Since we have been talking so much about cults and satanic behavior, I decided to compare three articles about the recent cult scare in California using the sources: The Boston Globe, Time, and The Herald Sun.
When comparing all three sources offering information about the 13 recently found members of a so-called religious sect, the accounts were noticeably different.
The title of The Boston Globe article proclaimed that the missing “sect members” were found safe. Details about the leader, Reyna Marisol Chicas, made her sound mentally unstable. She gave a fake name and apparently rambled during questioning. Sheriff officials described the group as “cult-like.” Additionally, the article emphasized the leaving behind of cellphones and letters that indicated that the 13 members were awaiting the Rapture.
The Time’s article, on the other hand, called the group “cult-like” in the title. The article began with the account that the husbands of two of the women claimed that they were “cult-like” and “brainwashed” without any mention of the police asserting these descriptions. Descriptions of the actual search were very detailed. The article seemed to implicate the worried husbands as knowing that their wives were actually going somewhere to pray. It even claimed that the women had asserted that they had left to pray often, implying that the husbands had knowingly created a false scare.
The Herald Sun again uses the label of “cult” within its title. Initially, the article offered some details about the search. It also discussed Chicas’s mental state. Here, the police used the label “cult-like” instead of the husbands using this description. A new detail came to light: the word “suicide” was never used within the letters. So, here the writer is perhaps skeptical of the husbands’ motivations. Also, the article revealed that the group had been spotted by police before their disappearance and disregarded.
It was interesting to see differences between reports on the same story once again, especially in the context of topics we discussed last class.
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