitudes,171.101.Brummett,ÒBurkean Comedy,Ó219.102.Burke,Attitudes,41.103.Burke,Attitudes,171.104.Rueckert,Encounters,117Ð18.105.For extended discussion,see Bennett,News;Herbert J.Gans,Deciding WhatÕs News: A StudyofCBS Evening News,NBC Nightly News,Newsweek and Time(New York:Pantheon,1979).106.David Croteau and William Hoynes,Media/Society: Industries,Images,and Audiences,2d ed.(Thousand Oaks,Calif.:Pine Forge Press,2000),241.107.Gans,Deciding WhatÕs News,138Ð42.108.See Croteau and Hoynes,Media/Society,239Ð41.109.Mark Lawrence McPhail,ÒCoherence as Representative Anecdote in the Rhetorics ofKenneth Burke and Ernesto Grassi,Óin Kenneth Burke and Contemporary European Thought:Rhetoric in Transition,ed.Bernard L.Brock (Tuscaloosa:University ofAlabama Press),85.THEMEDIAFRAMINGOFTHEMATTHEWSHEPARDMURDER505 The Politics of Negotiating Public Tragedy: Media Framing ofthe Matthew Shepard MurderOtt, Brian L.Aoki, Eric.Rhetoric & Public Affairs, Volume 5, Number 3, Fall 2002, pp.483-505 (Article)Published by Michigan State University PressDOI: 10.1353/rap.2002.0060For additional information about this article Access Provided by University of Kentucky at 12/08/11 6:01PM GMThttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/rap/summary/v005/5.3ott.html This essay undertakes a detailed frame analysis ofprint media coverage ofthe MatthewShepard murder in three nationally influential newspapers as well as TimemagazineandThe Advocate.We contend that the mediaÕs tragic framing ofthe event,with anemphasis on the scapegoat process,functioned rhetorically to alleviate the publicÕs guiltconcerning anti-gay hate crimes and to excuse the public ofany social culpability.Italso functioned ideologically to reaffirm a dominant set ofdiscourses that socially stig-matizes gay,lesbian,bisexual,and transgendered persons and to hamper efforts to cre-ate and enact a social policy that would prevent this type ofviolence in the future.Aconcluding section considers BurkeÕs notion ofthe Òcomic frameÓas a potential correc-tive for the mediaÕs coverage ofpublic tragedies.Even before Matt died,he underwent a strange,American transubstantiation,seized,filtered,and fixed as an icon by the national news media dedicated to swift and con-sumable tragedy and by a national politics convulsed by gay rights.ÑBeth Loffreda,Losing Matt Shepard1In the blustery evening hours ofTuesday,October 6,1998,Aaron McKinney andRussell Henderson lured 21-year-old Matthew Shepard from the Fireside Bar inLaramie,Wyoming,to a desolate field on the edge oftown.There the two highschool dropouts bound the frail,youthful Shepard to a split-rail fence,viciouslybludgeoned him 18 times with the butt ofa .357 magnum,stole his shoes and wal-let,and left him to die in the darkness and near-freezing temperatures.It was notuntil the evening ofthe next day that Aaron Kreifel,a passing mountain biker,dis-covered ShepardÑhis face so horribly disfigured that Kreifel told police he thoughtTHEPOLITICSOFNEGOTIATINGPUBLICTRAGEDY:MEDIAFRAMINGOFTHEMATTHEWSHEPARDMURDERBRIANL. OTTANDERICAOKIBrian L.Ott and Eric Aoki are Assistant Professors ofSpeech Communication at Colorado StateUniversity in Fort Collins,Colorado.They contributed equally to this essay.The authors wish to thankMatthew Petrunia for his extensive research assistance and Drs.Karrin Anderson,Greg Dickinson,andKirsten Pullen for their insightful comments on earlier drafts ofthis manuscript.©Rhetoric & Public AffairsVol.5,No.3,2002,pp.483-505ISSN 1094-8392 at first it was a scarecrow.The only portions ofhis face not covered in blood werethose that had been streaked clean by his tears.Unconscious,hypothermic,and suf-fering from severe brain trauma,Shepard was astonishingly still alive.He wasrushed to Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins,Colorado,where he would die fivedays later without ever having regained consciousness.McKinney and Hendersonhad been apprehended prior to his death,and as the gruesome details ofthat nightbegan to unfold,it became clear that Matthew Shepard was brutally murdered forbeing gay.In the weeks that followed,Shepard became a symbol ofthe deep preju-dice,hatred,and violence directed at homosexuals.Indeed,news ofthe eventspawned vigils across the country and a nationwide debate about hate-crimes legis-lation.Shortly more than a year later,Henderson pled guilty and McKinney wasconvicted ofmurder.Both men are currently serving life sentences in the WyomingState Penitentiary.The basic contours ofthis story remain vividly etched in our memoriesÑmem-ories that have permanently altered our personal and public lives.Perhaps this eventso profoundly affected both ofus because,as educators in Colorado,we were lessthan five miles from the hospital where Matthew Shepard clung to life for five daysin October 1998.Perhaps the memory still burns brightly for us because several stu-dents at our university mocked the event with a scarecrow and anti-gay epithets ona homecoming float even as Shepard lay comatose in the hospital across town.Perhaps the memory serves as a survival instinct,reminding us that being ÒoutÓinthe community drastically alters the relation ofour bodies to the landscape,andthat cultural politics,discourse,and violence are intricately intertwined.Or per-haps,just perhaps,we fear the consequences offorgetting.We cling to the memoryofMatthew Shepard because we sense that the nation has already forgotten,orworse,reconciled these events.2How has an event that sparked so much interest,concern,and public discussion seeped from the collective consciousness ofa nationand its citizenry? Why is hate-crimes legislation no longer a ÒhotÓpolitical issue?The answers to these questions we believe reside,at least in large part,in the man-ner in which the news media told this story.We also believe that the underlying form ofthe Matthew Shepard story may haveresonance with the news mediaÕs framing ofother public traumas,from the shoot-ings at Columbine High School to the terrorist attacks in New York andWashington,D.C.,on September 11,2001.Our aim in this essay,then,is to identifythe underlying symbolic process and to analyze how it functions to construct andposition citizens relative to the political process,and how it assists them in con-fronting and resolving public trauma.With regard to the Matthew Shepard murder,we contend that the news mediaÕs tragic framing ofthat event works rhetoricallyand ideologically to relieve the public ofits social complicity and culpability;toreaffirm a dominant set ofdiscourses that socially stigmatizes gay,lesbian,bisexual,and transgendered (GLBT) persons;and to hamper efforts to create and enact a484RHETORIC& PUBLICAFFAIRS progressive GLBT social policy.To advance this argument,we begin by examiningthe literature on media framing.SYMBOLICACTION,FRAMEANALYSIS,ANDTHENEWSMEDIAIn The Philosophy ofLiterary Form,Kenneth Burke argues that art forms function asequipments for living,by which he means that discursive forms such as comedy,tragedy,satire,and epic furnish individuals and collectives with the symbolicresources and strategies for addressing and resolving the given historical and per-sonal problems they face.3When there is a traumatic event such as the MatthewShepard murder,then,discourseÑand especially the public discourse ofthe newsmediaÑaids people in Òcoming to termsÓwith the event.For Burke,different dis-cursive forms equip persons to confront and resolve problems in different ways.Ò[E]ach ofthe great poetic forms,Óhe contends,Òstresses its own peculiar way ofbuilding the mental equipment (meanings,attitudes,character) by which one han-dles the significant factors ofhis time.Ó4That different discursive forms offer differ-ent mental equipments is significant because it frames what constitutes acceptablepolitical and social action.Identifying prevailing discursive forms is a never-endingcritical task,as symbolic forming is linked to the environment in which it occursand new discursive forms are continually emerging.In BurkeÕs words,Òthe conven-tional forms demanded by one age are as resolutely shunned by another.Ó5Thus,tounderstand how the public made sense ofand responded to the Shepard murder,one must attend to the underlying symbolic form ofthe discourse surrounding it.One approach to analyzing discursive forms and the attendant attitudes (incip-ient actions) they foster toward a situation is by examining what Burke has calledÒterministic screensÓ6and media criticsÑdrawing on a sociological perspectiveÑhave called Òframe analysis.Ó7Frame analysis looks to see how a situation or eventis named/defined,and how that naming shapes public opinion.It accomplishesthis analysis by highlighting the inherent biases in all storytelling,namely selectiv-ity(what is included and excluded in the story?),partiality (what is emphasizedand downplayed in the story?),and structure(how does the story formally playout?).One example offraming in the news media is the distinction betweenÒepisodicÓstories and ÒthematicÓstories.ÒThe episodic frame,Óaccording toShanto Iyengar and Adam Simon,Òdepicts public issues in terms ofconcreteinstances or public events ...[and] makes for Ôgood pictures.ÕThe thematic newsframe,by contrast,places public issues in some general or abstract context ...[and] takes the form ofa ÔtakeoutÕor ÔbackgrounderÕreport directed at general out-comes.Ó8Though few news reports are exclusively episodic or thematic,the domi-nance ofepisodic frames in the news has been established in multiple studies.9How a story is framed in the news affects both how the public assigns responsibil-ity for a traumatic event and Òhow people following the debate think about policyTHEMEDIAFRAMINGOFTHEMATTHEWSHEPARDMURDER485 options and preferred outcomes.Ó10To appreciate fully the political and ideologi-cal implications offraming,however,the critic must do more than simply classifya news story as episodic or thematic.The subtle ebb and flow ofsymbolic forms is crucial to how they interpellatesubjects and do the work ofideology.To get after these subtleties,we undertook adetailed frame analysis ofthe news coverage ofthe Matthew Shepard murder in theWashington Post,theNew York Times,and the Los Angeles TimesÑthree Òlarge,nationally influential newspapers.Ó11Since we were curious about how this story hasbeen framed over time,we examined the news coverage from October 10,1998(when the story was first reported nationally),to December 2001 (roughly two yearsafter McKinney was convicted).This approach generated a sample containing 71news articles.Wanting to see ifthe coverage varied in publications with notably dif-ferent politics,we also analyzed the news coverage in Time magazine and TheAdvocateover the same period.These magazines allowed us to compare and con-trast the coverage ofthe event in a mainstream weekly with the coverage in an alter-native news source specifically committed to issues affecting the GLBT community.Based on an analysis ofthese five news outlets,we identified four phases in the printmediaÕs framing ofthe Matthew Shepard story:naming the event,making a politi-cal symbol,expunging the evil within,and restoring the social order.In the follow-ing section,we describe each ofthese phases and the symbolic processes they entail.THEMATTHEWSHEPARDSTORYAll stories have form,which is to say they are temporally structuredÑcreating andfulfilling appetites as they unfold.12As C.Allen Carter notes:When the narrative strategy is working as intended,the culmination ofeach episodesets the stage for the next ...The story relieves its audience ofthe burden ofhavingto Ôchoose betweenÕdifferent phases ofits unfolding and,simply by taking themthrough one phase,prepares them for the next.Each successive step ofthe plot leadsinto the next,whether or not it leads its audience astray.13Naming the EventGiven the formal characteristics ofnarrative,how a story begins is crucial to how astory develops.In this section,we examine how the Matthew Shepard story isframed in initial news reports and analyze how that framing functions rhetorically.To fully appreciate howthis story begins,however,we must first look at whenitbegins.TheWashington Post,New York Times,andLos Angeles Timesdid not runfeature articles on Matthew Shepard until October 10,1998,three days after he wasdiscovered.The reason for the mediaÕs delay in treating the story as a national news486RHETORIC& PUBLICAFFAIRS item likely has to do with how the news is made.An event is selected to become amajor news story based on its potential for drama.As W.Lance Bennett notes,ÒIt isno secret that reporters and editors search for events with dramatic properties andthen emphasize those properties in their reporting.Ó14Prior to October 8,little wasknown about the details ofthe attack outside the Albany County sheriffÕs depart-ment.During a local press conference on that day,SheriffGary Puls told reportersthat,Ò[Matthew] may have been beaten because he was gay ...[and that he] wasfound by a mountain biker,tied to a fence like a scarecrow.Ó15Local reporters cov-ering the story immediately seized on the anti-gay aspect ofthe crime and the cru-cifix symbolism ofthe scarecrow imageÑtwo dramatic elements that quickly drewthe attention ofthe national press.16Matthew Shepard was officially Ògood melodramaÓand the reports in the main-stream media that followed focused almost exclusively on two elements,thedeplorable motives ofHenderson and McKinney and the gruesome character ofthescene.Indeed,these aspects ofthe story are evident in the initial headlines from allthree papers we analyzed:ÒGay Man Beaten and Left For Dead;2 Are Charged,Ó17ÒGay Student Brutally Beaten;4 Arrested,Ó18and ÒGay Man Near Death AfterBeating,Burning;Three Held in Wyoming Attack Near Campus;Hate CrimesSuspected.Ó19The qualifier ÒgayÓthat begins each headline constructs the victimÕssexuality as the focal point ofthe story,despite Laramie Police CommanderOÕDalleyÕs public claim at the time that Òrobbery was the chiefmotive.Ó20The news mediaÕs devotion to drama virtually insured that sensationalisticdescriptions ofMatthew ShepardÕs body would lead every story.In its first featurearticle,theWashington Postemphasized the savage and dehumanizing aspects ofthecrime,reporting that ÒMatthew Shepard,slight ofstature,gentle ofdemeanor ...was tied to a fence like a dead coyote ...[with] his head badly battered and burnmarks on his body.Ó21Likewise,the New York Timesbegan,ÒAt first,the passingbicyclist thought the crumpled form lashed to a ranch fence was a scarecrow.Butwhen he stopped,he found the burned,battered and nearly lifeless body ofMatthew Shepard,an openly gay college student.Ó22The ÒscarecrowÓimage was alsoreferenced in the Los Angeles Times,which began,ÒA gay University ofWyomingstudent was brutally beaten,burned and left tied to a wooden fence like a scarecrow,with grave injuries including a smashed skull.Ó23The graphic and gruesome imagesofviolence visited upon ShepardÕs body were shocking and traumatic,and theybegged the question,ÒHow could something like this happen?ÓAs unthinkable andunimaginable as the act seemed,the basic outline ofthe story already portrayed ananswerÑhatred fueled by homophobia.The naming ofthe attack as a Òvicious ...anti-gay hate crimeÓ24would prove pivotal in the heated political discussion toensue.Key details,terms,and structures were already setting the stage for how thestory mustunfold.For instance,the near exclusive focus in early press reports onTHEMEDIAFRAMINGOFTHEMATTHEWSHEPARDMURDER487 the brutality done to Matthew ShepardÕs body functioned in two interrelated ways.First,it personalized the event,making Shepard the centerofthe story.This was not,and never would become,a story about hate crimes in which Matthew Shepard wassimply an example.It was a story about Shepard,in which hate was the motive forviolence.One consequence ofpersonalized news,according to Bennett,Ò[is that it]gives preference to the individual actors and human-interest angles in events whiledownplaying institutional and political considerations that establish the social con-text for those events.Ó25In the Matthew Shepard story,hatred and homophobiaÑaswe will demonstrate shortlyÑwould come to be framed primarily as character flawsofthe chiefantagonists,rather than as wide-scale social prejudices that routinelyresult in violence toward gays and lesbians.Second,the repeated emphasis on thehideousness ofthe crime in both its barbarity and motivation profoundly disruptedthe moral and social order.The images and descriptions were not only traumatic,they were traumatizing;they functioned to unsettle and even undermine the publicÕsfaith in basic civility and humanity.So great was the disruption to the social orderthat even at this early stage it fostered a desire for resolution.26For this story,forMatthew ShepardÕs story,to end (as all news stories must),responsibilityhad to beassigned and order had to be restored.Since this story centered on Shepard,respon-sibility had a face,or rather two faces,Russell Henderson and Aaron McKinney.Butbefore they would come into focus,Shepard would be transformed into a nationalpolitical symbol.Making a Political SymbolEven before his death,Shepard had become Òa national symbol for the campaignagainst hate crimes and anti-gay violence.Ó27A website created by Poudre ValleyHospital to provide updates on his condition Òdrew over 815,000 hits from aroundthe world.Ó28On Saturday,October 10,students,faculty,and community membersfrom Laramie gathered for the University ofWyomingÕs homecoming parade,where Òamid the usual hoopla ...hundreds ofpeople donned yellow arm bands andmarched in tribute to Shepard and the beliefthat intolerance has no place in theEquality State.Ó29Throughout the weekend,candlelight vigils for Shepard would beheld across the country,with a Los Angeles memorial attracting an estimated 5,000concerned citizens.Then,in the early morning hours ofMonday,October 12,1998,one day after National Coming Out Day,Matthew Shepard passed away with hisparents at his beside.With the news ofShepardÕs death,a nation already stricken with griefwasplunged even deeper into emotional turmoil.As Reverend Anne Kitch asked in herhomily at ShepardÕs funeral,ÒHow can we not let our hearts be deeply,deeply trou-bled? How can we not be immersed in despair,how can we not cry out against this?This is not the way it is supposed to be.A son has died,a brother has been lost,a488RHETORIC& PUBLICAFFAIRS child has been broken,torn,abandoned.Ó30The Matthew Shepard story had strucka chord.It had Òelectrified gay America,Ó31and it had done much more.As Postreporters Justin Gillis and Patrice Gaines noted:For the first time,in cities across the United States and Canada,straight people ...marched by the thousands to protest anti-gay violence.More than 60 marches and vigilshave taken place since his death,and others are scheduled for today.People rallied in NewYork,Atlanta and MiamiÑand in West Lafayette,Ind.,Fort Collins,Colo.,and CornerBrook,Newfoundland.Under an indigo sky,on the steps ofthe Capitol,a crowd ofsev-eral thousand gathered last week to hold candles aloft,celebrate ShepardÕs life anddemand that Congress pass legislation to battle hate crimes.ÒNow!Óthey cried.32Among the thousands at the candlelight vigil on the Capitol steps in Washingtonwere actresses Ellen DeGeneres and Kristen Johnson,and numerous congressionalrepresentatives,who not only condemned the beating death ofShepard but alsourged immediate passage ofa federal hate crimes bill.33Earlier in the week,President Clinton had also pushed ÒCongress to pass the Hate Crimes PreventionAct ...[which] would broaden the definition ofhate crimes to include assaults ongays as well as women and the disabled.Ó34As The Advocatewould report a yearlater,there was little doubt that ÒMatthew ShepardÕs murder turned equal rights andprotections for gays and lesbians into topics ofnationwide debate.Ó35But how had Shepard been transformed into a martyrÑÒthe most recognizablesymbol ofantigay violence in AmericaÓ36Ñand what did that transformation meanfor the political debate taking place? The previous year had seen Òat least 27 gay peo-ple murdered in apparent hate crimes....And the murders are only the extremeend ofthe spectrum ofanti-gay attacks.A coalition that monitors anti-gay violenceand harassment documented 2,445 episodes last year in American cities.Ó37Thoughthe motive for ShepardÕs murder was hardly an isolated incident,two aspects ofthisstory made it unique and especially well suited for seizing the publicÕs imagination.The first factor,ofcourse,was the figure at its center.As Brian Levin,director oftheCenter on Hate and Extremism at Richard Stockton College in Pomona,New Jersey,told theWashington Post,ÒYou canÕt get a more sympathetic person to face such abrutal attack than Matt Shepard.He looked like an all-American nice kid next doorwhoÕd look after your grandmother ifyou went out oftown.He looked like a sweetkid and he was.Ó38Shepard was Òwhite and middle-class,ÓÒbarely on the thresholdofadulthood,Óand Òfrail [in] appearance.Ó39Because ofhis slight stature,a mere5Õ2Ó,and Òcherubic faceÓeven those uncomfortable with homosexuality saw him asaninnocent(that is,sexually nonthreatening) victim.The public identified withShepard,viewing him as friend and son.The second factor that contributed to the emerging mythology was the dramaticstructure ofthe narrative.Jack Levin,professor ofsociology and criminology atTHEMEDIAFRAMINGOFTHEMATTHEWSHEPARDMURDER489 Northeastern University,speculates that,ÒIfMatthew had died instantly ofa gun-shot wound to the head,his death may not have gotten as much publicity.Ó40ThatShepard lay comatose in a hospital for several days while people around the coun-try prayed and stood vigil for him functioned to heighten the publicÕs investment inthe story.Moreover,it was during those days ofvigil that the ÒheinousÓandÒmoroseÓdetails ofthe crime were repeated over and over again in the news media.The juxtaposition ofShepardÕs ability to evoke identification with the crimeÕsincomprehensibility shattered societyÕs ÒÔveneer ofcongeniality,Õand prompted acollective self-examination.Ó41In other words,the publicÕs inability to quickly andeasily reconcile Matthew ShepardÕs innocence (unlike most gay men,he didnÕt havethis coming to him) with his ÒlynchingÓwas a significant source ofshame for thecountry and created wide-scale public guilt.As Steve Lopez wrote in Timemaga-zine,ÒShepard has ignited a national town hall meeting on the enduring hatred thatshamesthis countryÓ(emphasis added).42But guilt demands redemption,for asBurke reminds,Òwho would not be cleansed!Óand redemption needs a redeemer,Òwhich is to say,a Victim!Ó43Though guilt can be resolved symbolically in a varietyofways,ranging from transcendence to mortification,the tragic framing oftheMatthew Shepard story foretold that purification would be achieved through vic-timage and the scapegoat process.Expunging the Evil WithinIn A Grammar ofMotives,Burke contends that,ÒCriminals either actual or imagi-nary may ...serve as [curative] scapegoats in a society that Ôpurifies itselfÕby ÔmoralindignationÕin condemning them.Ó44This is not to suggest,however,that thoseseeking to Òritualistically cleanse themselvesÓofguilt can simply blame a chosenparty.The Òscapegoat mechanismÓis a complex process that entails three distinctivestages:Ò(1) an original state ofmerger,in that the iniquities are shared by both theiniquitous and their chosen vessel;(2) a principle ofdivision,in that elementsshared in common are being ritualistically alienated;(3) a new principle ofmerger,this time in the unification ofthose whose purified identity is defined in dialecticalopposition to the sacrificial offering.Ó45For a Òsacrificial vesselÓto perform the roleofÒvicarious atonement,Óit must be,at first,Òprofoundly consubstantial with ...those who would be cured by attacking it.Ó46It must represent their iniquities,because symbolic forms that manage guilt can only be Òsuccessful ifthe audience isguilty ofthe sins portrayed in the discourse.Ó47Though the very earliest newsreports about the hatred and violence directed at Shepard had identified AaronMcKinney and Russell Henderson as the main perpetrators,those same newsreports cast the two as representative ofboth their local and national communities.As McKinney and Henderson were being arraigned,a significant amount ofdis-course was being generated about the state ofWyoming and the Òcowboy cultureÓ490RHETORIC& PUBLICAFFAIRS that had nurtured them.48It was widely reported,for instance,that Wyoming wasone ofonly nine U.S.states to Òhave no hate-crime laws.Ó49Another report notedthat,ÒAlthough Wyoming often bills itselfas the Ôequality state,Õthe state Legislaturehas repeatedly voted down hate crime legislationÓ;the article subsequently quotesMarv Johnson,executive director ofthe Wyoming chapter ofthe American CivilLiberties Union,as saying,ÒWyoming is not really gay friendly....The best way tocharacterize that is by a comment a legislator made a few years back,when helikened homosexuals to gay bulls as worthless and should be sent to the packingplant.Ó50Similarly,Susanna Goodin,the University ofWyomingÕs Ethics Centerdirector,told theWashington Post,Òthe beating [would] ...prompt Wyomingresi-dentsto ponder the price ofintolerance and indifferenceÓ(emphasis added).51Inroutinely referencing the Òhomophobia in the Wyoming legislatureÓ52and notingthat,in light ofthe attack,Laramie,Wyoming,Òwrestled with itsattitudes towardgay menÓ(emphasis added),53the news media initially framed the communityÕsattitudes as consistent with the perpetratorsÕattitudes.In fact,when jury selectionbegan for the trial ofHenderson in March 1999,his defense attorney,Wyatt Skaggs,was rather reflective about this association and told potential jurors,Ò[The media]...has literally injected into our community a feeling ofguilt.The press wants usto think that we are somehow responsible for what went on October 6.Are any ofyou here going to judge this case because you feel guilty and want to make a state-ment to the nation?Ó54Nor was Wyoming alone in being identified with the perpetratorsÕattitudes andmotives.As Lopez observed in Timemagazine,ÒThe cowboy state has its rednecksand yahoos,for sure,but there are no more bigots per capita in Wyoming than inNew York,Florida or California.Ó55In the first few days after the attack,the publicwas forced,ifonly temporarily,to confess the prevalence ofhomophobic attitudesaround the country.First was the incident involving the scarecrow on a homecom-ing float at Colorado State University,which was reportedly painted with anti-gayepithets.56ÒWhile the papers were reluctant to report the full range ofinsults,ÓLoffreda notes,ÒI heard that the signs read ÔIÕm GayÕand ÔUp My Ass.ÕÓ57This inci-dent prompted a number ofreports about the prevalence ofhomophobic attitudesin schools around the country.58Additionally,there were widely circulated newsstories about the protestors at ShepardÕs funeral.Shortly before he was eulogized,Tom Kenworthy writes,Òa dozen anti-gay protestors from Texas and Kansas stageda demonstration across from St.MarkÕs,carrying signs saying ÔNo Fags in HeavenÕand ÔNo Tears for Queers.Õ...[including] a young girl carrying a sign that readÔFag=Anal Sex.ÕÓ59In light ofthese stories,it was hardly surprising that a Time/CNNpoll found that Ò68 percent [ofrespondents] said attacks like the one againstShepard could happen in their communityÓ(emphasis added).60For a few weeksfollowing the attack,the message in the media was that McKinney and Hendersonshared much in common with the country.But all ofthat was about to change.THEMEDIAFRAMINGOFTHEMATTHEWSHEPARDMURDER491 ÒAt one moment the chosen [party] is a part ofthe clan,being one oftheir num-ber,Óexplains Carter;Òa moment later it symbolizes something apart fromthem,being the curse they wish to lift from themselves.Ó61Division or the Òcasting outÓofthe vessel ofunwanted evils is accomplished through vilification and through aredrawing ofboundaries that excludes the scapegoat.Slowly,almost unnoticeably,discourse in the news media was shifting from the countryÕs homophobia to that ofthe perpetrators,where it was being recoded as a character flaw rather than a wide-scale institutional prejudice.In a statement demarcating the new communalboundaries,Wyoming governor Jim Geringer told theWashington Post,ÒWyomingpeople are discouraged that all ofus could be unfairly stereotyped by the actions oftwo very sick and twisted people.Ó62Accounts were also now suggesting that the twoperpetrators were uniquelyignorant.Timemagazine noted that the two men wereÒhigh school dropouts,Óadding that,ÒIn addition to being an unspeakably grue-some crime,it was a profoundly dumb one.Ó63After all,McKinney and Hendersonhad drawn undue attention to themselves by getting into a fistfight with two othermen after beating Shepard.Reports such as this one functioned not only to cast themen as especially dull-witted,but also to highlight a patternofviolence and crimi-nalityÑone that would be further reinforced in subsequent reports about their pre-vious run-ins with the law,including convictions for felony burglary and drunkdriving.Additionally,there was the matter ofdeception,premeditation,and merci-less cruelty.The news media were now reporting that,according to law enforce-ment,the two men had pretended to be gay to lure Shepard out ofthe bar and intotheir pickup truck,and that they had continued to beat him as he begged for hislife.64As time passed,ShepardÕs attackers became ever more alienated from the public.They were uneducated,drug addicted,career criminals,who had maliciously soughtout their victim because he was gay,and they now Òfound themselves called Ôsubhu-manÕand Ômonsters.ÕÓ65In an uncharacteristic moment ofreflective journalism,a LosAngeles Timesstaffwriter comments on Henderson and McKinneyÕs vilification:In the six months since ShepardÕs gruesome death,the protagonists have becomedehumanized...transmuted by the American compulsion for fashioning morallessons out oftragedy.This morality play staged in a Western prairie town hasdemanded simplistic roles:Shepard,the earnest college student who was targetedbecause he was gay and gave his life to advance a social cause.Henderson andMcKinney,the high school dropouts accused ofbeating Shepard to death,have beencast as remorseless killers.66The symbolic distance between the public and McKinney and Henderson greweven wider during McKinneyÕs trial in October 1999,where gruesome new detailsfrom the night ofthe beating were revealed.The news media seized on one detail in492RHETORIC& PUBLICAFFAIRS particular,in which McKinney stopped beating Shepard to ask ifhe could read thelicense plate on his truck.When Shepard replied,ÒyesÓand recited the plateÕs num-bers,McKinney resumed the attack despite ShepardÕs repeated pleas for mercy.Thestory embodied the view that McKinney was not quite human,and prosecutingattorney Cal Rerucha retold it in his closing arguments,calling McKinney a Òsavageand a ÔwolfÕwho preyed on the lamb-like Shepard.Ó67As ifto further distinguishMcKinney from the public,following his conviction the news media widelyreported that various national,leading gay rights groups had,along with theShepard family,publicly condemned the death penalty in this case.As MatthewShepardÕs father,Dennis Shepard,would tell the court in a written statement fol-lowing the trial,Òthis is a time to begin the healing process.To show mercy to some-one who refused to show any mercy.Ó68Mr.ShepardÕs statement captured theessence ofhow the media was naming the difference between the public and theperpetrators,one human and the other not quite.Restoring the Social OrderWith the surrogate ofevil driven from the community,all that remains for creatingsymbolic closure is the punishment ofevil and the reaffirmation ofthe social andmoral order.ÒTragedy,Óexplains Barry Brummett,Òsubjects the erring [figure] totrial,finds him or her to be criminal,and demands condemnation and penance.Ó69In March 1999,Russell Henderson pled guilty,leaving only McKinney to stand trial.The significance ofthe trial to the outcome ofthe story was evident before it evenbegan.ÒThe trial will,Ówrote Kenworthy in theWashington Post,Òclosethe book onan ugly crime that grabbed the nation by the shoulders and forced it to confront theprice ofhate and intoleranceÑand then served as a rallying point ...for gay rightsÓ(emphasis added).70During the case,McKinneyÕs lawyers attempted to advance aÒgay panic defense,Ówhich claimed the victimÕs sexual advances triggered panic andled to the beating.But Judge Barton Voigt ruled it Òinadmissible ...based onWyoming law,Óand on November 3,1999Ñshortly more than a year after MatthewShepardÕs deathÑAaron McKinney was convicted ofmurder and sentenced to twoconsecutive life terms with no chance ofparole.ÒThe trial,Óobserved Phil Curtis inThe Advocate,Òdelivered an emotionally satisfying vindication for ShepardÕs deathand brought closureto the Shepard family and to the public,who had followed thegrim case for the past yearÓ(emphasis added).71As odd,perhaps even unbelievable,as it seems,the verdict did deliver both symbolic satisfaction and closure for some.Explains Robert Heath,ÒAs a dynamic progression ofan idea,each work [that is,story] leads toward some resolution.Ifit is achieved,reader and author experiencea release,the sheer pleasure ofhaving gone through the process.Ó72To the extentthat the story began with the brutal beating ofMatthew Shepard,the convictionand punishment ofhisassailants signals its close.THEMEDIAFRAMINGOFTHEMATTHEWSHEPARDMURDER493 But the conviction ofMcKinney had an additional and important side effect.Inperforming a cathartic function for the public (that is,purging them oftheir guiltthrough victimage) and bringing closure to the story,it also brought a sense ofres-olution to the debate about gay rights and hate-crimes legislation that ShepardÕsdeath had initiated.Since these issues had been framed in relation tothe story aboutMatthew ShepardÕs murder,the storyÕs conclusion functioned to bring closure tothem as well.The national public debate over hate crimes and gay politics dissipatedalmost as quickly as it had emerged.Two weeks following ShepardÕs death inOctober 1998,a Time/CNN poll asked respondents,ÒFederal law mandatesincreased penalties for people who commit hate crimes against racial minorities.Doyou favor or oppose the same treatment for people who commit hate crimes againsthomosexuals?Ó73At that time,76 percent ofthe public favored hate-crimes legisla-tion that protected homosexuals and 19 percent opposed it.74In the months fol-lowing his death,legislation to increase the penalty for hate crimes against gays andlesbians was introduced in 26 states.By the time these bills came up for vote,how-ever,the Matthew Shepard story was winding toward narrative conclusion,and onlyone state,Missouri,passed new legislation.75Perhaps even more telling,TheAdvocatereports that,ÒAfter McKinneyÕs conviction Judy and Dennis Shepard ...traveled to Washington,D.C.,to lobby for federal hate-crimes legislation.Theireffort failed.A hate-crimes measure was removed from a budget bill in congres-sional committee just weeks after the trial.Ó76In fostering symbolic resolutionthrough narrative closure,the news mediaÕs coverage ofthe story re-imposed orderand eliminated the self-reflective space that might serve as the basis for social andpolitical change.FRAMINGANDREFRAMINGHaving described the news mediaÕs framing ofthe Matthew Shepard story and hav-ing analyzed how those frames functioned rhetorically to absolve the public ofitsguilt associated with the motives ofthe murder,we will now take a step back andpose the question,ÒWhat difference do the frames make for the larger world?Ó77That is,how does the news mediaÕs framing ofthat event also function ideologi-cally? How does it invite the public to view the world,social relations,and GLBTidentities? How does it affirm,challenge,and negotiate centers,margins,and rela-tionships ofpower? To get after these questions,we propose to look at the way inwhich the story works to naturalize particular sets ofsocial relations at both thelevel oflanguage (microscopic) and the level ofsymbolic form (macroscopic).78With regard to the linguistic level,we are specifically interested in the consequencesofthe mediaÕs ÒnamingÓofthe victimÕs body and the perpetratorsÕmotives.Prejudice and discrimination against GLBT persons have historically been con-nected to the stigmatization ofthe body as differentorabnormal.79In fact,Erving494RHETORIC& PUBLICAFFAIRS Goffman notes that,ÒThe Greeks,who were apparently strong on visual aids,origi-nated the term stigma to refer to bodily signs designed to expose something unusualand bad about the moral status ofthe signifier.Ó80The homosexual body has tradi-tionally been stigmatized or marked as abnormal in a wide variety ofways;it has var-iously been coded as dirty and unclean,effeminate and queer,and threatening andpredatory to suit the needs ofthose in power.81One way the bodies ofgay men havebeen stigmatized as threatening and predatory,for instance,is Òwith the allegationthat they are disproportionately responsible for child sexual abuse.Ó82The obviousridiculousness ofthis claim has not stopped the media from perpetuating it,and a1998 study ofNewsweekfound that 60 percent ofstories about child molestationinvolved homosexuals.83This pattern ofnaming in the media raises an importantquestion about the Matthew Shepard story:ÒWould Shepard have received the atten-tion he did had his body not so easily been coded as unthreatening?ÓThough there is no way to answer this question with certainty,one thing that isclear is that ShepardÕs body wascoded as unthreatening and hisstory capturednational headlines.Writing in The Progressive,JoAnn Wypijewski speculated thatone reason people uncomfortable with homosexuality may have sympathized withthis case is because for them,ÒShepard is the perfect queer:young,pretty,anddead.Ó84Indeed,it is difficult not to wonder how this story might have been told dif-ferently,ifat all,had the victim been a minority,especially when the murder ofFredMartinez,a 16-year-old transgendered Navajo in Colorado hardly raised an eye-brow,85as did the murder ofArthur Warren,a gay black man,in rural WestVirginia,86and the murder offive black gay men in Washington Òby someoneauthorities believe to be an antigay serial killer.Ó87The mediaÕs double standard herewould seem to suggest that an anti-gay murder is tragic so long as the victim is nottoo gay,which is to say,too different.The issue ofShepardÕs small,non-threateningstature raises still more questions about the intersection ofstigmatization and thegay male body.In McKinneyÕs trial,the defense attempted to shift responsibility for the beatingback to the victim by claiming that ShepardÕs homosexuality had evoked fear andpanic.Though Judge Voight ruled this line ofargument and testimony Òinadmissi-ble,Óhe cautiously reminded the media that his ruling was Ònot intended to send asocial or political commentary,[and rather] was based on Wyoming law.Ó88In otheranti-gay hate crimes where the victim was not as outwardly innocent(that is,frail,youthful,white,middle-class) as Matthew Shepard,the Ògay panicÓdefense hasbeen allowed.89The use ofsuch a defense is not all that surprising,however,whenone considers its ideological consistency with the term used to name the motiveinsuch cases,Òhomophobia.ÓAccording to Byrne Fone,ÒThe term ÔhomophobiaÕisnow popularly construed to mean fear and dislike ofhomosexuality and ofthosewho practice itÓor an Òextreme rage and fear reaction to homosexuals.Ó90Both def-initions Òplace the onus on the oppressed rather than on the agents ofoppression,Ó91THEMEDIAFRAMINGOFTHEMATTHEWSHEPARDMURDER495 effectively revictimizing the victim by making the oppressed the source,the instiga-tor,offear and disruption.The popularity ofthe term ÒhomophobiaÓto describeanti-gay attitudes is just one example ofhow public discourse regarding GLBT per-sons continues to construct homosexuality as abnormal (in this case,Òfear-produc-ingÓ).In the Matt Shepard story,homosexuality was further marked as differentand hence deviant by the mediaÕs consistent and ubiquitous references to ShepardÕsÒgayÓsexuality.There were no headlines that reported,ÒMan Killed by StraightAttackers,Óand no articles that named Henderson or McKinneyÕs sexuality.In treat-ing heterosexuality as invisible,the media both privilege it as the norm and as nor-mal.At the level oflanguage,then,the mediaÕs telling ofthe Matthew Shepard storyfunctions to reproduce a hegemonic set ofsociocultural categories in which homo-sexuality is marginal and Other.Until the unspoken assumptions that frame thedominant discourses about GLBT persons are questioned and interrogated,hatredand the violence it begets are likely to remain prominent features ofour culturallandscape.Like the linguistic particularities,we believe that the underlying symbolic formofthe story matters ideologically,and so we turn now to the Òbig picture,Óto,asBurke explains,the various typical ways that the most basic ofattitudes (that is,yes,no,maybe) are Ògrandly symbolized.Ó92Symbolic forms can be,according to Burke,loosely grouped into Òframes ofacceptanceÓand Òframes ofrejectionÓbased on thegeneral orientation they adopt in Òthe face ofanguish,injustice,disease,anddeath.Ó93Literary forms such as epic,tragedy,and comedy are frames ofacceptancebecause they equip persons to Òcome to termsÓwith an event and their place in theworld.Precisely howthey Òcome to termsÓvaries according to the symbolic form(that is,epic,tragedy,comedy,and so forth) at work,and influences,in turn,wherethey and the world can go with those terms.In shaping attitudes,symbolic formsserve as a basis for programmatic action.Our analysis ofthe Matthew Shepard storysuggests that it was framed primarily in tragic terms,in which the public,throughthe scapegoat mechanism,cleansed itselfofthe guilt associated with prejudice,hatred,violence,and their intersection.The shortcoming oftragic framing is that itbrings about symbolic resolution without turning the event into a lesson for thoseinvolved.By projecting its iniquity upon McKinney and Henderson and attackingthem,the public achieves resolution in this instance,but does not substantively alterits character as to insure that future instances are less likely.On the contrary,thismode aggressively perpetuates the status quo,cloaking but not erasing the publicÕshomophobia (and we do mean the politically loaded term ÒhomophobiaÓ) so thatit can return another day.So what are the alternatives? The media could adopt frames ofrejection such asthose found in the literary forms ofelegy,satire,burlesque,and the grotesque.94The difficulty here is that Òframes stressing the ingredient ofrejectiontend to lackthe well-rounded quality ofa completehere-and-now philosophy.They make for496RHETORIC& PUBLICAFFAIRS fanaticism,the singling-out ofone factor above others in the charting ofhumanrelationships.Ó95By Òcoming to termsÓwith an event primarily by saying Òno,Óframes ofrejection are unable to equip individuals and groups to take program-matic action.A discourse that is wholly debunking is,at least in isolation,ill suitedfor bringing about social change.96A second and preferable alternative,according to Burke,is adopting a Òcomicframe,Ówhich is Òneither wholly euphemistic [as is tragedy],nor wholly debunk-ing.Ó97As numerous scholars have noted,the comic frame is not about seeinghumor in everything;98it is about maximum consciousnessÑÒself-awareness andsocial responsibility at the same time.Ó99The comic frame is one ofÒambivalence,Óa flexible,adaptive,charitable frame that enables Òpeople to be observers ofthem-selves,while acting.Ó100In shifting the emphasis Òfrom crime to stupidity,ÓBrummettmaintains that the comic frame provides motives that Òteach the foolÑand vicari-ously the audienceÑabout error so that it may be correctedrather than punishedÓ(emphasis added).101ÒThe progress ofhumane enlightenment,Óexplains Burke,Òcan go no further than in picturing people not as vicious,but as mistaken.Ó102When social injustices such as the anti-gay beating ofMatthew Shepard are framedin tragic terms,naming McKinney and Henderson as vicious,the public finds expi-ation externally in the punishment ofthose identified as responsible.Framed incomic terms,however,one can identify with the mistaken,become a student ofher/himself,ÒÔtranscendÕhimselfby noting his own foibles,Óand learn from theexperience.103The comic frame Òpromotes integrative,socializing knowledgeÓ104byemphasizinghumility(the recognition that we are all sometimes wrong) overhumiliation(the desire to victimize others).CRITICALREFLECTIONSA frame analysis ofthe print mediaÕs coverage ofthe Matthew Shepard murder rein-forces a number ofprevious findings about how the news is made.The manner inwhich this story,for instance,gained national prominence testifies to the linkbetween the dramatic qualities ofan event and its perceived newsworthiness.105Since drama increases ratings and Ò[n]ews content is influenced by the fact that ...media corporations have a profit orientation,Ó106news outlets both seek out storieswith dramatic properties and emphasize those properties in their reporting.Theprofit-driven focus on a storyÕs dramatic elements accounts,at least partially,for thestriking consistency among news reports in the Matthew Shepard case.All three ofthe national newspapers we analyzed named the event as a vicious anti-gay hatecrime,constructed Shepard as a political symbol ofgay rights,and transferred thepublicÕs guilt onto McKinney and Henderson.Even TimeandThe Advocate,publi-cations with varied political perspectives,framed the story in comparable ways.Though The Advocateoffered more extensive coverage,particularly with regard toTHEMEDIAFRAMINGOFTHEMATTHEWSHEPARDMURDER497 Matthew Shepard and his family,the basic contours ofthe story remained the same.Consistency among news reports is also a product oftraditional journalistic rou-tines and practices.Both the New York Timesand theWashington Postassigned aprimary reporter to the story,while the Los Angeles Times pulled the vast majorityofits stories from the Associated Press.The homogeneity ofthe reports,then,reflects fewer voices gathering data from the same experts and highlighting thesame dramatic properties.107In addition to these broad findings,our analysis points to some specific conclu-sions about how the news media report on public traumas and the attendant socialconsequences ofsuch reporting.The news mediaÕs fascination with personalitiesand drama over institutional and social problems contributes to the Òtragic fram-ingÓofpublic disasters and events.Since tragic frames ultimately alleviate the socialguilt associated with a disaster through victimage,they tend to bring both closureandresolution to the larger social issues they raise.As such,tragic frames do notserve the public well as a basis for social and political action.Though mediaresearch on agenda setting has clearly established that the news media influencewhich political issues are on the publicÕs mind,108few studies have looked at howchanges in the public agenda may be linked to the piggybacking ofsocial issues ontospecific dramatic stories.Future research on agenda setting should attend carefullyto the connection between symbolic forms such as the tragic frame and shifts in thepublic agenda.Our analysis ofnews coverage ofthe Matthew Shepard murderfound that hate-crimes legislation and gay rights were central public concerns untilShepardÕs story came to a close.In light ofthis finding,it would be worth examin-ing how declining coverage ofthe Columbine shootings may have contributed sim-ilarly to the dissipation ofnational public discourse on youth violence.Theimplications ofour analysis extend beyond the matter ofthe mediaÕs role in estab-lishing a public agenda.Since Òframes are fundamental aspects ofhuman con-sciousness and shape our attitudes toward the world and each other,Ó109mediaframes function ideologically.In Matthew ShepardÕs case,we believe that newsmedia reproduced a discursive system ofprejudice that contributed to ShepardÕsdeath.We can,however,learn from this event and the mediaÕs coverage ofit.Tointroduce this essay,we attempted to provide an outline ofthe Matthew Shepardstory that accurately captured the news mediaÕs tragic framing ofthat event.To con-clude,we return to that story and adopt an alternative,more comic frame.Despite commitments to both diversity and equality,the nation continued itspainful struggle with tolerance today,as Laramie,Wyoming,became the mostrecent in a long list ofU.S.towns and cities to witness,experience,and participatein violence motivated by culturally constructed notions ofdifference.In an all-too-familiar scene,two young men,Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson,foolishlyallowed their actions to be guided by social ignorance.Goaded,like a vast majorityofpeople,by a deep desire to feel accepted and acceptable,Aaron and Russell498RHETORIC& PUBLICAFFAIRS assaulted Matthew Shepard,a University ofWyoming student,for what they per-ceived to be an intolerable difference,homosexuality.The assault,which resulted inMatthewÕs death,highlights a pattern ofbehavior in which individuals seek com-munal identification and the comfort and security that accompanies it through theexpulsion ofdifference.Such an impulse is,ofcourse,profoundly misguided as itreduces community to sameness,while ignoring the fact that difference is always amatter ofperspective and depends upon who is naming it.Aaron and RussellÕsactions serve as a powerful reminder that ifwe truly hope to build healthy andhumane communities,then we must aim to bridge the very differences we create.When we cast out others,the attitude is one ofsuperiority and humiliation,and theact is one ofviolence.For us to curb violence like that seen most recently inWyoming,we must all begin to erase the Òbattle linesÓthat are drawn again andagain when we exalt ourselves over others.NOTES1.Beth Loffreda,Losing Matt Shepard: Life and Politics in the Aftermath ofAnti-Gay Murder(New York:Columbia University Press,2000),x.2.We are using ÒmemoryÓin a somewhat more general sense than rhetorical and mediascholars who study Òpublic memory.ÓOur concern is not with how the news media con-struct invitations to a shared sense ofthe past or with the politics ofcommemoration,butwith how the ÒlifeÓofa political issueÑits birth,growth,and deathÑis related to its fram-ing in the news media.For an overview ofthe literature on public memory in rhetoricalstudies,see Stephen H.Browne,ÒReading,Rhetoric,and the Texture ofPublic Memory,ÓQuarterly Journal ofSpeech81 (1995):237Ð65.For variations on this theme,see also CaroleBlair,Marsha S.Jeppeson,and Enrico Pucci,Jr.,ÒPublic Memorializing in Postmodernity:The Vietnam Veterans Memorial as Prototype,ÓQuarterly Journal ofSpeech77 (1991):263Ð88;John Bodnar,Remaking America: Public Memory,Commemoration,and Patriotismin the Twentieth Century(Princeton,N.J.:Princeton University Press,1992);James E.Young,The Texture ofMemory: Holocaust Memorials and Meaning(New Haven:YaleUniversity Press,1993).For an overview ofthe literature on public memory in media stud-ies,see Barbie Zelizer,ÒReading the Past Against the Grain:The Shape ofMemory Studies,ÓCritical Studies in Mass Communication12 (1995):214Ð39.For variations on this theme,see also Martin J.Medhurst,ÒThe Rhetorical Structure ofOliver StoneÕs JFK,ÓCriticalStudies in Mass Communication10 (1993):128Ð43;Thomas W.Benson,ÒThinkingthrough Film:Hollywood Remembers the Blacklist,Óin Rhetoric and Community: Studiesin Unity and Fragmentation,ed.J.Michael Hogan (Columbia:University ofSouthCarolina Press,1988),217-55.3.Kenneth Burke,The Philosophy ofLiterary Form: Studies in Symbolic Action(Louisiana StateUniversity Press,1941),302Ð4.4.Kenneth Burke,Attitudes Toward History,3d ed.(Berkeley:University ofCalifornia Press,1984),34.5.Kenneth Burke,Counter-Statement,2d ed.(Los Altos,Calif.:Hermes Publications,1953),139.THEMEDIAFRAMINGOFTHEMATTHEWSHEPARDMURDER499 6.Kenneth Burke,Language as Symbolic Action: Essays on Life,Literature,and Method(Berkeley:University ofCalifornia Press,1968),44Ð45.7.In media studies,Òframes analysisÓderives from the work ofErving Goffman,Frame Analysis:An Essay on the Organization ofExperience(Cambridge:Harvard University Press,1974).SeeW.Lance Bennett,News: The Politics ofIllusion,2d ed.(New York:Longman,1988);W.LanceBennett,ÒThe News about Foreign Policy,Óin Taken by Storm: The Media,Public Opinion,andU.S.Foreign Policy in the GulfWar,ed.W.Lance Bennett and David L.Paletz (Chicago:University ofChicago Press,1994),12Ð40;Todd Gitlin,ÒThe Whole World is Watching,ÓinTransmission: Toward a Post-Television Culture,2d ed.,ed.Peter dÕAgostine and David Tafler(Thousand Oaks,Calif.:Sage Publications,1995),91Ð103;Shanto Iyengar,Is AnyoneResponsible? How Television Frames Political Issues(Chicago:University ofChicago Press,1991);and Shanto Iyengar and Adam Simon,ÒNews Coverage ofthe GulfCrisis and PublicOpinion:A Study ofAgenda-Setting,Priming,and Framing,Óin Taken by Storm,167Ð85.8.Iyengar and Simon,ÒNews Coverage,Ó171.9.Iyengar,Is Anyone Responsible?,14.10.Bennett,ÒNews about Foreign Policy,Ó31.11.Everette Dennis et al.,Covering the Presidential Primaries(New York:The Freedom ForumMedia Studies Center,1992),59.12.Burke,Counter-Statement,31,124.13.C.Allen Carter,Kenneth Burke and the Scapegoat Process(Norman:University ofOklahomaPress,1996),40.14.Bennett,News,35.15.Quoted in Loffreda,Losing Matt Shepard,5.16.Though the ÒscarecrowÓimage would appear in news reports repeatedly and even in poetrylong after the event,ÒMatt hadnÕt actually been tied like a scarecrow;when he wasapproached first by the mountain biker,Aaron Kreifels,and then by Reggie Fluty,the sher-iffÕs deputy who answered KreifelsÕs emergency call,Matt lay on his back,head proppedagainst the fence,legs outstretched.His hands were lashed behind him and tied barely fourinches offthe ground to a fencepostÓ(Loffreda,Losing Matt Shepard,5).17.James Brooke,ÒGay Man Beaten and Left For Dead;2 Are Charged,ÓNew York Times,October 10,1998,sec.A09.18.ÒGay Student Brutally Beaten;4 Arrested,ÓLos Angeles Times,October 10,1998,16.19.Tom Kenworthy,ÒGay Man Near Death after Beating,Burning;Three Held in WyomingAttack Near Campus;Hate Crimes Suspected,ÓWashington Post,October 10,1998,sec.A01.20.ÒGay Student Brutally Beaten,Ó16.21.Kenworthy,ÒGay Man Near Death,Ósec.A01.22.Brooke,ÒGay Man Beaten,Ósec.A09.23.ÒGay Student Brutally Beaten,Ó16.24.Tom Kenworthy,ÒIn Wyoming,Homecoming Infused with Hard Lesson on Intolerance,ÓWashington Post,October 11,1998,sec.A02.25.Bennett,News,26.26.As Wyoming governor Jim Geringer told the Washington Postshortly after ShepardÕs death,Ò[we all] feel a sense oftragedy and disbeliefthat a human life could be taken in such a bru-tal way.We must now find closure.Ó(Tom Kenworthy,ÒGay Wyoming Student Succumbs toInjuries,ÓWashington Post,October 13,1998,sec.A07).500RHETORIC& PUBLICAFFAIRS 27.Tom Kenworthy,ÒHundreds Gather to Remember Slain Man as ÔLight to the WorldÕ;Anti-Gay Forces Incite Shouting Match at Wyoming Funeral,ÓWashington Post,October 17,1998,sec.A03.28.Loffreda,Losing Matt Shepard,13.29.Kenworthy,ÒIn Wyoming,Ósec.A02.30.Kenworthy,ÒHundreds Gather,Ósec.A03.31.Justin Gillis and Patrice Gaines,ÒPattern ofHate Emerges on a Fence in Laramie;GayVictimsÕKillers Say They Saw an Easy Crime Target,ÓWashington Post,October 18,1998,sec.A01.32.Gillis and Gaines,ÒPattern ofHate,Ósec.A01.33.Allan Lengel,ÒThousands Mourn StudentÕs Death;Beating in Wyoming Sparks New Pushfor Hate-Crimes Laws,ÓWashington Post,October 15,1998,sec.A07.34.Richard Lacayo,ÒThe New Gay Struggle,ÓTime,October 26,1998,34.President Clinton con-tinued to use the Matthew Shepard murder as a rallying cry for the passage ofa federal hate-crimes bill over the course ofthe next year.See ÒClinton Urges Expanding Federal HateCrimes Law,ÓLos Angeles Times,April 7,1999,home edition,4;ÒWhite House to HostMeeting on Tougher U.S.Hate Crime Law,ÓLos Angeles Times,July 10,1999,valley edition,13B;Charles Babington,ÒClinton Urges Congress to Toughen Laws on Hate Crimes,Guns,ÓWashington Post,October 16,1999,sec.A11.35.Lisa Neff,ÒThe Best Defense:Activists Plan Demonstrations in 50 States to Fight for BasicHuman Rights,ÓThe Advocate,March 16,1999,40.ShepardÕs centrality to the nationaldebate surrounding gay rights and hate-crimes legislation is evident in press reports fromthe time ofhis death until the conviction ofMcKinney.ÒShepardÕs brutal murder put a spot-light on hate crimesÓ(ÒNation in Brief/Wyoming,ÓLos Angeles Times,May 22,1999,homeedition,12).ÒThe crime galvanized the gay and lesbian community and became a rallyingpoint in the push for hate crime lawsÓ(John L.Mitchell,ÒVigil Marks Anniversary ofSlayingofGay Student,ÓLos Angeles Times,October 13,1999,home edition,3).ÒThe death ofShepard focused public attention on violence against homosexuals and stimulated at-timesfeverish debate about hate crimes legislationÓ(Julie Cart,ÒDefense Says HomosexualAdvance Triggered Slaying,Los Angeles Times,October 26,1999,home edition,20).Ò[MattShepardÕs] death galvanized those seeking to expand the nationÕs hate-crime lawsÓ(ÒAttackon Gay Was Planned,Witness Says,ÓLos Angeles Times,October 29,1999,valley edition,23A).ÒThe death ofthe college student [Matt Shepard] ignited national debate over hatecrimes and violence against homosexualsÓ(Julie Cart,ÒMan Guilty in Shepard Slaying,Could Get Death,ÓLos Angeles Times,November 4,1999,home edition,37).ÒThe brutalmurder ofthe wholesome-looking Shepard struck a chord across America.It spurred callsfor the enactment ofhate crime legislationÓ(Julie Cart,ÒKiller ofGay Student Is SparedDeath Penalty,ÓLos Angeles Times,November 5,1999,home edition,1).ÒThe murder [ofMatt Shepard] last October gained nationwide publicity and spurred calls by gay and lesbianactivists for enactment oftough anti-hate crime legislation nationallyÓ(Tom Kenworthy,Ò2nd Man is Convicted ofKilling Gay Student,ÓWashington Post,November 4,1999,sec.A1).ÒThe case [ofMatt Shepard] became a rallying cry for states and the FederalGovernment to pass and expand hate-crime measuresÓ(Michael Janofsky,ÒA Defense toAvoid Execution,ÓNew York Times,October 26,1999,sec.A18).See also Carl Ingram,ÒCalifornia and the West,ÓLos Angeles Times,October 3,1999,home edition,24;ÒFamilies ofHate Crime Victims Unite at Rally,ÓLos Angeles Times,October 10,1999,home edition,12;Tom Kenworthy,ÒÔGay PanicÕDefense Stirs Wyo.Trial,ÓWashington Post,October 26,1999,THEMEDIAFRAMINGOFTHEMATTHEWSHEPARDMURDER501 sec.A2;Tom Kenworthy,ÒWyo.Jury to Weigh Motives in Gay Killing,ÓWashington Post,November 3,1999,sec.A3;Bill Carter,ÒShepardÕs Parents,ÓNew York Times,February 3,1999,sec.E7.36.Bruce Shenitz,ÒLaramieÕs Legacy,ÓOut,October 2001,76,110.37.Gillis and Gaines,ÒPattern ofHate,Ósec.A01;A second article reported that Òin 1996,21 menand women were killed in the United States because oftheir sexual orientation,according tothe Southern Poverty Law Center,an Alabama group that tracks violence against minorities.According to the Federal Bureau ofInvestigation,sexual orientation was a factor in 11.6 per-cent ofthe 8,759 hate crimes recorded in 1996.Ó(James Brooke,ÒGay Man Dies from Attack,Fanning Outrage and Debate,ÓNew York Times,October 13,1998,sec.A17).Sexual orienta-tion ranks third behind race and religion as the motive for (reported) hate crimes.See Ò2000FBI Hate Crime Statistics,ÓHuman Rights Campaign,retrieved April 20,2002,from.38.Gillis and Gaines,ÒPattern ofHate,Ósec.A01.39.Shenitz,ÒLaramieÕs Legacy,Ó76,110.40.Quoted in Shenitz,ÒLaramieÕs Legacy,Ó77.41.Kenworthy,ÒIn Wyoming,Ósec.A02.42.Steve Lopez,ÒTo Be Young and Gay in Wyoming,ÓTime,October 26,1998,38.43.Kenneth Burke,The Rhetoric ofReligion: Studies in Logology(Boston:Beacon Press,1961),5.44.Kenneth Burke,A Grammar ofMotives(New York:Prentice Hall,1945),406.45.Burke,A Grammar ofMotives,406.46.Burke,A Grammar ofMotives,406.47.Barry Brummett,ÒBurkean Comedy and Tragedy,Illustrated in Reactions to the Arrest ofJohn Delorean,ÓCentral States Speech Journal35 (1984):218.48.Lopez,ÒTo Be Young,Ó38.49.Brooke,ÒGay Man Dies,Ósec.A17.See also Ò2 Suspects in GayÕs Killing to Face Death,ÓLosAngeles Times,December 29,1998,home edition,14;ÒDeath Penalty Asked in Gay ManÕsMurder,ÓWashington Post,December 29,1998;sec.A6;ÒWyo.Governor Backs Bill on HateCrimes,ÓWashington Post,January 19,1999,sec.A9.50.Brooke,ÒGay Man Beaten,Ósec.A09.51.Kenworthy,ÒIn Wyoming,Ósec.A02.52.Lopez,ÒTo Be Young,Ó39.53.James Brooke,ÒAfter Beating ofGay Man,Town Looks at Its Attitudes,ÓNew York Times,October 12,1998,sec.A12.54.ÒJury Selection Starts in Wyoming Hate-Crime Trial,ÓWashington Post,March 25,1999,sec.A15.ÒLaramie,Wyo.ÑThis small city on the high plains ofsoutheast Wyoming has lookedupon itselfas a peaceful,law-abiding community ever since 1868....Those images becameblurred last fall with the brutal beating death ofMatthew Shepard,a gay university student:To the outside world,Laramie suddenly became the place where a vicious hate crime tookplace,where below the patina oftolerance lurked a deep streak ofcowboy intoleranceÓ(TomKenworthy,ÒAfter Slaying,Community Takes a Punishing Look at Itself,ÓWashington Post,April 5,1999,sec.A3).See also James Brooke,ÒWyoming City Braces for Gay Murder Trial,ÓNew York Times,April 4,1999,sec.14.55.Lopez,ÒTo Be Young,Ó38.502RHETORIC& PUBLICAFFAIRS 56.In one ofour classrooms,a year after the murder,a student connected to individuals heldaccountable for the dehumanizing event in the Colorado State University parade would con-firm,under the promise ofanonymity,the use ofthe anti-gay epithets ÒIÕm GayÓand ÒUpMy Ass.Ó57.Loffreda,Losing Matt Shepard,10.58.James Brooke,ÒHomophobia often Found in Schools,Data Show,ÓNew York Times,October14,1998,sec.A19.59.Kenworthy,ÒHundreds Gather,Ósec.A03.60.Gillis and Gaines,ÒPattern ofHate,Ósec.A01.61.Carter,Kenneth Burke,18.62.The Wyoming governor went on to say,Ò[We] feel a sense oftragedy and disbeliefthat ahuman life could be taken in such a way.We must now find closureÓ(Kenworthy,ÒGayWyoming Student Succumbs,Ósec.A07).63.Lopez,ÒTo Be Young,Ó39.64.ÒBrutal Beating ofGay Student is Condemned,ÓLos Angeles Times,October 11,1998,16.News reports repeatedly emphasized that Matt Shepard was deceived into going with hisattackersÑthat Henderson and McKinney Òposed as homosexuals and lured Shepard fromthe barÓ(Tom Kenworthy,ÒÔIÕm Going to Grant You Life,ÕÓWashington Post,February 5,1999,sec.A2).See also Julie Cart,ÒGayÕs Slaying Spawns Morality Play,ÓLos Angeles Times,March 24,1999,home edition,11;Julie Cart,ÒPlea Averts 1st Trial in Slaying ofGayStudent,ÓLos Angeles Times,April 6,1999,home edition,1;ÒAttack on Gay,Ó23A;TomKenworthy,ÒGay StudentÕs Attacker Pleads Guilty,Gets Two Life Terms,ÓWashington Post,April 6,1999,sec.A2;ÒWyoming Judge Bars ÔGay PanicÕDefense,Washington Post,November 2,1999,sec.A7;Kenworthy,Ò2nd Man Is Convicted,Ósec.A1;James Brooke,ÒGayMurder Trial Ends with Guilty Plea,ÓNew York Times,April 6,1999,sec.A20.65.Chris Bull,ÒA Matter ofLife and Death,ÓThe Advocate,March 16,1999,38.66.Cart,ÒGayÕs Slaying Spawns,Ó11.67.Kenworthy,ÒÔGay PanicÕDefense,Ósec.A2;Cart,ÒMan Guilty,Ó37.68.Phil Curtis,ÒHate Crimes:More than a Verdict,ÓThe Advocate,January 18,2000,36.See alsoCart,ÒKiller ofGay Student,Ó1;Michael Janofsky,ÒParents ofGay Obtain Mercy for HisKiller,ÓNew York Times,November 5,1999,sec.A1.69.Brummett,ÒBurkean Comedy,Ó219.70.Tom Kenworthy,ÒSlain Gay ManÕs Mother Tries to Show HateÕs ÔRealÕCost,ÓWashington Post,October 10,1999,sec.A2.71.Curtis,ÒHate Crimes,Ó34Ð35.The notion that McKinneyÕs conviction signaled the end formore than just the trial was evident in other news reports as well.ÒFor the citizens ofWyoming,who often felt that their stateÕs Western philosophies were on trial,the end oftheyearlong ordeal was welcomeÓ(Cart,ÒKiller ofGay Student,Ó1).ÒThe verdict,which cameafter 10 hours ofdeliberations over two days,brought a swift end to a case that has beenwatched closely because ofthe brutality ofthe crime and the sexual orientation ofthe vic-timÓ(Michael Janofsky,ÒMan is Convicted ofKilling ofGay Student,ÓNew York Times,November 4,1999,sec.A14).72.Robert L.Heath,Realism and Relativism: A Perspective on Kenneth Burke(Macon,Ga.:Mercer University Press,1986),246.73.In Lopez,ÒTo Be Young,Ó38.THEMEDIAFRAMINGOFTHEMATTHEWSHEPARDMURDER503 74.What is significant about this poll is not the distribution,which was likely a product ofhowthe questions were asked,but that the poll was published in a news report at all.The inclu-sion ofthe poll contributes to the perception that this issue is significant.After McKinneyÕsconviction,polls like this one disappeared from the public eye.75.Curtis,ÒHate Crimes,Ó38.Since January 2000,four states have passed hate-crimes legisla-tion,including Texas,which approved a hate-crimes bill in 2001.A similar bill,however,wassuppressed two years earlier in Texas because it specifically included protection for gays.SeeRoss E.Milloy,ÒTexas Senate Passes Hate Crimes Bill that BushÕs Allies Killed,ÓNew YorkTimes,May 8,2001,sec.A16.The five states,as ofApril 16,2002,that still have no hate-crimes laws are Arkansas,Indiana,New Mexico,South Carolina,and Wyoming.Ofthe 45states with hate-crimes laws,18 states have laws that do not explicitly include sexual orien-tation.See ÒDoes Your StateÕs Hate Crimes Law Include Sexual Orientation and GenderIdentity?ÓHuman Rights Campaign,retrieved April 16,2002,from .76.Curtis,ÒHate Crimes,Ó38.77.Gitlin,ÒThe Whole World,Ó96.78.We are suggesting that there are multiple layers offraming.A picture frame,for instance,shapes how viewers perceive a picture,but so too does the pictureÕs presence in a larger struc-ture such as the frame ofa building.Indeed,individuals respond very differently to pictureshanging in a private home than to those hanging in a museum.79.See George Chauncey,Gay New York: Gender,Urban Culture,and the Making ofthe Gay MaleWorld,1890Ð1940(New York:Basic Books,1994),13.80.Erving Goffman,Stigma: Notes on the Management ofSpoiled Identity(Englewood Cliffs,N.J.:Prentice-Hall,1963),1.81.Byrne Fone,Homophobia: A History(New York:Picador USA,2000),5.82.Gerhard Falk,Stigma: How We Treat Outsiders(New York:Prometheus Books,2001),74.83.See Falk,Stigma,73Ð74.84.Quoted in Shenitz,ÒLaramieÕs Legacy,Ó110.85.See Shenitz,ÒLaramieÕs Legacy,Ó111.86.Tracey A.Reeves,ÒA Town Searches its Soul:After Gay Black Man is Slain,W.VA.ResidentsAsk Why,ÓWashington Post,July 20,2000,sec.A01.87.Fone,Homophobia,413.88.Curtis,ÒHate Crimes,Ó35.89.One ofmany cases where the Ògay panic defenseÓwas allowed is that ofMichael Auker,whowas stomped and beaten by Todd Clinger,18,and Troy Clinger,20,in Pennsylvania.ÒAfterrendering Auker unconscious,the two allegedly transported him to his home where he wasfound comatose two days laterÓ(Barbara Dozetos,ÒBrothers Claim ÔGay PanicÕafter Beatingthat Left Man in Coma,ÓThe Gay.com Network,retrieved December 13,2001,from).We foundthis example especially intriguing because ofhow closely the crime mirrored the MatthewShepard beating.90.Fone,Homophobia,5.91.Warren J.Blumenfeld,introduction to Homophobia: How We All Pay the Price,ed.Warren J.Blumenfeld (Boston:Beacon Press,1992),15.92.Burke,Attitudes,introduction.504RHETORIC& PUBLICAFFAIRS 93.Burke,Attitudes,3.94.ÒÔRejectionÕis a by-product ofÔacceptanceÕ...It is the heretical aspect ofan orthodoxyÑandas such,it has much in common with the Ôframe ofacceptanceÕthat it rejectsÓ(Burke,Attitudes,21).Burke also posits,ÒCould we not say that allsymbolic structures are designedto produce such ÔacceptanceÕin one form or another?Ó(emphasis added,Attitudes,19Ð20).95.Burke,Attitudes,28Ð29.96.Burke,Attitudes,92;see also William H.Rueckert,Encounters with Kenneth Burke(Urbana:University ofIllinois Press,1994),118.97.Burke,Attitudes,166.98.Stanley Edgar Hyman,ÒKenneth Burke and the Criticism ofSymbolic Action,Óin LandmarkEssays on Kenneth Burke,ed.Barry Brummett (Davis,Calif.:Hermagoras Press,1993),29;Timothy N.Thompson and Anthony J.Palmeri,ÒAttitudes toward Counternature (withNotes on Nurturing a Poetic Psychosis),Óin Extensions ofthe Burkean System,ed.James W.Chesebro (Tuscaloosa:University ofAlabama Press,1993),276.99.Rueckert,Encounters,121.100.Burke,Attitudes,171.101.Brummett,ÒBurkean Comedy,Ó219.102.Burke,Attitudes,41.103.Burke,Attitudes,171.104.Rueckert,Encounters,117Ð18.105.For extended discussion,see Bennett,News;Herbert J.Gans,Deciding WhatÕs News: A StudyofCBS Evening News,NBC Nightly News,Newsweek and Time(New York:Pantheon,1979).106.David Croteau and William Hoynes,Media/Society: Industries,Images,and Audiences,2d ed.(Thousand Oaks,Calif.:Pine Forge Press,2000),241.107.Gans,Deciding WhatÕs News,138Ð42.108.See Croteau and Hoynes,Media/Society,239Ð41.109.Mark Lawrence McPhail,ÒCoherence as Representative Anecdote in the Rhetorics ofKenneth Burke and Ernesto Grassi,Óin Kenneth Burke and Contemporary European Thought:Rhetoric in Transition,ed.Bernard L.Brock (Tuscaloosa:University ofAlabama Press),85.THEMEDIAFRAMINGOFTHEMATTHEWSHEPARDMURDER505 The Politics of Negotiating Public Tragedy: Media Framing ofthe Matthew Shepard MurderOtt, Brian L.Aoki, Eric.Rhetoric & Public Affairs, Volume 5, Number 3, Fall 2002, pp.483-505 (Article)Published by Michigan State University PressDOI: 10.1353/rap.2002.0060For additional information about this article Access Provided by University of Kentucky at 12/08/11 6:01PM GMThttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/rap/summary/v005/5.3ott.html This essay undertakes a detailed frame analysis ofprint media coverage ofthe MatthewShepard murder in three nationally influential newspapers as well as TimemagazineandThe Advocate.We contend that the mediaÕs tragic framing ofthe event,with anemphasis on the scapegoat process,functioned rhetorically to alleviate the publicÕs guiltconcerning anti-gay hate crimes and to excuse the public ofany social culpability.Italso functioned ideologically to reaffirm a dominant set ofdiscourses that socially stig-matizes gay,lesbian,bisexual,and transgendered persons and to hamper efforts to cre-ate and enact a social policy that would prevent this type ofviolence in the future.Aconcluding section considers BurkeÕs notion ofthe Òcomic frameÓas a potential correc-tive for the mediaÕs coverage ofpublic tragedies.Even before Matt died,he underwent a strange,American transubstantiation,seized,filtered,and fixed as an icon by the national news media dedicated to swift and con-sumable tragedy and by a national politics convulsed by gay rights.ÑBeth Loffreda,Losing Matt Shepard1In the blustery evening hours ofTuesday,October 6,1998,Aaron McKinney andRussell Henderson lured 21-year-old Matthew Shepard from the Fireside Bar inLaramie,Wyoming,to a desolate field on the edge oftown.There the two highschool dropouts bound the frail,youthful Shepard to a split-rail fence,viciouslybludgeoned him 18 times with the butt ofa .357 magnum,stole his shoes and wal-let,and left him to die in the darkness and near-freezing temperatures.It was notuntil the evening ofthe next day that Aaron Kreifel,a passing mountain biker,dis-covered ShepardÑhis face so horribly disfigured that Kreifel told police he thoughtTHEPOLITICSOFNEGOTIATINGPUBLICTRAGEDY:MEDIAFRAMINGOFTHEMATTHEWSHEPARDMURDERBRIANL. OTTANDERICAOKIBrian L.Ott and Eric Aoki are Assistant Professors ofSpeech Communication at Colorado StateUniversity in Fort Collins,Colorado.They contributed equally to this essay.The authors wish to thankMatthew Petrunia for his extensive research assistance and Drs.Karrin Anderson,Greg Dickinson,andKirsten Pullen for their insightful comments on earlier drafts ofthis manuscript.©Rhetoric & Public AffairsVol.5,No.3,2002,pp.483-505ISSN 1094-8392 at first it was a scarecrow.The only portions ofhis face not covered in blood werethose that had been streaked clean by his tears.Unconscious,hypothermic,and suf-fering from severe brain trauma,Shepard was astonishingly still alive.He wasrushed to Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins,Colorado,where he would die fivedays later without ever having regained consciousness.McKinney and Hendersonhad been apprehended prior to his death,and as the gruesome details ofthat nightbegan to unfold,it became clear that Matthew Shepard was brutally murdered forbeing gay.In the weeks that followed,Shepard became a symbol ofthe deep preju-dice,hatred,and violence directed at homosexuals.Indeed,news ofthe eventspawned vigils across the country and a nationwide debate about hate-crimes legis-lation.Shortly more than a year later,Henderson pled guilty and McKinney wasconvicted ofmurder.Both men are currently serving life sentences in the WyomingState Penitentiary.The basic contours ofthis story remain vividly etched in our memoriesÑmem-ories that have permanently altered our personal and public lives.Perhaps this eventso profoundly affected both ofus because,as educators in Colorado,we were lessthan five miles from the hospital where Matthew Shepard clung to life for five daysin October 1998.Perhaps the memory still burns brightly for us because several stu-dents at our university mocked the event with a scarecrow and anti-gay epithets ona homecoming float even as Shepard lay comatose in the hospital across town.Perhaps the memory serves as a survival instinct,reminding us that being ÒoutÓinthe community drastically alters the relation ofour bodies to the landscape,andthat cultural politics,discourse,and violence are intricately intertwined.Or per-haps,just perhaps,we fear the consequences offorgetting.We cling to the memoryofMatthew Shepard because we sense that the nation has already forgotten,orworse,reconciled these events.2How has an event that sparked so much interest,concern,and public discussion seeped from the collective consciousness ofa nationand its citizenry? Why is hate-crimes legislation no longer a ÒhotÓpolitical issue?The answers to these questions we believe reside,at least in large part,in the man-ner in which the news media told this story.We also believe that the underlying form ofthe Matthew Shepard story may haveresonance with the news mediaÕs framing ofother public traumas,from the shoot-ings at Columbine High School to the terrorist attacks in New York andWashington,D.C.,on September 11,2001.Our aim in this essay,then,is to identifythe underlying symbolic process and to analyze how it functions to construct andposition citizens relative to the political process,and how it assists them in con-fronting and resolving public trauma.With regard to the Matthew Shepard murder,we contend that the news mediaÕs tragic framing ofthat event works rhetoricallyand ideologically to relieve the public ofits social complicity and culpability;toreaffirm a dominant set ofdiscourses that socially stigmatizes gay,lesbian,bisexual,and transgendered (GLBT) persons;and to hamper efforts to create and enact a484RHETORIC& PUBLICAFFAIRS progressive GLBT social policy.To advance this argument,we begin by examiningthe literature on media framing.SYMBOLICACTION,FRAMEANALYSIS,ANDTHENEWSMEDIAIn The Philosophy ofLiterary Form,Kenneth Burke argues that art forms function asequipments for living,by which he means that discursive forms such as comedy,tragedy,satire,and epic furnish individuals and collectives with the symbolicresources and strategies for addressing and resolving the given historical and per-sonal problems they face.3When there is a traumatic event such as the MatthewShepard murder,then,discourseÑand especially the public discourse ofthe newsmediaÑaids people in Òcoming to termsÓwith the event.For Burke,different dis-cursive forms equip persons to confront and resolve problems in different ways.Ò[E]ach ofthe great poetic forms,Óhe contends,Òstresses its own peculiar way ofbuilding the mental equipment (meanings,attitudes,character) by which one han-dles the significant factors ofhis time.Ó4That different discursive forms offer differ-ent mental equipments is significant because it frames what constitutes acceptablepolitical and social action.Identifying prevailing discursive forms is a never-endingcritical task,as symbolic forming is linked to the environment in which it occursand new discursive forms are continually emerging.In BurkeÕs words,Òthe conven-tional forms demanded by one age are as resolutely shunned by another.Ó5Thus,tounderstand how the public made sense ofand responded to the Shepard murder,one must attend to the underlying symbolic form ofthe discourse surrounding it.One approach to analyzing discursive forms and the attendant attitudes (incip-ient actions) they foster toward a situation is by examining what Burke has calledÒterministic screensÓ6and media criticsÑdrawing on a sociological perspectiveÑhave called Òframe analysis.Ó7Frame analysis looks to see how a situation or eventis named/defined,and how that naming shapes public opinion.It accomplishesthis analysis by highlighting the inherent biases in all storytelling,namely selectiv-ity(what is included and excluded in the story?),partiality (what is emphasizedand downplayed in the story?),and structure(how does the story formally playout?).One example offraming in the news media is the distinction betweenÒepisodicÓstories and ÒthematicÓstories.ÒThe episodic frame,Óaccording toShanto Iyengar and Adam Simon,Òdepicts public issues in terms ofconcreteinstances or public events ...[and] makes for Ôgood pictures.ÕThe thematic newsframe,by contrast,places public issues in some general or abstract context ...[and] takes the form ofa ÔtakeoutÕor ÔbackgrounderÕreport directed at general out-comes.Ó8Though few news reports are exclusively episodic or thematic,the domi-nance ofepisodic frames in the news has been established in multiple studies.9How a story is framed in the news affects both how the public assigns responsibil-ity for a traumatic event and Òhow people following the debate think about policyTHEMEDIAFRAMINGOFTHEMATTHEWSHEPARDMURDER485 options and preferred outcomes.Ó10To appreciate fully the political and ideologi-cal implications offraming,however,the critic must do more than simply classifya news story as episodic or thematic.The subtle ebb and flow ofsymbolic forms is crucial to how they interpellatesubjects and do the work ofideology.To get after these subtleties,we undertook adetailed frame analysis ofthe news coverage ofthe Matthew Shepard murder in theWashington Post,theNew York Times,and the Los Angeles TimesÑthree Òlarge,nationally influential newspapers.Ó11Since we were curious about how this story hasbeen framed over time,we examined the news coverage from October 10,1998(when the story was first reported nationally),to December 2001 (roughly two yearsafter McKinney was convicted).This approach generated a sample containing 71news articles.Wanting to see ifthe coverage varied in publications with notably dif-ferent politics,we also analyzed the news coverage in Time magazine and TheAdvocateover the same period.These magazines allowed us to compare and con-trast the coverage ofthe event in a mainstream weekly with the coverage in an alter-native news source specifically committed to issues affecting the GLBT community.Based on an analysis ofthese five news outlets,we identified four phases in the printmediaÕs framing ofthe Matthew Shepard story:naming the event,making a politi-cal symbol,expunging the evil within,and restoring the social order.In the follow-ing section,we describe each ofthese phases and the symbolic processes they entail.THEMATTHEWSHEPARDSTORYAll stories have form,which is to say they are temporally structuredÑcreating andfulfilling appetites as they unfold.12As C.Allen Carter notes:When the narrative strategy is working as intended,the culmination ofeach episodesets the stage for the next ...The story relieves its audience ofthe burden ofhavingto Ôchoose betweenÕdifferent phases ofits unfolding and,simply by taking themthrough one phase,prepares them for the next.Each successive step ofthe plot leadsinto the next,whether or not it leads its audience astray.13Naming the EventGiven the formal characteristics ofnarrative,how a story begins is crucial to how astory develops.In this section,we examine how the Matthew Shepard story isframed in initial news reports and analyze how that framing functions rhetorically.To fully appreciate howthis story begins,however,we must first look at whenitbegins.TheWashington Post,New York Times,andLos Angeles Timesdid not runfeature articles on Matthew Shepard until October 10,1998,three days after he wasdiscovered.The reason for the mediaÕs delay in treating the story as a national news486RHETORIC& PUBLICAFFAIRS item likely has to do with how the news is made.An event is selected to become amajor news story based on its potential for drama.As W.Lance Bennett notes,ÒIt isno secret that reporters and editors search for events with dramatic properties andthen emphasize those properties in their reporting.Ó14Prior to October 8,little wasknown about the details ofthe attack outside the Albany County sheriffÕs depart-ment.During a local press conference on that day,SheriffGary Puls told reportersthat,Ò[Matthew] may have been beaten because he was gay ...[and that he] wasfound by a mountain biker,tied to a fence like a scarecrow.Ó15Local reporters cov-ering the story immediately seized on the anti-gay aspect ofthe crime and the cru-cifix symbolism ofthe scarecrow imageÑtwo dramatic elements that quickly drewthe attention ofthe national press.16Matthew Shepard was officially Ògood melodramaÓand the reports in the main-stream media that followed focused almost exclusively on two elements,thedeplorable motives ofHenderson and McKinney and the gruesome character ofthescene.Indeed,these aspects ofthe story are evident in the initial headlines from allthree papers we analyzed:ÒGay Man Beaten and Left For Dead;2 Are Charged,Ó17ÒGay Student Brutally Beaten;4 Arrested,Ó18and ÒGay Man Near Death AfterBeating,Burning;Three Held in Wyoming Attack Near Campus;Hate CrimesSuspected.Ó19The qualifier ÒgayÓthat begins each headline constructs the victimÕssexuality as the focal point ofthe story,despite Laramie Police CommanderOÕDalleyÕs public claim at the time that Òrobbery was the chiefmotive.Ó20The news mediaÕs devotion to drama virtually insured that sensationalisticdescriptions ofMatthew ShepardÕs body would lead every story.In its first featurearticle,theWashington Postemphasized the savage and dehumanizing aspects ofthecrime,reporting that ÒMatthew Shepard,slight ofstature,gentle ofdemeanor ...was tied to a fence like a dead coyote ...[with] his head badly battered and burnmarks on his body.Ó21Likewise,the New York Timesbegan,ÒAt first,the passingbicyclist thought the crumpled form lashed to a ranch fence was a scarecrow.Butwhen he stopped,he found the burned,battered and nearly lifeless body ofMatthew Shepard,an openly gay college student.Ó22The ÒscarecrowÓimage was alsoreferenced in the Los Angeles Times,which began,ÒA gay University ofWyomingstudent was brutally beaten,burned and left tied to a wooden fence like a scarecrow,with grave injuries including a smashed skull.Ó23The graphic and gruesome imagesofviolence visited upon ShepardÕs body were shocking and traumatic,and theybegged the question,ÒHow could something like this happen?ÓAs unthinkable andunimaginable as the act seemed,the basic outline ofthe story already portrayed ananswerÑhatred fueled by homophobia.The naming ofthe attack as a Òvicious ...anti-gay hate crimeÓ24would prove pivotal in the heated political discussion toensue.Key details,terms,and structures were already setting the stage for how thestory mustunfold.For instance,the near exclusive focus in early press reports onTHEMEDIAFRAMINGOFTHEMATTHEWSHEPARDMURDER487 the brutality done to Matthew ShepardÕs body functioned in two interrelated ways.First,it personalized the event,making Shepard the centerofthe story.This was not,and never would become,a story about hate crimes in which Matthew Shepard wassimply an example.It was a story about Shepard,in which hate was the motive forviolence.One consequence ofpersonalized news,according to Bennett,Ò[is that it]gives preference to the individual actors and human-interest angles in events whiledownplaying institutional and political considerations that establish the social con-text for those events.Ó25In the Matthew Shepard story,hatred and homophobiaÑaswe will demonstrate shortlyÑwould come to be framed primarily as character flawsofthe chiefantagonists,rather than as wide-scale social prejudices that routinelyresult in violence toward gays and lesbians.Second,the repeated emphasis on thehideousness ofthe crime in both its barbarity and motivation profoundly disruptedthe moral and social order.The images and descriptions were not only traumatic,they were traumatizing;they functioned to unsettle and even undermine the publicÕsfaith in basic civility and humanity.So great was the disruption to the social orderthat even at this early stage it fostered a desire for resolution.26For this story,forMatthew ShepardÕs story,to end (as all news stories must),responsibilityhad to beassigned and order had to be restored.Since this story centered on Shepard,respon-sibility had a face,or rather two faces,Russell Henderson and Aaron McKinney.Butbefore they would come into focus,Shepard would be transformed into a nationalpolitical symbol.Making a Political SymbolEven before his death,Shepard had become Òa national symbol for the campaignagainst hate crimes and anti-gay violence.Ó27A website created by Poudre ValleyHospital to provide updates on his condition Òdrew over 815,000 hits from aroundthe world.Ó28On Saturday,October 10,students,faculty,and community membersfrom Laramie gathered for the University ofWyomingÕs homecoming parade,where Òamid the usual hoopla ...hundreds ofpeople donned yellow arm bands andmarched in tribute to Shepard and the beliefthat intolerance has no place in theEquality State.Ó29Throughout the weekend,candlelight vigils for Shepard would beheld across the country,with a Los Angeles memorial attracting an estimated 5,000concerned citizens.Then,in the early morning hours ofMonday,October 12,1998,one day after National Coming Out Day,Matthew Shepard passed away with hisparents at his beside.With the news ofShepardÕs death,a nation already stricken with griefwasplunged even deeper into emotional turmoil.As Reverend Anne Kitch asked in herhomily at ShepardÕs funeral,ÒHow can we not let our hearts be deeply,deeply trou-bled? How can we not be immersed in despair,how can we not cry out against this?This is not the way it is supposed to be.A son has died,a brother has been lost,a488RHETORIC& PUBLICAFFAIRS child has been broken,torn,abandoned.Ó30The Matthew Shepard story had strucka chord.It had Òelectrified gay America,Ó31and it had done much more.As Postreporters Justin Gillis and Patrice Gaines noted:For the first time,in cities across the United States and Canada,straight people ...marched by the thousands to protest anti-gay violence.More than 60 marches and vigilshave taken place since his death,and others are scheduled for today.People rallied in NewYork,Atlanta and MiamiÑand in West Lafayette,Ind.,Fort Collins,Colo.,and CornerBrook,Newfoundland.Under an indigo sky,on the steps ofthe Capitol,a crowd ofsev-eral thousand gathered last week to hold candles aloft,celebrate ShepardÕs life anddemand that Congress pass legislation to battle hate crimes.ÒNow!Óthey cried.32Among the thousands at the candlelight vigil on the Capitol steps in Washingtonwere actresses Ellen DeGeneres and Kristen Johnson,and numerous congressionalrepresentatives,who not only condemned the beating death ofShepard but alsourged immediate passage ofa federal hate crimes bill.33Earlier in the week,President Clinton had also pushed ÒCongress to pass the Hate Crimes PreventionAct ...[which] would broaden the definition ofhate crimes to include assaults ongays as well as women and the disabled.Ó34As The Advocatewould report a yearlater,there was little doubt that ÒMatthew ShepardÕs murder turned equal rights andprotections for gays and lesbians into topics ofnationwide debate.Ó35But how had Shepard been transformed into a martyrÑÒthe most recognizablesymbol ofantigay violence in AmericaÓ36Ñand what did that transformation meanfor the political debate taking place? The previous year had seen Òat least 27 gay peo-ple murdered in apparent hate crimes....And the murders are only the extremeend ofthe spectrum ofanti-gay attacks.A coalition that monitors anti-gay violenceand harassment documented 2,445 episodes last year in American cities.Ó37Thoughthe motive for ShepardÕs murder was hardly an isolated incident,two aspects ofthisstory made it unique and especially well suited for seizing the publicÕs imagination.The first factor,ofcourse,was the figure at its center.As Brian Levin,director oftheCenter on Hate and Extremism at Richard Stockton College in Pomona,New Jersey,told theWashington Post,ÒYou canÕt get a more sympathetic person to face such abrutal attack than Matt Shepard.He looked like an all-American nice kid next doorwhoÕd look after your grandmother ifyou went out oftown.He looked like a sweetkid and he was.Ó38Shepard was Òwhite and middle-class,ÓÒbarely on the thresholdofadulthood,Óand Òfrail [in] appearance.Ó39Because ofhis slight stature,a mere5Õ2Ó,and Òcherubic faceÓeven those uncomfortable with homosexuality saw him asaninnocent(that is,sexually nonthreatening) victim.The public identified withShepard,viewing him as friend and son.The second factor that contributed to the emerging mythology was the dramaticstructure ofthe narrative.Jack Levin,professor ofsociology and criminology atTHEMEDIAFRAMINGOFTHEMATTHEWSHEPARDMURDER489 Northeastern University,speculates that,ÒIfMatthew had died instantly ofa gun-shot wound to the head,his death may not have gotten as much publicity.Ó40ThatShepard lay comatose in a hospital for several days while people around the coun-try prayed and stood vigil for him functioned to heighten the publicÕs investment inthe story.Moreover,it was during those days ofvigil that the ÒheinousÓandÒmoroseÓdetails ofthe crime were repeated over and over again in the news media.The juxtaposition ofShepardÕs ability to evoke identification with the crimeÕsincomprehensibility shattered societyÕs ÒÔveneer ofcongeniality,Õand prompted acollective self-examination.Ó41In other words,the publicÕs inability to quickly andeasily reconcile Matthew ShepardÕs innocence (unlike most gay men,he didnÕt havethis coming to him) with his ÒlynchingÓwas a significant source ofshame for thecountry and created wide-scale public guilt.As Steve Lopez wrote in Timemaga-zine,ÒShepard has ignited a national town hall meeting on the enduring hatred thatshamesthis countryÓ(emphasis added).42But guilt demands redemption,for asBurke reminds,Òwho would not be cleansed!Óand redemption needs a redeemer,Òwhich is to say,a Victim!Ó43Though guilt can be resolved symbolically in a varietyofways,ranging from transcendence to mortification,the tragic framing oftheMatthew Shepard story foretold that purification would be achieved through vic-timage and the scapegoat process.Expunging the Evil WithinIn A Grammar ofMotives,Burke contends that,ÒCriminals either actual or imagi-nary may ...serve as [curative] scapegoats in a society that Ôpurifies itselfÕby ÔmoralindignationÕin condemning them.Ó44This is not to suggest,however,that thoseseeking to Òritualistically cleanse themselvesÓofguilt can simply blame a chosenparty.The Òscapegoat mechanismÓis a complex process that entails three distinctivestages:Ò(1) an original state ofmerger,in that the iniquities are shared by both theiniquitous and their chosen vessel;(2) a principle ofdivision,in that elementsshared in common are being ritualistically alienated;(3) a new principle ofmerger,this time in the unification ofthose whose purified identity is defined in dialecticalopposition to the sacrificial offering.Ó45For a Òsacrificial vesselÓto perform the roleofÒvicarious atonement,Óit must be,at first,Òprofoundly consubstantial with ...those who would be cured by attacking it.Ó46It must represent their iniquities,because symbolic forms that manage guilt can only be Òsuccessful ifthe audience isguilty ofthe sins portrayed in the discourse.Ó47Though the very earliest newsreports about the hatred and violence directed at Shepard had identified AaronMcKinney and Russell Henderson as the main perpetrators,those same newsreports cast the two as representative ofboth their local and national communities.As McKinney and Henderson were being arraigned,a significant amount ofdis-course was being generated about the state ofWyoming and the Òcowboy cultureÓ490RHETORIC& PUBLICAFFAIRS that had nurtured them.48It was widely reported,for instance,that Wyoming wasone ofonly nine U.S.states to Òhave no hate-crime laws.Ó49Another report notedthat,ÒAlthough Wyoming often bills itselfas the Ôequality state,Õthe state Legislaturehas repeatedly voted down hate crime legislationÓ;the article subsequently quotesMarv Johnson,executive director ofthe Wyoming chapter ofthe American CivilLiberties Union,as saying,ÒWyoming is not really gay friendly....The best way tocharacterize that is by a comment a legislator made a few years back,when helikened homosexuals to gay bulls as worthless and should be sent to the packingplant.Ó50Similarly,Susanna Goodin,the University ofWyomingÕs Ethics Centerdirector,told theWashington Post,Òthe beating [would] ...prompt Wyomingresi-dentsto ponder the price ofintolerance and indifferenceÓ(emphasis added).51Inroutinely referencing the Òhomophobia in the Wyoming legislatureÓ52and notingthat,in light ofthe attack,Laramie,Wyoming,Òwrestled with itsattitudes towardgay menÓ(emphasis added),53the news media initially framed the communityÕsattitudes as consistent with the perpetratorsÕattitudes.In fact,when jury selectionbegan for the trial ofHenderson in March 1999,his defense attorney,Wyatt Skaggs,was rather reflective about this association and told potential jurors,Ò[The media]...has literally injected into our community a feeling ofguilt.The press wants usto think that we are somehow responsible for what went on October 6.Are any ofyou here going to judge this case because you feel guilty and want to make a state-ment to the nation?Ó54Nor was Wyoming alone in being identified with the perpetratorsÕattitudes andmotives.As Lopez observed in Timemagazine,ÒThe cowboy state has its rednecksand yahoos,for sure,but there are no more bigots per capita in Wyoming than inNew York,Florida or California.Ó55In the first few days after the attack,the publicwas forced,ifonly temporarily,to confess the prevalence ofhomophobic attitudesaround the country.First was the incident involving the scarecrow on a homecom-ing float at Colorado State University,which was reportedly painted with anti-gayepithets.56ÒWhile the papers were reluctant to report the full range ofinsults,ÓLoffreda notes,ÒI heard that the signs read ÔIÕm GayÕand ÔUp My Ass.ÕÓ57This inci-dent prompted a number ofreports about the prevalence ofhomophobic attitudesin schools around the country.58Additionally,there were widely circulated newsstories about the protestors at ShepardÕs funeral.Shortly before he was eulogized,Tom Kenworthy writes,Òa dozen anti-gay protestors from Texas and Kansas stageda demonstration across from St.MarkÕs,carrying signs saying ÔNo Fags in HeavenÕand ÔNo Tears for Queers.Õ...[including] a young girl carrying a sign that readÔFag=Anal Sex.ÕÓ59In light ofthese stories,it was hardly surprising that a Time/CNNpoll found that Ò68 percent [ofrespondents] said attacks like the one againstShepard could happen in their communityÓ(emphasis added).60For a few weeksfollowing the attack,the message in the media was that McKinney and Hendersonshared much in common with the country.But all ofthat was about to change.THEMEDIAFRAMINGOFTHEMATTHEWSHEPARDMURDER491 ÒAt one moment the chosen [party] is a part ofthe clan,being one oftheir num-ber,Óexplains Carter;Òa moment later it symbolizes something apart fromthem,being the curse they wish to lift from themselves.Ó61Division or the Òcasting outÓofthe vessel ofunwanted evils is accomplished through vilification and through aredrawing ofboundaries that excludes the scapegoat.Slowly,almost unnoticeably,discourse in the news media was shifting from the countryÕs homophobia to that ofthe perpetrators,where it was being recoded as a character flaw rather than a wide-scale institutional prejudice.In a statement demarcating the new communalboundaries,Wyoming governor Jim Geringer told theWashington Post,ÒWyomingpeople are discouraged that all ofus could be unfairly stereotyped by the actions oftwo very sick and twisted people.Ó62Accounts were also now suggesting that the twoperpetrators were uniquelyignorant.Timemagazine noted that the two men wereÒhigh school dropouts,Óadding that,ÒIn addition to being an unspeakably grue-some crime,it was a profoundly dumb one.Ó63After all,McKinney and Hendersonhad drawn undue attention to themselves by getting into a fistfight with two othermen after beating Shepard.Reports such as this one functioned not only to cast themen as especially dull-witted,but also to highlight a patternofviolence and crimi-nalityÑone that would be further reinforced in subsequent reports about their pre-vious run-ins with the law,including convictions for felony burglary and drunkdriving.Additionally,there was the matter ofdeception,premeditation,and merci-less cruelty.The news media were now reporting that,according to law enforce-ment,the two men had pretended to be gay to lure Shepard out ofthe bar and intotheir pickup truck,and that they had continued to beat him as he begged for hislife.64As time passed,ShepardÕs attackers became ever more alienated from the public.They were uneducated,drug addicted,career criminals,who had maliciously soughtout their victim because he was gay,and they now Òfound themselves called Ôsubhu-manÕand Ômonsters.ÕÓ65In an uncharacteristic moment ofreflective journalism,a LosAngeles Timesstaffwriter comments on Henderson and McKinneyÕs vilification:In the six months since ShepardÕs gruesome death,the protagonists have becomedehumanized...transmuted by the American compulsion for fashioning morallessons out oftragedy.This morality play staged in a Western prairie town hasdemanded simplistic roles:Shepard,the earnest college student who was targetedbecause he was gay and gave his life to advance a social cause.Henderson andMcKinney,the high school dropouts accused ofbeating Shepard to death,have beencast as remorseless killers.66The symbolic distance between the public and McKinney and Henderson greweven wider during McKinneyÕs trial in October 1999,where gruesome new detailsfrom the night ofthe beating were revealed.The news media seized on one detail in492RHETORIC& PUBLICAFFAIRS particular,in which McKinney stopped beating Shepard to ask ifhe could read thelicense plate on his truck.When Shepard replied,ÒyesÓand recited the plateÕs num-bers,McKinney resumed the attack despite ShepardÕs repeated pleas for mercy.Thestory embodied the view that McKinney was not quite human,and prosecutingattorney Cal Rerucha retold it in his closing arguments,calling McKinney a Òsavageand a ÔwolfÕwho preyed on the lamb-like Shepard.Ó67As ifto further distinguishMcKinney from the public,following his conviction the news media widelyreported that various national,leading gay rights groups had,along with theShepard family,publicly condemned the death penalty in this case.As MatthewShepardÕs father,Dennis Shepard,would tell the court in a written statement fol-lowing the trial,Òthis is a time to begin the healing process.To show mercy to some-one who refused to show any mercy.Ó68Mr.ShepardÕs statement captured theessence ofhow the media was naming the difference between the public and theperpetrators,one human and the other not quite.Restoring the Social OrderWith the surrogate ofevil driven from the community,all that remains for creatingsymbolic closure is the punishment ofevil and the reaffirmation ofthe social andmoral order.ÒTragedy,Óexplains Barry Brummett,Òsubjects the erring [figure] totrial,finds him or her to be criminal,and demands condemnation and penance.Ó69In March 1999,Russell Henderson pled guilty,leaving only McKinney to stand trial.The significance ofthe trial to the outcome ofthe story was evident before it evenbegan.ÒThe trial will,Ówrote Kenworthy in theWashington Post,Òclosethe book onan ugly crime that grabbed the nation by the shoulders and forced it to confront theprice ofhate and intoleranceÑand then served as a rallying point ...for gay rightsÓ(emphasis added).70During the case,McKinneyÕs lawyers attempted to advance aÒgay panic defense,Ówhich claimed the victimÕs sexual advances triggered panic andled to the beating.But Judge Barton Voigt ruled it Òinadmissible ...based onWyoming law,Óand on November 3,1999Ñshortly more than a year after MatthewShepardÕs deathÑAaron McKinney was convicted ofmurder and sentenced to twoconsecutive life terms with no chance ofparole.ÒThe trial,Óobserved Phil Curtis inThe Advocate,Òdelivered an emotionally satisfying vindication for ShepardÕs deathand brought closureto the Shepard family and to the public,who had followed thegrim case for the past yearÓ(emphasis added).71As odd,perhaps even unbelievable,as it seems,the verdict did deliver both symbolic satisfaction and closure for some.Explains Robert Heath,ÒAs a dynamic progression ofan idea,each work [that is,story] leads toward some resolution.Ifit is achieved,reader and author experiencea release,the sheer pleasure ofhaving gone through the process.Ó72To the extentthat the story began with the brutal beating ofMatthew Shepard,the convictionand punishment ofhisassailants signals its close.THEMEDIAFRAMINGOFTHEMATTHEWSHEPARDMURDER493 But the conviction ofMcKinney had an additional and important side effect.Inperforming a cathartic function for the public (that is,purging them oftheir guiltthrough victimage) and bringing closure to the story,it also brought a sense ofres-olution to the debate about gay rights and hate-crimes legislation that ShepardÕsdeath had initiated.Since these issues had been framed in relation tothe story aboutMatthew ShepardÕs murder,the storyÕs conclusion functioned to bring closure tothem as well.The national public debate over hate crimes and gay politics dissipatedalmost as quickly as it had emerged.Two weeks following ShepardÕs death inOctober 1998,a Time/CNN poll asked respondents,ÒFederal law mandatesincreased penalties for people who commit hate crimes against racial minorities.Doyou favor or oppose the same treatment for people who commit hate crimes againsthomosexuals?Ó73At that time,76 percent ofthe public favored hate-crimes legisla-tion that protected homosexuals and 19 percent opposed it.74In the months fol-lowing his death,legislation to increase the penalty for hate crimes against gays andlesbians was introduced in 26 states.By the time these bills came up for vote,how-ever,the Matthew Shepard story was winding toward narrative conclusion,and onlyone state,Missouri,passed new legislation.75Perhaps even more telling,TheAdvocatereports that,ÒAfter McKinneyÕs conviction Judy and Dennis Shepard ...traveled to Washington,D.C.,to lobby for federal hate-crimes legislation.Theireffort failed.A hate-crimes measure was removed from a budget bill in congres-sional committee just weeks after the trial.Ó76In fostering symbolic resolutionthrough narrative closure,the news mediaÕs coverage ofthe story re-imposed orderand eliminated the self-reflective space that might serve as the basis for social andpolitical change.FRAMINGANDREFRAMINGHaving described the news mediaÕs framing ofthe Matthew Shepard story and hav-ing analyzed how those frames functioned rhetorically to absolve the public ofitsguilt associated with the motives ofthe murder,we will now take a step back andpose the question,ÒWhat difference do the frames make for the larger world?Ó77That is,how does the news mediaÕs framing ofthat event also function ideologi-cally? How does it invite the public to view the world,social relations,and GLBTidentities? How does it affirm,challenge,and negotiate centers,margins,and rela-tionships ofpower? To get after these questions,we propose to look at the way inwhich the story works to naturalize particular sets ofsocial relations at both thelevel oflanguage (microscopic) and the level ofsymbolic form (macroscopic).78With regard to the linguistic level,we are specifically interested in the consequencesofthe mediaÕs ÒnamingÓofthe victimÕs body and the perpetratorsÕmotives.Prejudice and discrimination against GLBT persons have historically been con-nected to the stigmatization ofthe body as differentorabnormal.79In fact,Erving494RHETORIC& PUBLICAFFAIRS Goffman notes that,ÒThe Greeks,who were apparently strong on visual aids,origi-nated the term stigma to refer to bodily signs designed to expose something unusualand bad about the moral status ofthe signifier.Ó80The homosexual body has tradi-tionally been stigmatized or marked as abnormal in a wide variety ofways;it has var-iously been coded as dirty and unclean,effeminate and queer,and threatening andpredatory to suit the needs ofthose in power.81One way the bodies ofgay men havebeen stigmatized as threatening and predatory,for instance,is Òwith the allegationthat they are disproportionately responsible for child sexual abuse.Ó82The obviousridiculousness ofthis claim has not stopped the media from perpetuating it,and a1998 study ofNewsweekfound that 60 percent ofstories about child molestationinvolved homosexuals.83This pattern ofnaming in the media raises an importantquestion about the Matthew Shepard story:ÒWould Shepard have received the atten-tion he did had his body not so easily been coded as unthreatening?ÓThough there is no way to answer this question with certainty,one thing that isclear is that ShepardÕs body wascoded as unthreatening and hisstory capturednational headlines.Writing in The Progressive,JoAnn Wypijewski speculated thatone reason people uncomfortable with homosexuality may have sympathized withthis case is because for them,ÒShepard is the perfect queer:young,pretty,anddead.Ó84Indeed,it is difficult not to wonder how this story might have been told dif-ferently,ifat all,had the victim been a minority,especially when the murder ofFredMartinez,a 16-year-old transgendered Navajo in Colorado hardly raised an eye-brow,85as did the murder ofArthur Warren,a gay black man,in rural WestVirginia,86and the murder offive black gay men in Washington Òby someoneauthorities believe to be an antigay serial killer.Ó87The mediaÕs double standard herewould seem to suggest that an anti-gay murder is tragic so long as the victim is nottoo gay,which is to say,too different.The issue ofShepardÕs small,non-threateningstature raises still more questions about the intersection ofstigmatization and thegay male body.In McKinneyÕs trial,the defense attempted to shift responsibility for the beatingback to the victim by claiming that ShepardÕs homosexuality had evoked fear andpanic.Though Judge Voight ruled this line ofargument and testimony Òinadmissi-ble,Óhe cautiously reminded the media that his ruling was Ònot intended to send asocial or political commentary,[and rather] was based on Wyoming law.Ó88In otheranti-gay hate crimes where the victim was not as outwardly innocent(that is,frail,youthful,white,middle-class) as Matthew Shepard,the Ògay panicÓdefense hasbeen allowed.89The use ofsuch a defense is not all that surprising,however,whenone considers its ideological consistency with the term used to name the motiveinsuch cases,Òhomophobia.ÓAccording to Byrne Fone,ÒThe term ÔhomophobiaÕisnow popularly construed to mean fear and dislike ofhomosexuality and ofthosewho practice itÓor an Òextreme rage and fear reaction to homosexuals.Ó90Both def-initions Òplace the onus on the oppressed rather than on the agents ofoppression,Ó91THEMEDIAFRAMINGOFTHEMATTHEWSHEPARDMURDER495 effectively revictimizing the victim by making the oppressed the source,the instiga-tor,offear and disruption.The popularity ofthe term ÒhomophobiaÓto describeanti-gay attitudes is just one example ofhow public discourse regarding GLBT per-sons continues to construct homosexuality as abnormal (in this case,Òfear-produc-ingÓ).In the Matt Shepard story,homosexuality was further marked as differentand hence deviant by the mediaÕs consistent and ubiquitous references to ShepardÕsÒgayÓsexuality.There were no headlines that reported,ÒMan Killed by StraightAttackers,Óand no articles that named Henderson or McKinneyÕs sexuality.In treat-ing heterosexuality as invisible,the media both privilege it as the norm and as nor-mal.At the level oflanguage,then,the mediaÕs telling ofthe Matthew Shepard storyfunctions to reproduce a hegemonic set ofsociocultural categories in which homo-sexuality is marginal and Other.Until the unspoken assumptions that frame thedominant discourses about GLBT persons are questioned and interrogated,hatredand the violence it begets are likely to remain prominent features ofour culturallandscape.Like the linguistic particularities,we believe that the underlying symbolic formofthe story matters ideologically,and so we turn now to the Òbig picture,Óto,asBurke explains,the various typical ways that the most basic ofattitudes (that is,yes,no,maybe) are Ògrandly symbolized.Ó92Symbolic forms can be,according to Burke,loosely grouped into Òframes ofacceptanceÓand Òframes ofrejectionÓbased on thegeneral orientation they adopt in Òthe face ofanguish,injustice,disease,anddeath.Ó93Literary forms such as epic,tragedy,and comedy are frames ofacceptancebecause they equip persons to Òcome to termsÓwith an event and their place in theworld.Precisely howthey Òcome to termsÓvaries according to the symbolic form(that is,epic,tragedy,comedy,and so forth) at work,and influences,in turn,wherethey and the world can go with those terms.In shaping attitudes,symbolic formsserve as a basis for programmatic action.Our analysis ofthe Matthew Shepard storysuggests that it was framed primarily in tragic terms,in which the public,throughthe scapegoat mechanism,cleansed itselfofthe guilt associated with prejudice,hatred,violence,and their intersection.The shortcoming oftragic framing is that itbrings about symbolic resolution without turning the event into a lesson for thoseinvolved.By projecting its iniquity upon McKinney and Henderson and attackingthem,the public achieves resolution in this instance,but does not substantively alterits character as to insure that future instances are less likely.On the contrary,thismode aggressively perpetuates the status quo,cloaking but not erasing the publicÕshomophobia (and we do mean the politically loaded term ÒhomophobiaÓ) so thatit can return another day.So what are the alternatives? The media could adopt frames ofrejection such asthose found in the literary forms ofelegy,satire,burlesque,and the grotesque.94The difficulty here is that Òframes stressing the ingredient ofrejectiontend to lackthe well-rounded quality ofa completehere-and-now philosophy.They make for496RHETORIC& PUBLICAFFAIRS fanaticism,the singling-out ofone factor above others in the charting ofhumanrelationships.Ó95By Òcoming to termsÓwith an event primarily by saying Òno,Óframes ofrejection are unable to equip individuals and groups to take program-matic action.A discourse that is wholly debunking is,at least in isolation,ill suitedfor bringing about social change.96A second and preferable alternative,according to Burke,is adopting a Òcomicframe,Ówhich is Òneither wholly euphemistic [as is tragedy],nor wholly debunk-ing.Ó97As numerous scholars have noted,the comic frame is not about seeinghumor in everything;98it is about maximum consciousnessÑÒself-awareness andsocial responsibility at the same time.Ó99The comic frame is one ofÒambivalence,Óa flexible,adaptive,charitable frame that enables Òpeople to be observers ofthem-selves,while acting.Ó100In shifting the emphasis Òfrom crime to stupidity,ÓBrummettmaintains that the comic frame provides motives that Òteach the foolÑand vicari-ously the audienceÑabout error so that it may be correctedrather than punishedÓ(emphasis added).101ÒThe progress ofhumane enlightenment,Óexplains Burke,Òcan go no further than in picturing people not as vicious,but as mistaken.Ó102When social injustices such as the anti-gay beating ofMatthew Shepard are framedin tragic terms,naming McKinney and Henderson as vicious,the public finds expi-ation externally in the punishment ofthose identified as responsible.Framed incomic terms,however,one can identify with the mistaken,become a student ofher/himself,ÒÔtranscendÕhimselfby noting his own foibles,Óand learn from theexperience.103The comic frame Òpromotes integrative,socializing knowledgeÓ104byemphasizinghumility(the recognition that we are all sometimes wrong) overhumiliation(the desire to victimize others).CRITICALREFLECTIONSA frame analysis ofthe print mediaÕs coverage ofthe Matthew Shepard murder rein-forces a number ofprevious findings about how the news is made.The manner inwhich this story,for instance,gained national prominence testifies to the linkbetween the dramatic qualities ofan event and its perceived newsworthiness.105Since drama increases ratings and Ò[n]ews content is influenced by the fact that ...media corporations have a profit orientation,Ó106news outlets both seek out storieswith dramatic properties and emphasize those properties in their reporting.Theprofit-driven focus on a storyÕs dramatic elements accounts,at least partially,for thestriking consistency among news reports in the Matthew Shepard case.All three ofthe national newspapers we analyzed named the event as a vicious anti-gay hatecrime,constructed Shepard as a political symbol ofgay rights,and transferred thepublicÕs guilt onto McKinney and Henderson.Even TimeandThe Advocate,publi-cations with varied political perspectives,framed the story in comparable ways.Though The Advocateoffered more extensive coverage,particularly with regard toTHEMEDIAFRAMINGOFTHEMATTHEWSHEPARDMURDER497 Matthew Shepard and his family,the basic contours ofthe story remained the same.Consistency among news reports is also a product oftraditional journalistic rou-tines and practices.Both the New York Timesand theWashington Postassigned aprimary reporter to the story,while the Los Angeles Times pulled the vast majorityofits stories from the Associated Press.The homogeneity ofthe reports,then,reflects fewer voices gathering data from the same experts and highlighting thesame dramatic properties.107In addition to these broad findings,our analysis points to some specific conclu-sions about how the news media report on public traumas and the attendant socialconsequences ofsuch reporting.The news mediaÕs fascination with personalitiesand drama over institutional and social problems contributes to the Òtragic fram-ingÓofpublic disasters and events.Since tragic frames ultimately alleviate the socialguilt associated with a disaster through victimage,they tend to bring both closureandresolution to the larger social issues they raise.As such,tragic frames do notserve the public well as a basis for social and political action.Though mediaresearch on agenda setting has clearly established that the news media influencewhich political issues are on the publicÕs mind,108few studies have looked at howchanges in the public agenda may be linked to the piggybacking ofsocial issues ontospecific dramatic stories.Future research on agenda setting should attend carefullyto the connection between symbolic forms such as the tragic frame and shifts in thepublic agenda.Our analysis ofnews coverage ofthe Matthew Shepard murderfound that hate-crimes legislation and gay rights were central public concerns untilShepardÕs story came to a close.In light ofthis finding,it would be worth examin-ing how declining coverage ofthe Columbine shootings may have contributed sim-ilarly to the dissipation ofnational public discourse on youth violence.Theimplications ofour analysis extend beyond the matter ofthe mediaÕs role in estab-lishing a public agenda.Since Òframes are fundamental aspects ofhuman con-sciousness and shape our attitudes toward the world and each other,Ó109mediaframes function ideologically.In Matthew ShepardÕs case,we believe that newsmedia reproduced a discursive system ofprejudice that contributed to ShepardÕsdeath.We can,however,learn from this event and the mediaÕs coverage ofit.Tointroduce this essay,we attempted to provide an outline ofthe Matthew Shepardstory that accurately captured the news mediaÕs tragic framing ofthat event.To con-clude,we return to that story and adopt an alternative,more comic frame.Despite commitments to both diversity and equality,the nation continued itspainful struggle with tolerance today,as Laramie,Wyoming,became the mostrecent in a long list ofU.S.towns and cities to witness,experience,and participatein violence motivated by culturally constructed notions ofdifference.In an all-too-familiar scene,two young men,Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson,foolishlyallowed their actions to be guided by social ignorance.Goaded,like a vast majorityofpeople,by a deep desire to feel accepted and acceptable,Aaron and Russell498RHETORIC& PUBLICAFFAIRS assaulted Matthew Shepard,a University ofWyoming student,for what they per-ceived to be an intolerable difference,homosexuality.The assault,which resulted inMatthewÕs death,highlights a pattern ofbehavior in which individuals seek com-munal identification and the comfort and security that accompanies it through theexpulsion ofdifference.Such an impulse is,ofcourse,profoundly misguided as itreduces community to sameness,while ignoring the fact that difference is always amatter ofperspective and depends upon who is naming it.Aaron and RussellÕsactions serve as a powerful reminder that ifwe truly hope to build healthy andhumane communities,then we must aim to bridge the very differences we create.When we cast out others,the attitude is one ofsuperiority and humiliation,and theact is one ofviolence.For us to curb violence like that seen most recently inWyoming,we must all begin to erase the Òbattle linesÓthat are drawn again andagain when we exalt ourselves over others.NOTES1.Beth Loffreda,Losing Matt Shepard: Life and Politics in the Aftermath ofAnti-Gay Murder(New York:Columbia University Press,2000),x.2.We are using ÒmemoryÓin a somewhat more general sense than rhetorical and mediascholars who study Òpublic memory.ÓOur concern is not with how the news media con-struct invitations to a shared sense ofthe past or with the politics ofcommemoration,butwith how the ÒlifeÓofa political issueÑits birth,growth,and deathÑis related to its fram-ing in the news media.For an overview ofthe literature on public memory in rhetoricalstudies,see Stephen H.Browne,ÒReading,Rhetoric,and the Texture ofPublic Memory,ÓQuarterly Journal ofSpeech81 (1995):237Ð65.For variations on this theme,see also CaroleBlair,Marsha S.Jeppeson,and Enrico Pucci,Jr.,ÒPublic Memorializing in Postmodernity:The Vietnam Veterans Memorial as Prototype,ÓQuarterly Journal ofSpeech77 (1991):263Ð88;John Bodnar,Remaking America: Public Memory,Commemoration,and Patriotismin the Twentieth Century(Princeton,N.J.:Princeton University Press,1992);James E.Young,The Texture ofMemory: Holocaust Memorials and Meaning(New Haven:YaleUniversity Press,1993).For an overview ofthe literature on public memory in media stud-ies,see Barbie Zelizer,ÒReading the Past Against the Grain:The Shape ofMemory Studies,ÓCritical Studies in Mass Communication12 (1995):214Ð39.For variations on this theme,see also Martin J.Medhurst,ÒThe Rhetorical Structure ofOliver StoneÕs JFK,ÓCriticalStudies in Mass Communication10 (1993):128Ð43;Thomas W.Benson,ÒThinkingthrough Film:Hollywood Remembers the Blacklist,Óin Rhetoric and Community: Studiesin Unity and Fragmentation,ed.J.Michael Hogan (Columbia:University ofSouthCarolina Press,1988),217-55.3.Kenneth Burke,The Philosophy ofLiterary Form: Studies in Symbolic Action(Louisiana StateUniversity Press,1941),302Ð4.4.Kenneth Burke,Attitudes Toward History,3d ed.(Berkeley:University ofCalifornia Press,1984),34.5.Kenneth Burke,Counter-Statement,2d ed.(Los Altos,Calif.:Hermes Publications,1953),139.THEMEDIAFRAMINGOFTHEMATTHEWSHEPARDMURDER499 6.Kenneth Burke,Language as Symbolic Action: Essays on Life,Literature,and Method(Berkeley:University ofCalifornia Press,1968),44Ð45.7.In media studies,Òframes analysisÓderives from the work ofErving Goffman,Frame Analysis:An Essay on the Organization ofExperience(Cambridge:Harvard University Press,1974).SeeW.Lance Bennett,News: The Politics ofIllusion,2d ed.(New York:Longman,1988);W.LanceBennett,ÒThe News about Foreign Policy,Óin Taken by Storm: The Media,Public Opinion,andU.S.Foreign Policy in the GulfWar,ed.W.Lance Bennett and David L.Paletz (Chicago:University ofChicago Press,1994),12Ð40;Todd Gitlin,ÒThe Whole World is Watching,ÓinTransmission: Toward a Post-Television Culture,2d ed.,ed.Peter dÕAgostine and David Tafler(Thousand Oaks,Calif.:Sage Publications,1995),91Ð103;Shanto Iyengar,Is AnyoneResponsible? How Television Frames Political Issues(Chicago:University ofChicago Press,1991);and Shanto Iyengar and Adam Simon,ÒNews Coverage ofthe GulfCrisis and PublicOpinion:A Study ofAgenda-Setting,Priming,and Framing,Óin Taken by Storm,167Ð85.8.Iyengar and Simon,ÒNews Coverage,Ó171.9.Iyengar,Is Anyone Responsible?,14.10.Bennett,ÒNews about Foreign Policy,Ó31.11.Everette Dennis et al.,Covering the Presidential Primaries(New York:The Freedom ForumMedia Studies Center,1992),59.12.Burke,Counter-Statement,31,124.13.C.Allen Carter,Kenneth Burke and the Scapegoat Process(Norman:University ofOklahomaPress,1996),40.14.Bennett,News,35.15.Quoted in Loffreda,Losing Matt Shepard,5.16.Though the ÒscarecrowÓimage would appear in news reports repeatedly and even in poetrylong after the event,ÒMatt hadnÕt actually been tied like a scarecrow;when he wasapproached first by the mountain biker,Aaron Kreifels,and then by Reggie Fluty,the sher-iffÕs deputy who answered KreifelsÕs emergency call,Matt lay on his back,head proppedagainst the fence,legs outstretched.His hands were lashed behind him and tied barely fourinches offthe ground to a fencepostÓ(Loffreda,Losing Matt Shepard,5).17.James Brooke,ÒGay Man Beaten and Left For Dead;2 Are Charged,ÓNew York Times,October 10,1998,sec.A09.18.ÒGay Student Brutally Beaten;4 Arrested,ÓLos Angeles Times,October 10,1998,16.19.Tom Kenworthy,ÒGay Man Near Death after Beating,Burning;Three Held in WyomingAttack Near Campus;Hate Crimes Suspected,ÓWashington Post,October 10,1998,sec.A01.20.ÒGay Student Brutally Beaten,Ó16.21.Kenworthy,ÒGay Man Near Death,Ósec.A01.22.Brooke,ÒGay Man Beaten,Ósec.A09.23.ÒGay Student Brutally Beaten,Ó16.24.Tom Kenworthy,ÒIn Wyoming,Homecoming Infused with Hard Lesson on Intolerance,ÓWashington Post,October 11,1998,sec.A02.25.Bennett,News,26.26.As Wyoming governor Jim Geringer told the Washington Postshortly after ShepardÕs death,Ò[we all] feel a sense oftragedy and disbeliefthat a human life could be taken in such a bru-tal way.We must now find closure.Ó(Tom Kenworthy,ÒGay Wyoming Student Succumbs toInjuries,ÓWashington Post,October 13,1998,sec.A07).500RHETORIC& PUBLICAFFAIRS 27.Tom Kenworthy,ÒHundreds Gather to Remember Slain Man as ÔLight to the WorldÕ;Anti-Gay Forces Incite Shouting Match at Wyoming Funeral,ÓWashington Post,October 17,1998,sec.A03.28.Loffreda,Losing Matt Shepard,13.29.Kenworthy,ÒIn Wyoming,Ósec.A02.30.Kenworthy,ÒHundreds Gather,Ósec.A03.31.Justin Gillis and Patrice Gaines,ÒPattern ofHate Emerges on a Fence in Laramie;GayVictimsÕKillers Say They Saw an Easy Crime Target,ÓWashington Post,October 18,1998,sec.A01.32.Gillis and Gaines,ÒPattern ofHate,Ósec.A01.33.Allan Lengel,ÒThousands Mourn StudentÕs Death;Beating in Wyoming Sparks New Pushfor Hate-Crimes Laws,ÓWashington Post,October 15,1998,sec.A07.34.Richard Lacayo,ÒThe New Gay Struggle,ÓTime,October 26,1998,34.President Clinton con-tinued to use the Matthew Shepard murder as a rallying cry for the passage ofa federal hate-crimes bill over the course ofthe next year.See ÒClinton Urges Expanding Federal HateCrimes Law,ÓLos Angeles Times,April 7,1999,home edition,4;ÒWhite House to HostMeeting on Tougher U.S.Hate Crime Law,ÓLos Angeles Times,July 10,1999,valley edition,13B;Charles Babington,ÒClinton Urges Congress to Toughen Laws on Hate Crimes,Guns,ÓWashington Post,October 16,1999,sec.A11.35.Lisa Neff,ÒThe Best Defense:Activists Plan Demonstrations in 50 States to Fight for BasicHuman Rights,ÓThe Advocate,March 16,1999,40.ShepardÕs centrality to the nationaldebate surrounding gay rights and hate-crimes legislation is evident in press reports fromthe time ofhis death until the conviction ofMcKinney.ÒShepardÕs brutal murder put a spot-light on hate crimesÓ(ÒNation in Brief/Wyoming,ÓLos Angeles Times,May 22,1999,homeedition,12).ÒThe crime galvanized the gay and lesbian community and became a rallyingpoint in the push for hate crime lawsÓ(John L.Mitchell,ÒVigil Marks Anniversary ofSlayingofGay Student,ÓLos Angeles Times,October 13,1999,home edition,3).ÒThe death ofShepard focused public attention on violence against homosexuals and stimulated at-timesfeverish debate about hate crimes legislationÓ(Julie Cart,ÒDefense Says HomosexualAdvance Triggered Slaying,Los Angeles Times,October 26,1999,home edition,20).Ò[MattShepardÕs] death galvanized those seeking to expand the nationÕs hate-crime lawsÓ(ÒAttackon Gay Was Planned,Witness Says,ÓLos Angeles Times,October 29,1999,valley edition,23A).ÒThe death ofthe college student [Matt Shepard] ignited national debate over hatecrimes and violence against homosexualsÓ(Julie Cart,ÒMan Guilty in Shepard Slaying,Could Get Death,ÓLos Angeles Times,November 4,1999,home edition,37).ÒThe brutalmurder ofthe wholesome-looking Shepard struck a chord across America.It spurred callsfor the enactment ofhate crime legislationÓ(Julie Cart,ÒKiller ofGay Student Is SparedDeath Penalty,ÓLos Angeles Times,November 5,1999,home edition,1).ÒThe murder [ofMatt Shepard] last October gained nationwide publicity and spurred calls by gay and lesbianactivists for enactment oftough anti-hate crime legislation nationallyÓ(Tom Kenworthy,Ò2nd Man is Convicted ofKilling Gay Student,ÓWashington Post,November 4,1999,sec.A1).ÒThe case [ofMatt Shepard] became a rallying cry for states and the FederalGovernment to pass and expand hate-crime measuresÓ(Michael Janofsky,ÒA Defense toAvoid Execution,ÓNew York Times,October 26,1999,sec.A18).See also Carl Ingram,ÒCalifornia and the West,ÓLos Angeles Times,October 3,1999,home edition,24;ÒFamilies ofHate Crime Victims Unite at Rally,ÓLos Angeles Times,October 10,1999,home edition,12;Tom Kenworthy,ÒÔGay PanicÕDefense Stirs Wyo.Trial,ÓWashington Post,October 26,1999,THEMEDIAFRAMINGOFTHEMATTHEWSHEPARDMURDER501 sec.A2;Tom Kenworthy,ÒWyo.Jury to Weigh Motives in Gay Killing,ÓWashington Post,November 3,1999,sec.A3;Bill Carter,ÒShepardÕs Parents,ÓNew York Times,February 3,1999,sec.E7.36.Bruce Shenitz,ÒLaramieÕs Legacy,ÓOut,October 2001,76,110.37.Gillis and Gaines,ÒPattern ofHate,Ósec.A01;A second article reported that Òin 1996,21 menand women were killed in the United States because oftheir sexual orientation,according tothe Southern Poverty Law Center,an Alabama group that tracks violence against minorities.According to the Federal Bureau ofInvestigation,sexual orientation was a factor in 11.6 per-cent ofthe 8,759 hate crimes recorded in 1996.Ó(James Brooke,ÒGay Man Dies from Attack,Fanning Outrage and Debate,ÓNew York Times,October 13,1998,sec.A17).Sexual orienta-tion ranks third behind race and religion as the motive for (reported) hate crimes.See Ò2000FBI Hate Crime Statistics,ÓHuman Rights Campaign,retrieved April 20,2002,from.38.Gillis and Gaines,ÒPattern ofHate,Ósec.A01.39.Shenitz,ÒLaramieÕs Legacy,Ó76,110.40.Quoted in Shenitz,ÒLaramieÕs Legacy,Ó77.41.Kenworthy,ÒIn Wyoming,Ósec.A02.42.Steve Lopez,ÒTo Be Young and Gay in Wyoming,ÓTime,October 26,1998,38.43.Kenneth Burke,The Rhetoric ofReligion: Studies in Logology(Boston:Beacon Press,1961),5.44.Kenneth Burke,A Grammar ofMotives(New York:Prentice Hall,1945),406.45.Burke,A Grammar ofMotives,406.46.Burke,A Grammar ofMotives,406.47.Barry Brummett,ÒBurkean Comedy and Tragedy,Illustrated in Reactions to the Arrest ofJohn Delorean,ÓCentral States Speech Journal35 (1984):218.48.Lopez,ÒTo Be Young,Ó38.49.Brooke,ÒGay Man Dies,Ósec.A17.See also Ò2 Suspects in GayÕs Killing to Face Death,ÓLosAngeles Times,December 29,1998,home edition,14;ÒDeath Penalty Asked in Gay ManÕsMurder,ÓWashington Post,December 29,1998;sec.A6;ÒWyo.Governor Backs Bill on HateCrimes,ÓWashington Post,January 19,1999,sec.A9.50.Brooke,ÒGay Man Beaten,Ósec.A09.51.Kenworthy,ÒIn Wyoming,Ósec.A02.52.Lopez,ÒTo Be Young,Ó39.53.James Brooke,ÒAfter Beating ofGay Man,Town Looks at Its Attitudes,ÓNew York Times,October 12,1998,sec.A12.54.ÒJury Selection Starts in Wyoming Hate-Crime Trial,ÓWashington Post,March 25,1999,sec.A15.ÒLaramie,Wyo.ÑThis small city on the high plains ofsoutheast Wyoming has lookedupon itselfas a peaceful,law-abiding community ever since 1868....Those images becameblurred last fall with the brutal beating death ofMatthew Shepard,a gay university student:To the outside world,Laramie suddenly became the place where a vicious hate crime tookplace,where below the patina oftolerance lurked a deep streak ofcowboy intoleranceÓ(TomKenworthy,ÒAfter Slaying,Community Takes a Punishing Look at Itself,ÓWashington Post,April 5,1999,sec.A3).See also James Brooke,ÒWyoming City Braces for Gay Murder Trial,ÓNew York Times,April 4,1999,sec.14.55.Lopez,ÒTo Be Young,Ó38.502RHETORIC& PUBLICAFFAIRS 56.In one ofour classrooms,a year after the murder,a student connected to individuals heldaccountable for the dehumanizing event in the Colorado State University parade would con-firm,under the promise ofanonymity,the use ofthe anti-gay epithets ÒIÕm GayÓand ÒUpMy Ass.Ó57.Loffreda,Losing Matt Shepard,10.58.James Brooke,ÒHomophobia often Found in Schools,Data Show,ÓNew York Times,October14,1998,sec.A19.59.Kenworthy,ÒHundreds Gather,Ósec.A03.60.Gillis and Gaines,ÒPattern ofHate,Ósec.A01.61.Carter,Kenneth Burke,18.62.The Wyoming governor went on to say,Ò[We] feel a sense oftragedy and disbeliefthat ahuman life could be taken in such a way.We must now find closureÓ(Kenworthy,ÒGayWyoming Student Succumbs,Ósec.A07).63.Lopez,ÒTo Be Young,Ó39.64.ÒBrutal Beating ofGay Student is Condemned,ÓLos Angeles Times,October 11,1998,16.News reports repeatedly emphasized that Matt Shepard was deceived into going with hisattackersÑthat Henderson and McKinney Òposed as homosexuals and lured Shepard fromthe barÓ(Tom Kenworthy,ÒÔIÕm Going to Grant You Life,ÕÓWashington Post,February 5,1999,sec.A2).See also Julie Cart,ÒGayÕs Slaying Spawns Morality Play,ÓLos Angeles Times,March 24,1999,home edition,11;Julie Cart,ÒPlea Averts 1st Trial in Slaying ofGayStudent,ÓLos Angeles Times,April 6,1999,home edition,1;ÒAttack on Gay,Ó23A;TomKenworthy,ÒGay StudentÕs Attacker Pleads Guilty,Gets Two Life Terms,ÓWashington Post,April 6,1999,sec.A2;ÒWyoming Judge Bars ÔGay PanicÕDefense,Washington Post,November 2,1999,sec.A7;Kenworthy,Ò2nd Man Is Convicted,Ósec.A1;James Brooke,ÒGayMurder Trial Ends with Guilty Plea,ÓNew York Times,April 6,1999,sec.A20.65.Chris Bull,ÒA Matter ofLife and Death,ÓThe Advocate,March 16,1999,38.66.Cart,ÒGayÕs Slaying Spawns,Ó11.67.Kenworthy,ÒÔGay PanicÕDefense,Ósec.A2;Cart,ÒMan Guilty,Ó37.68.Phil Curtis,ÒHate Crimes:More than a Verdict,ÓThe Advocate,January 18,2000,36.See alsoCart,ÒKiller ofGay Student,Ó1;Michael Janofsky,ÒParents ofGay Obtain Mercy for HisKiller,ÓNew York Times,November 5,1999,sec.A1.69.Brummett,ÒBurkean Comedy,Ó219.70.Tom Kenworthy,ÒSlain Gay ManÕs Mother Tries to Show HateÕs ÔRealÕCost,ÓWashington Post,October 10,1999,sec.A2.71.Curtis,ÒHate Crimes,Ó34Ð35.The notion that McKinneyÕs conviction signaled the end formore than just the trial was evident in other news reports as well.ÒFor the citizens ofWyoming,who often felt that their stateÕs Western philosophies were on trial,the end oftheyearlong ordeal was welcomeÓ(Cart,ÒKiller ofGay Student,Ó1).ÒThe verdict,which cameafter 10 hours ofdeliberations over two days,brought a swift end to a case that has beenwatched closely because ofthe brutality ofthe crime and the sexual orientation ofthe vic-timÓ(Michael Janofsky,ÒMan is Convicted ofKilling ofGay Student,ÓNew York Times,November 4,1999,sec.A14).72.Robert L.Heath,Realism and Relativism: A Perspective on Kenneth Burke(Macon,Ga.:Mercer University Press,1986),246.73.In Lopez,ÒTo Be Young,Ó38.THEMEDIAFRAMINGOFTHEMATTHEWSHEPARDMURDER503 74.What is significant about this poll is not the distribution,which was likely a product ofhowthe questions were asked,but that the poll was published in a news report at all.The inclu-sion ofthe poll contributes to the perception that this issue is significant.After McKinneyÕsconviction,polls like this one disappeared from the public eye.75.Curtis,ÒHate Crimes,Ó38.Since January 2000,four states have passed hate-crimes legisla-tion,including Texas,which approved a hate-crimes bill in 2001.A similar bill,however,wassuppressed two years earlier in Texas because it specifically included protection for gays.SeeRoss E.Milloy,ÒTexas Senate Passes Hate Crimes Bill that BushÕs Allies Killed,ÓNew YorkTimes,May 8,2001,sec.A16.The five states,as ofApril 16,2002,that still have no hate-crimes laws are Arkansas,Indiana,New Mexico,South Carolina,and Wyoming.Ofthe 45states with hate-crimes laws,18 states have laws that do not explicitly include sexual orien-tation.See ÒDoes Your StateÕs Hate Crimes Law Include Sexual Orientation and GenderIdentity?ÓHuman Rights Campaign,retrieved April 16,2002,from .76.Curtis,ÒHate Crimes,Ó38.77.Gitlin,ÒThe Whole World,Ó96.78.We are suggesting that there are multiple layers offraming.A picture frame,for instance,shapes how viewers perceive a picture,but so too does the pictureÕs presence in a larger struc-ture such as the frame ofa building.Indeed,individuals respond very differently to pictureshanging in a private home than to those hanging in a museum.79.See George Chauncey,Gay New York: Gender,Urban Culture,and the Making ofthe Gay MaleWorld,1890Ð1940(New York:Basic Books,1994),13.80.Erving Goffman,Stigma: Notes on the Management ofSpoiled Identity(Englewood Cliffs,N.J.:Prentice-Hall,1963),1.81.Byrne Fone,Homophobia: A History(New York:Picador USA,2000),5.82.Gerhard Falk,Stigma: How We Treat Outsiders(New York:Prometheus Books,2001),74.83.See Falk,Stigma,73Ð74.84.Quoted in Shenitz,ÒLaramieÕs Legacy,Ó110.85.See Shenitz,ÒLaramieÕs Legacy,Ó111.86.Tracey A.Reeves,ÒA Town Searches its Soul:After Gay Black Man is Slain,W.VA.ResidentsAsk Why,ÓWashington Post,July 20,2000,sec.A01.87.Fone,Homophobia,413.88.Curtis,ÒHate Crimes,Ó35.89.One ofmany cases where the Ògay panic defenseÓwas allowed is that ofMichael Auker,whowas stomped and beaten by Todd Clinger,18,and Troy Clinger,20,in Pennsylvania.ÒAfterrendering Auker unconscious,the two allegedly transported him to his home where he wasfound comatose two days laterÓ(Barbara Dozetos,ÒBrothers Claim ÔGay PanicÕafter Beatingthat Left Man in Coma,ÓThe Gay.com Network,retrieved December 13,2001,from).We foundthis example especially intriguing because ofhow closely the crime mirrored the MatthewShepard beating.90.Fone,Homophobia,5.91.Warren J.Blumenfeld,introduction to Homophobia: How We All Pay the Price,ed.Warren J.Blumenfeld (Boston:Beacon Press,1992),15.92.Burke,Attitudes,introduction.504RHETORIC& PUBLICAFFAIRS 93.Burke,Attitudes,3.94.ÒÔRejectionÕis a by-product ofÔacceptanceÕ...It is the heretical aspect ofan orthodoxyÑandas such,it has much in common with the Ôframe ofacceptanceÕthat it rejectsÓ(Burke,Attitudes,21).Burke also posits,ÒCould we not say that allsymbolic structures are designedto produce such ÔacceptanceÕin one form or another?Ó(emphasis added,Attitudes,19Ð20).95.Burke,Attitudes,28Ð29.96.Burke,Attitudes,92;see also William H.Rueckert,Encounters with Kenneth Burke(Urbana:University ofIllinois Press,1994),118.97.Burke,Attitudes,166.98.Stanley Edgar Hyman,ÒKenneth Burke and the Criticism ofSymbolic Action,Óin LandmarkEssays on Kenneth Burke,ed.Barry Brummett (Davis,Calif.:Hermagoras Press,1993),29;Timothy N.Thompson and Anthony J.Palmeri,ÒAttitudes toward Counternature (withNotes on Nurturing a Poetic Psychosis),Óin Extensions ofthe Burkean System,ed.James W.Chesebro (Tuscaloosa:University ofAlabama Press,1993),276.99.Rueckert,Encounters,121.100.Burke,Attitudes,171.101.Brummett,ÒBurkean Comedy,Ó219.102.Burke,Attitudes,41.103.Burke,Attitudes,171.104.Rueckert,Encounters,117Ð18.105.For extended discussion,see Bennett,News;Herbert J.Gans,Deciding WhatÕs News: A StudyofCBS Evening News,NBC Nightly News,Newsweek and Time(New York:Pantheon,1979).106.David Croteau and William Hoynes,Media/Society: Industries,Images,and Audiences,2d ed.(Thousand Oaks,Calif.:Pine Forge Press,2000),241.107.Gans,Deciding WhatÕs News,138Ð42.108.See Croteau and Hoynes,Media/Society,239Ð41.109.Mark Lawrence McPhail,ÒCoherence as Representative Anecdote in the Rhetorics ofKenneth Burke and Ernesto Grassi,Óin Kenneth Burke and Contemporary European Thought:Rhetoric in Transition,ed.Bernard L.Brock (Tuscaloosa:University ofAlabama Press),85.THEMEDIAFRAMINGOFTHEMATTHEWSHEPARDMURDER505