WhoIsMissing

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 * WHO’S MISSING?? **
 * **__ What is the issue about? __**

Extra! Extra!! Read all about it!!! But it doesn’t just stop there - for in today’s day and age, one can expect to “see “and “hear” all about it as well. The 21st century has delivered us into an era where information proliferates as the media constantly supplies us with all we need to know and more. From politics and the economy, to fashion, entertainment and breaking news from around the globe, it’s all considered to be at our finger tips once we open up a newspaper, turn on the television or look it up ‘on-line’. But is it really all at our fingertips? Is what we see and hear really all there is? Or could there be more to the story/message? Is what we receive partial or impartial? How do we know what’s missing? Questions abound about the media’s principles, practices and delivery of information so here comes yet another one to add to the list: Who’s Missing? More specifically when it comes to the news-media’s coverage of missing person’s cases do all victims receive media attention? There have been many debates surrounding the answer to this question, and this essentially will be the basis for the issue that will be outlined in this report. Some have said the media has exhibited a bias towards reporting young, attractive, middle or upper class white women while neglecting the majority of other victims. This bias has become so apparent that the affinity for reporting such story’s has been coined the ‘Missing White Women Syndrome’ a phrase invoked by Sheri Parks a professor of American Studies at the University of Maryland. This phrase has been adopted as a vernacular term by those who believe that a disproportionately greater degree of coverage in television, radio, and print news reporting of missing persons with the essential aforementioned features such as sex, race or ethnicity, social class, (relative) prettiness and age actually occurs. These features are said to provoke positive discrimination in reporting as news of the disappearance of a young white woman increases public interest in her disappearance (Wikipedia), while overlooking others who are also missing. This poses as a potential issue because the perception that the media lacks a sense of inclusiveness, suggests that they may indeed operate on a racial bias which lends to concerns about their responsibility and overall ability to fairly and accurately inform society.  ·  **__ Main stakeholders and their positions on the issue? __** The main stakeholders in this issue are the media, the victims, and society at large. Each of their positions will be outlined in order to explore and develop some insight into the role they have played - if any and how this issue relates to them.

 v  The Media The position of the media is discussed first because this particular issue is clearly rooted in the media itself. Often identified as a power house it can be said that the media functions as a central and powerful source of information as it assembles and disseminates imagery and messages to the masses. In essence, the world has become a social network largely informed by the media - a capitalist institution controlled by a relatively small dominant group - whom mass produce and construct much of the media text that shapes and informs our views, perceptions and beliefs about the world. This seats them in the position of decision makers as they decide which stories will make the final cut, the front page or a leading headline. Such a position causes this group to be considered as one of the most powerful stakeholders in the equation of this issue. Determining which stories are newsworthy is not necessarily a given, and the media must take various factors into consideration. Although some may suggest that the decision to cover missing white women is biased, there also those who claim that the media's decision is influenced by government research and statistics. These figures show that victims of nonfamily abductions or stereotypical kidnappings by a stranger constitutes a small fraction of the large number of people reported missing. Findings also suggest these victims are most at risk of injury, sexual assault or death (Wikipedia). Hence "Damsel" cases may be the exception, and thus most urgent and necessary to bring attention to. As one news commentator states: the tendency to cover the disappearance and murders of white women more than others is not necessarily about pandering, but due to the fact that it is comparatively rare for white women to be killed and therefore, by definition, it could be called ‘newsworthy’. Furthermore, one editor of a newspaper proposes that the medias presentations of particular stories is also based on the comfort zone that has been established by the producers of the stories who essentially stick with what they know (Cheryl Hines, part 2).

 v  Media Analysts / Social Critics / Scholars In some realms, the media has come under scrutiny by media and social critics alike who have identified that the views and principles by which the institution operates are not necessarily always fair or ethical in nature. This point sheds light on the subject of this report which explores the media’s coverage of missing women and whether the media has practices that undermine their social responsibility to provide the facts to its audience. Some point to the fact that their capitalist basis incites them to present those stories that generate the most profitable revenues and that becomes the determining factor as to what information and messages their audiences receive. One Professor, Arthur Silverblatt from Webster University, is quoted as stating that economics not prejudice determines the decision to focus on stories involving White victims, because the stations compete to gain the attention of those viewers who have money. “As the white community is the community with more income, they are the people whose viewership matters more” (Fuller 265). Such a statement alludes to the factors that may contribute to the view that the media has discriminates or has a bias which causes them to cater to delivering those stories that strike a chord with viewers of a particular racial group. On the other hand, Anderson Cooper a news anchor at CNN claims that he has seen plenty of stories fall by the wayside, pushed down and out of the show, because a consensus develops that says, "You know, I don't think our viewers are very interested in this case." So in a sense, such a statement suggests that the media is simply fulfilling its responsibility to viewers by presenting the stories that will be of interest to them. (Diagnosing Missing White Women, Anderson Cooper). The following is an excerpt from an MSNBC commentary by Kristal Brent Zook, a journalism professor at Columbia University who states that the disparity in coverage has very real human consequences. “So many ... are missing women who are 60, 70, 80, who are white and black — all races,” she said. “They may be handicapped; they’re missing their medication; they’re working-class. They’re not as glamorous as other kinds of missing women. It is very disproportionate racially, but also in terms of class.” She goes on to explore how beyond the human impact, the disparity in coverage reflects a basic failure of journalism itself, Zook said. “If we were really interested in real news, we would probably look overall at numbers of missing persons and women and [conduct] a more in-depth analysis of who’s missing and why,” she said. “I don’t think we’re really interested in that. I think we’re interested in the sexy, sensationalist stories” ( The Problem with MWP Stories, Darrell Bowling).

In a similar regard the "Extra! Extra!! Read all about it!!!" - snippet in the beginning of this report was meant to impart the media's constant demand for the attention of the audience by various means, be it an attention-grabbing jingle, an embedded message in an advertisement or a captivating headline/story.  v  The Victims The victims are also very important stakeholders in this issue because they are the most effected by the circumstances that arise from this situation. Although their underlying similarities are crucial in that they have all been faced by the misfortune of their respective incidents, it should be mentioned that there are generally some distinctive differences that have been noticed between victims.

The main difference that has been discussed time and time again, is the extent to which the race of the victim determines the likelihood that their story will be covered by the media. For instance, the phrase ‘missing white girl syndrome ‘ refers to the fact that white, female victims of a relative socio-economic status are more likely to receive wall to wall and day to day coverage by the media than an African American female for instance. This is illuminated in a magazine article entitled **“Have you seen her?”** which examines the differences between the media coverage of black women in comparison to white women when they disappear. The article claims the media’s silence about the cases concerning Black women can be deafening and that while missing African American women receive ‘spotty’ coverage mostly on local broadcasts, conversely names like Elizabeth Smart, Laci Peterson and Dru Sjodin ‘scream’ at us in the national news (Zook, 322). Furthermore, statistics reveal that, in actuality, victims aren't young, attractive, white women, but in fact men. About 30 percent are black, a much higher percentage of the missing, than blacks are of the total U.S. population and yet they attract almost no coverage nationally (When a Dateline Story Incites Self Criticism, Josh Mankiewicz). For instance, Robert Spellman of Los Angeles, a white man, went missing in April 2005, but besides the case making it on to the Fox Network's //America's Most Wanted// website almost six months after his disappearance, his sister says she's had no luck getting other media interested. "Maybe I should Photoshop a wig onto his picture and turn him into Roberta Spellman," she says. (Accused killer in controversial murder case goes on trial, Memmot)

 v  The Audience/Viewers Media audiences and viewers are a group of individuals who receive information and messages transmitted by the media. Generally the information the audience receives enables them to become informed and gain insight or knowledge of some subject or event. In the context of the issue of missing persons, if the information regarding the cases being presented is indeed skewed or biased this alters the state of the actual matter because the reality of the fact that there are many other stories that actually do exist are not brought to the forefront. This may result in the audience being misinformed due to the fact that their impression of the issue surrounding missing persons is misguided in that the common face (that of white women) that they have come to associate with the victim is not indeed the only face or story.

 ·  **__ Recap __** The overall issue that was proposed in this report was that the media seems to reflect a bias in their presentation of individuals who are missing. The phrase “missing white women syndrome” was created in reference to the observation that a disproportionate number of the victims covered by the media are young, attractive, white women young. The stakeholders in this situation are the media, victims, media analysts, social critics, scholars and the viewers/audience. Each of these participants contributes to the dimensions and countours of this issue at hand by lending different perspectives. Marcie Crane || Tamika Huston || Shirley Geanes || LaToyia Figueroa  || Phylicia Moore  || Stepha Henry || Nailah Franklin || Theresa Bunn || Latasha Norman || JonBenet Ramsey || Chandra Levy || Elizabeth Smart || Laci Peterson || Brooke Wilberger || Lori Hacking || Jennifer Wilibanks || Natalee Holloway || Taylor Behl || These are ** both lists of missing women. ** If you live in North America you probably know some from the second list but none from the first. Yet ** the only difference ** between the two lists is** skin colour **: the missing women in the first list are black, those in the second are white. Black or white, most are now dead, as are the missing women of other races.
 * How many of these do you know? **
 * [[image:nailah.jpg width="129" height="163"]]
 * How about these: **
 * [[image:jon_benet.jpg width="175" height="157"]]
 * [[image:laci_peterson.jpg width="134" height="168"]]
 * [[image:jennifer_wilibanks.jpg width="136" height="161"]]

** Work Cited ** Accused killer in controversial murder case goes on trial. http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-03-30-sc-murder-trial_x.htm

Diagnosing ‘Missing White Woman Syndrome’. [|**http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/anderson.cooper.360/blog/2006/03/diagnosing-missing-white-woman.html**] Fuller, L. (2005). WLBT news in the deregulation ERA: Modern racism or representative picture? //Journal of Black Studies, 35//(4), 262-292. Memmott, M. (2005, 08/15). Acquaintance charged with woman's murder.(NEWS)(Tamika Huston). //USA Today,// pp.02A.

Race bias in media coverage of missing women?; Cheryl Hines dishes on new show - part 2.(2006, 03/17). //The America's Intelligence Wire,// pp. NA.

The problem with MWP news stories. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5325808

When a Dateline Story Invites Self Criticism ** Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missing_White_Women_Syndrome
 * http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8828469/

Zook, K. B. (2005). //Have you seen her? When black women disappear, the media silence can be deafening. While the families of the missing struggle to bring national attention to their lost loved ones, they sift through the clues and pray for a miracle.// w page here.