three's a crowd program

AU
REVOIR
No.2023
Guide and Additional Information
Digital Journalism BSc (Hons.)
End of Year Showcase 2022/23
Celebrations Will Ensue

Contents
Intro
2
Students
3
Taylor
4
Shiv
12
Lewis
20
1

Intro
Students
Welcome to the three’s a crowd zine, a publication to
showcase the work created by Leeds Beckett University’s Digital
Journalism BSc (Hons) final graduating class.
The students involved with three’s a crowd have created work
in photography, video, and writing, all of which can be seen
in this publication. Although this guide acts as an introduction
to our work, there are many more ways for you to view and
enjoy each project. We have dedicated a considerable amount
of time to developing our ideas and creative practice. This
event provides an exciting opportunity to share with you the
culmination of our efforts.
The three’s a crowd event isn’t just about the accomplishments
of the students and previous graduates. The first half of our
evening will present a retrospective of student work and
graduate achievements over the last decade. In the second
half, we’ll bring things up-to-date by showcasing the outputs of
the Digital Journalism class of 2023.
Thanks to Hugo Smith, Alison Munn, Ashley Dean, and the
Helpdesk team for all the help along the last three years. An
extra special thanks is dedicated to Lizzie Coombes, Peter
Defty, Anthony Walker and Jenny Schofield for working
through a pandemic to get us to this point.
Lewis Mead (Project Manager)
Taylor ince
The cost of living
Photo book
Shivangi Matthew
24/365
Documentary
Lewis Mead
Being Mormon
Book
2 3

Taylor-ince
Taylor
sHe/her
The cost of
Living book
Taylor Ince (she/her) has developed her creative writing,
graphic design and photography skills over the last three years.
Her work has ranged from photographing dance students at
Leeds Beckett, creating illustrations for a campaign celebrating
female sexuality and body positivity and publishing an article
on gender inequality. Taylor wants to continue developing her
graphic design portfolio after she leaves university.
Her most recent project is a photobook exploring the cost of
living crisis in the UK. Through photography and interviews,
Taylor aims to show a more hopeful and community-based
outlook during these times of struggle.
Taylori_1808
4 5

6 7

8

11

shiv
sHe/her
24/365
Shivangi Mathew (she/her) is an India-based Assistant Director.
Shiv started her studies in Digital Journalism at Leeds Beckett,
but when the Covid-19 pandemic hit, she had to relocate to
New Delhi/Bombay to complete her studies online. She has
a keen eye for portrait photography. Shiv prefers to work in
black and white, finding beauty in the technical imperfections of
the camera, such as hazy photographs or camera movement.
Through these techniques, Shiv wants to bring authenticity to
her subjects.
During her time in India, Shiv has worked as an assistant
director/directors assistant on three films, six series and adverts
for theatre releases, television, Netflix and Amazon Prime. She
plans to continue with this line of work after graduating from
university.
@shivangi_mathew
Her film 24/365 portrays a journey over 24 hours of
humankind, exploring life’s pace with time as we grow older.
Everything around us changes but time.
shivangi-mathew
12 13

Lewis
He/him
Being Mormon
Lewis Mead (he/him) has developed a wide variety of work
during his studies on Digital Journalism, both in subject matter
and treatment. A central thread in his work is the exploration of
complex topics such as a book on the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-Day Saints, an article on recreational drug use and most
recently, a multi-media story package on the rise of misogynistic
figureheads on social media. Lewis believes in information for
the masses and aims to make his work accessible.
The main focus of Lewis’s work outside of studies is social
media. Companies such as Mark Riley Hairdressers have
featured his work on their accounts, and he is currently working
as the creative producer for a rising northern influencer.
@full_metal_lewis
After developing an online publication with fellow students in
his second year called Not The End, he plans to relaunch this
platform in the summer of 2023 and utilise his content creator
and management skills to bring it to a broader audience.
full-metal-lewis
20 21

What is a Mormon?
Before the book begins, it is required for the unbaptised
readers to fully understand what being a Mormon entails. It
is required to say that Mormon may be the wrong term. In
recent years Russel M. Nelson, current Prophet of the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, has said:
“The Lord has impressed upon my mind the importance
of the name He has revealed for His Church, even The
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. We have
work before us to bring ourselves in harmony with
His will. In recent weeks, various Church leaders and
departments have initiated the necessary steps to do
so. Additional information about this important matter
will be made available in the coming months.”
In essence this is informing the members to no longer refer to
themselves as Mormons and to remove the use of nicknames such
as members of the LDS church or even just Latter-Day Saints.
This is to emphasise the separation from a common section of
misinformation that the Church worships the Prophet, both
current and past. Instilling that the Church is in fact Christian.
They have offered new alternatives such as Followers of Christ,
the importance being that Jesus gets a mention. I believe this
does increase the more cult like feeling towards the Church, but
personal opinions won’t change leader’s minds.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is, as previously
stated, a Christian religion. It was officially founded by the first
Prophet of the Church, Joseph Smith Jr, on April 6th, 1830, when
23

Being Mormon
What is a Mormon?
the first Book of Mormon was published. It is said that The Book
of Mormon was revealed to Joseph via divine intervention.
Much like the immaculate conception an angel visited Smith,
revealing The Golden Plates. Not Gabriel, this was Moroni who
is depicted on top of the Mormon Temples. These plates when
translated became, the afore mentioned, Book of Mormon. Within
its opening page The Book of Mormon is said to be “Another
Testament of Jesus Christ”. Without dipping into a full Sunday
school course of lessons this book follows the Prophet Lehi and his
family through the escape from Jerusalem and the generations to
follow in the Americas. This eventually comes to an end in a film
like sequence of events leaving the descendants of one of Lehi’s
sons, the Lamanites. Mormon was the last author of the plates;
he also curated all the recordings of generations of Prophets into
the Golden plates. Much like the Bible it is a collection of work
following many different Prophets with stories and parables all
leading to the belief in Christ in the ancient Americas.
This is what separates Followers of Christ from more mainstream
branches of Christianity. They still practice studying both the
New and Old Testament alongside this new scripture as well as
the Doctrine and Covenants. This is another section of scripture
dictated to Joseph Smith, forming another reason for the separation
from other denominations. The Church still has a Prophet who
receives direct inspiration from our Heavenly Father.
This is the raw basics of what the Church stands for, as anyone
that has had a small interaction with them will understand this is
the very tip of the iceberg. The more intricate details of the Church
could fill several books. This is not what this book is about, however,
a lot of these more obscure details will be visited explored in this
book. This isn’t exclusive to the people who aren’t members of
the Church. If you do feel desires to learn as much as you can
about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, I’m sure
there are very friendly young people you can get in contact with.
They usually have a suit or smart clothing on and a small badge
with their surname. If you don’t want these people pestering you,
the Church has an outlined and simple explanation of the core
beliefs named The Articles of Faith. These haunt my mind with the
memorisation in Sunday school.
Still wanting a little more before jumping in? Okay, lets discuss
some key points. The Church is led by a Prophet, he then has two
counsellors and then there is the 12 apostles. Following them is
the 70. These are the key leaders of the Church, on an international
level. However, at its core, this is not a hierarchy. Even the Prophet
is answerable to his Bishop and Stake President. At the time of
writing there is even a call for these individuals to hold meetings
with Church leaders over a misuse of Church funds, some $34
billion. A Bishop overlooks a Ward, which is a local congregation,
and a Stake Presidents overlooks a group of Wards. This then
progresses to regional roles and area roles eventually ending up
back to the Prophet.
The Church also operates in two distinct buildings, Churches,
and Temples. Churches are for everyday worship, such as Sunday
services and different weekly practices such as youth clubs, and
varying study lessons. The Temples are separate from everyday
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Being Mormon?
What is a Mormon?
worship and are home to more sacred practices. The members of
Church tend to have quite a good sense of humour around the
more secretive nature of the Temple ordinances. This brings to
my memory moments when being told to “not drop the goat” or
not to worry as I didn’t have to “eat the entire baby”. The second
of the two was told to me by a particularly close friend who
shares a particularly dark sense of humour with myself. I feel it
necessary to say this as such things could be misconstrued of an
institutionalised darkness or a demonic sense of humour. For the
most part the members are annoyingly bright and cheerful and
wouldn’t stoop to our low intelligence humour.
Now that the basics of the origins of the Church have been
established and some of the logistical aspects have been introduced,
you have earned the right to the more fun bits concerning the key
areas of information about the Church. Or rather misinformation,
the Church seems to attract quite a lot of nonsense about some of
the odder practices.
No, polygamy is no longer a part of the religion, and neither is
marriage to the Prophet, dead nor alive. This rumour comes
from a distant part of Church history deemed as either a
misunderstanding of revelation or a system of practicality due to
being persecuted by the varying towns people of America. This
change in policy was introduced in 1890 and was from revelation
received by the Prophet of the time, Wilford Woodruff. I know,
Americans not liking something new. Seems odd doesn’t it. But
overall, no. Plural marriage is no longer part of the teachings. This
isn’t to say people don’t use the religions origin as a jumping off
point to practice things such as this.
The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- Day Saints
practice polygamy and much darker aspects of it such as child
marriage. This came to more public awareness with the arrival
of the Netflix documentary, Keep Sweet. Pray and Obey (2022).
This is a completely separate entity that is not associated with the
Church of which we are discussing.
Yes, they can have caffeine. Part of the teachings of the Church
is the Word of Wisdom. This teaching is found in Doctrine and
Covenants 89 and issues decrees against tobacco, alcohol and hot
drinks.
At no point is it issued that caffeine is the reason behind an
abstinence from tea and coffee. It is to do with habitually natured
living, and addiction. How many people say: “I can’t wake up
without a coffee”? The Church doesn’t want to reinforce bad
habits or addiction. This isn’t just in reference to consumption
either, members are encouraged not to repeat prayers unless it is
a sacred part of practice that mustn’t be changed. This is to reduce
apathy and encourage members to really ponder on what they are
praying for.
So, caffeine in tea and coffee isn’t the problem. It is the habit.
Having said this the over consumption of Diet Coke by members
of the church seems to be such a growing epidemic that it needs to
be an amended 11th commandment.
No, we don’t baptise dead people. This is in reference to a Temple
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Being Mormon
What is a Mormon?
practice and refers to Baptism FOR the Dead, this is in fact a terrible
name but is a belief that if in this life you didn’t have chance to be
baptised someone can be baptised on your behalf. NOT YOUR
BODY, just your name. This isn’t a spooky thing thought up by the
Church, it was also practiced in biblical times and is recorded in:
1 Corinthians 15:29
New Testament
29 Else what shall they do which are baptized for
the dead, if the dead rise not at all? Why are they
then baptized for the dead?
Yes, there are three heavens. This will explain it better than I ever
could, but if we’re being honest any form of heaven is weird, at
least this way you get three good goes at it. This also covers the
alien debate.
These always seem to be the most talked about ones that need a bit
more clarification, now for some quickfire ones.
Yes, they can dance (even those some insist you leave space for
the Lord).
Yes, we can play Ping Pong on Wednesdays, I have no idea where
this one came from but has cropped up quite a bit.
No, Missionaries can’t swim. This isn’t a question of ability, I’m
sure some can physically swim.
Yes, we can eat meat during the summer.
But that just about does it for the weird stuff that readers may
have encountered in the outside world and that members get
bombarded with constantly.
The more you know...
“There are three kingdoms of glory: the Celestial
kingdom, the Terrestrial kingdom, and the Telestial
kingdom. The glory we inherit will depend on the depth
of our conversion, expressed by our obedience to the
Lord’s commandments. It will depend on the manner
in which we have, as the Church describes, “received
the testimony of Jesus”.
churchofjesuschrist.org
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