How the media reiterated the missing white woman syndrome in the Petito case

[ad_1]

The demographics of major news organizations are another factor in the focus on accounts of missing and murdered white women, said Martin G. Reynolds, co-executive director of the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education.

What worries me most is the amount of coverage, and if you look at newsrooms, the coverage decisions are made in places that continue to be disproportionately white, said Mr Reynolds, whose the organization works with journalists of color. These cases usually involve middle-class white women. And it resonates with editors and news agencies. The one area of ​​diversity that has actually improved relatively well in the news media is actually women, especially white women, in leadership roles.

Disappearances of people of color tend not to generate the same amount of media interest, although they do occur at a higher rate. A report from the University of Wyoming found that 710 natives were reported missing from 2011 to 2020 in that state, where Ms Petitos’ remains were found.

Fifty-seven percent of them were women and 85 percent were children. A 2016 study of four national and local news outlets found that black people were significantly under-represented in missing person coverage compared to their numbers in the FBI’s case tally.

Update

Oct. 6, 2021, 6:32 p.m. ET

Ms Ifill, who died in 2016 after a distinguished career that included appearances at the Washington Post, Times and NBC News before becoming a co-host of PBS NewsHour, raised the question of what she called Woman Syndrome. Blanche who disappeared during a journalism conference. in 2004. If there’s a missing white woman, we’ll cover that, every day, she noted wryly.

In the years that followed, the national media continued to publish frequent and detailed reports that made young white women such as Natalee Holloway, who disappeared in 2005 while on vacation in Aruba, into celebrity.

Research, including my own work, has shown that missing white women and girls benefit from greater initial coverage and receive more repeated coverage, said Danielle Slakoff, assistant professor at California State University, Sacramento, who studies criminal justice and the media.

[ad_2]