Missing People Face Disparity in Media Coverage

[opme]

http://lifestyle.msn.com/specialguides/article.aspx?cp-documentid=5289082&GT1=10323

'Sex sells, kidnapping sells, but not every kidnapping is equal’

If you are kidnapped or missing, it helps to be the right race, age, social class and gender. Otherwise, don't expect the media to cover your story.
"Sex sells, kidnapping sells, but not every kidnapping is equal," says Roy Peter Clark, vice president and senior scholar at the Poynter Institute, a training center for journalists in St. Petersburg, Fla.
Kelly Bennett, a case manager for the National Center for Missing Adults, agrees. "Unless it's a pretty girl ages 20 to 35, the media exposure is just not there," she says. The most highly profiled missing persons cases in recent years have fit into this category: Chandra Levy, Laci Peterson, Jessie Marie Davis. All of these women were also white.
What about Stepha Henry, a 22-year-old black woman who disappeared while on vacation in Florida in May?
Her case has gotten some media attention, but her face and story haven't received the same relentless level of coverage as those of other missing young women.
"It's very disheartening because it sends a message that we are not valued as much as white citizens are," says Georgia Goslee, the attorney for Stepha's mother, Sylvia.
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Much more at the link above.....

 

[GreenEyes727]

http://lifestyle.msn.com/specialguides/article.aspx?cp-documentid=5289082&GT1=10323

I really haven't read the article but I think that it's just the way or the world . . . pretty people get more everything . . . better job opportunities, people are nicer to pretty people, etc.

What do you think?

 

[AmandaBrown23]

I read this earlier today, and alot of it is true. I just see this getting ugly because some people wont agree. Now where I live it dont matter if your black, white, young, old, woman or man, if someone goes missing under suspicious circumstances we hear alot about it.

 

[Lurker]

I read this earlier today, and alot of it is true. I just see this getting ugly because some people wont agree. Now where I live it dont matter if your black, white, young, old, woman or man, if someone goes missing under suspicious circumstances we hear alot about it.

I agree it's true in most cases but not so much in the two cases they showed as an example. I think Jessie Davis got so much coverage for other reasons besides her being white. #1 she was pregnant, #2 her son was left alone and said "Mommy's in the rug" and #3 she was dating a cop.

 

[SeriouslySearching]

It doesn't matter where I live either. There simply isn't a lot of coverage here...period! We do have the Amber Alert system in place and they do make mention of people missing...but it is not front page news. (Even in the cases of the pretty, white females ages 20-35 years old!)

I saw a flier of a missing little boy at the service station the other day and wondered why I had not heard of him before. I think people here are still sticking their head in the sand and don't want to hear it...so the media doesn't keep hammering it home to them. Missing people are just a blip on our screen once in a blue moon as far as local coverage goes. The people who are murdered here don't even get the coverage they deserve, IMO.

I would like to see this attitude changed!

 

[bnhall]

Yes, and Stepha did get a lot of coverage in the beginning, but it has waned since no new tips have come in. Jessie Davis' case was different because they had a suspect right away and her two year old son as a witness. To me, this isn't a valid comparision.

 

[bnhall]

That article uses two completely different types of cases to sway their point. Hundreds of white women go missing, too, and the media doesn't pick up their story because it's just a run-of-the-mill disappearance. There is a woman from my area named Jasmine Haslag that is missing. Anyone heard anything about her on the national news? No...because there is nothing "sensational" about her case. She wasn't pregnant, didn't disappear at a special time (i.e. Christamas Eve), didn't have an interesting witness to her abduction (like a two year old son), didn't go missing in a foreign country, etc. I don't think it's a racial problem. I think it's a problem of both the news media and the general public in the kind of news we want. We want sensational tabloid stories, not everyday spousal murders or disappearance because those are all-too-common. Stepha has gotten more coverage than Brian Shaffer, who was a white med student. Those of us here come from a different perspective because we all care about each and every missing person; that's why we're here. The general public isn't like this. If it were up to me, there would be a cable news channel just for crime with live feeds and pictures of missing people running on the ticker. (I don't count CourtTV as a crime channel anymore...they are swinging too much into classic reality TV with their name change and all of that).

 

[CarpeDiem]

What about Stepha Henry, a 22-year-old black woman who disappeared while on vacation in Florida in May?
Her case has gotten some media attention, but her face and story haven't received the same relentless level of coverage as those of other missing young women.
"It's very disheartening because it sends a message that we are not valued as much as white citizens are," says Georgia Goslee, the attorney for Stepha's mother, Sylvia.

Stepha's story was covered in People Magazine. That is incredible exposure. I still have that issue, I'll have to check the date on it.

 

[Peter Hamilton]

Oh no--We already had a thread on this very same subject last month or so--so now we are just rehashing old threads? Sheesh

 

[southcitymom]

http://lifestyle.msn.com/specialguides/article.aspx?cp-documentid=5289082&GT1=10323

I really haven't read the article but I think that it's just the way or the world . . . pretty people get more everything . . . better job opportunities, people are nicer to pretty people, etc.

What do you think?

I agree with this statement. I've been a recruiter for many years and see it routinely in the job hiring process. Not always, of course, but as a general rule more aesthetically pleasing people (and in my experience, color doesn't matter but the attrtactive-factor does) get more positive responses in many planet Earth arenas (career, social, financial....).

 

[Jeana (DP)]

Oh no--We already had a thread on this very same subject last month or so--so now we are just rehashing old threads? Sheesh

Could it be possible that someone missed that thread???? Come on, give a poster a break!!!