Missing White Woman Syndrome in news coverage

[Velocity]

Could or should anything be done about Missing White Woman Syndrome in news coverage?

(I didn’t make that term up; it’s actually an established phenomenon in media. Missing white woman syndrome - Wikipedia )

Since there are numerous male and/or minority Americans that go missing every year, and their lives and well-being are just as important as that of white women, it stands to reason that their disappearances should get just as much media and societal attention. However, practically speaking, it’s almost impossible to give *every *victim equal coverage. How should this problem be fixed so there’s more equality in coverage?

[TriPolar]

Stop the sensational coverage of any woman who is missing. Unless it’s a public figure or associated with some event of general interest it’s rarely due the level of coverage that occurs.

[leftfield6]

@TriPolar

Stop the sensational coverage of any woman who is missing. Unless it’s a public figure or associated with some event of general interest it’s rarely due the level of coverage that occurs.

This. Could also replace the term “any woman” with “anyone” and still be the right thing to do.

[RivkahChaya]

I wonder if it’s a deeper problem, in that white people are more likely to get help for mental health problems, so minorities are more likely to just sort of fade from the picture with no one noticing they’ve been gone until some time has passed, and by then, there’s no real starting point to begin looking for them.

I suggest this after a conversation with an acquaintance who was dating one of the cadaver dog handlers for the police department. A white woman and college student was missing (Lauren Spierer, she’s on the list). Her exact last whereabouts were known from surveillance tapes, and witness testimony, and she had a heart condition, so the alarm went up within hours of her not being where she was expected to be.

When the cadaver dogs were called in, there were two different families of missing non-white people, saying "Hey, look for our loved ones too; both people missing had mental health issues and had been gone for days at a time before disappearing, so no one sounded an alarm until they had been gone for like a month, and by then, no one could say where their last whereabouts were, or where they were supposed to be when they were noticed to be missing.

They either weren’t being treated for their mental health issues, or were getting spotty treatment, and it was insurance issues-- not that they probably wouldn’t have qualified for Medicare or Medicaid, but you need someone advocating for you before you can get on a program like that if you aren’t functioning well to begin with, and they didn’t seem to have that.

Now, white people probably disappear and no one sounds an alarm, because they are on the fringes, and occasionally some black people who are demographically equal to white people do get ignored by the media, but I really have a feeling that from the beginning, it’s not just a problem of media coverage.

I don’t think I’d be wrong if I guessed that police reports of minorities who disappeared even when there was a good chance of tracking them down if the report was taken seriously, often just don’t get taken as seriously as reports of white people, because of long-standing prejudices that white people are more responsible, and just don’t vanish, while minorities are likely to run away from problems, sometimes lead to reports either not getting taken, or getting taken, but put on the bottom of the pile.

I am not saying this phenomenon doesn’t exist, or that it isn’t a problem, I’m just saying it’s a deeper problem than simply what the media chooses to cover.

[Telemark]

From the Netflix show “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” comes this – http://cimg.tvgcdn.net/i/r/2015/03/18/39f592ea-cff9-46a6-9f55-141a16a5a225/resize/775x434/7b454a5c54ead2bff2fb44f32aaa64c7/white-woman-cropped.png

[Malthus]

I don’t think anything can, or should, be done about this - it isn’t like it would be practical to impose an equality of coverage, without some pretty significant impositions on the freedom of the press.

It is simply an element of public crassness - like the obsessive interest in the lives of celebrities.

[grude]

Has anyone done an analysis of the geographic location of these missing people cases that get big media attention?

In my experience police in big cities are very reluctant to treat an adult missing as a case, they will blow you off or say 24-48 hours needs to pass etc. So I wonder if you mostly get cases from wealthier suburban areas, or wealthier people period. That is before you even get to the race issue.

[Fotheringay-Phipps]

From The Onion: Ugly Girl Killed

CASPER, WY—The people of America remained unmoved Monday as the sparse, barely attended funeral procession of Edith Pelphrey made its way to Pinelawn Cemetery in downtown Casper.

Edith, a homely six-year-old with thick glasses and a decidedly non-winning smile, was laid to rest largely as she had lived—unnoticed by the general population.

…

But who was Edith? What was she going through as she neared the end? In these modern times, do we as Americans even care about such questions? The answer is clear, and it is: no, we do not. But now, after what little tears there were have long fallen, lingering questions about Edith’s murder remain, failing to elicit anything beyond indifference from anyone.

[Little_Nemo]

I think Nancy Grace should be taken off the air.

I don’t know if it would do anything about this issue. I just think it’s something we should be doing.

[you_with_the_face]

Just talking about it, even if such talk is in the form of satire, is progress in my book. Because part of the problem is that ignoring the elephant in the room has been the status quo. The more people who can admit without qualification or excuse that some demographic groups are considered more sympathetic, special, and interesting than other demographic groups, the sooner we can stop the discrimination.

Media attention is merely a symptom of this bias. The same symptom shows up in classrooms, corporate board rooms, the judicial system, and Hollywood casting decisions.

[Malthus]

@you_with_the_face

Just talking about it, even if such talk is in the form of satire, is progress in my book. Because part of the problem is that ignoring the elephant in the room has been the status quo. The more people who can admit without qualification or excuse that some demographic groups are considered more sympathetic, special, and interesting than other demographic groups, the sooner we can stop the discrimination.

Media attention is merely a symptom of this bias. The same symptom shows up in classrooms, corporate board rooms, the judicial system, and Hollywood casting decisions.

In some ways, I don’t think it is likely to stop.

What will change, is that the demographic groups considered more ‘worthy’ will, over time, correspond more and more closely with “class” rather than “race”. The inherent unfairness of an upper-middle-class young White woman receiving more attention than an upper-middle-class Black woman will, I think, end up being addressed; not so the unfairness of a poor person getting less attention than an upper-middle class person, or of an attractive person getting more attention than an unattractive person.

I think the class (and attractiveness) distinction in attention is unlikely to be eradicated as long as society has its current essential form.

[marshmallow]

@Velocity

Since there are numerous male and/or minority Americans that go missing every year, and their lives and well-being are just as important as that of white women, it stands to reason that their disappearances should get just as much media and societal attention.

News is about ads, which means eyeballs. Would people obsessively watch coverage of missing non-famous, non-photogenic minority women like they do the pretty white girl?

[Velocity]

Another big element to this is that society considers the death of an attractive person to be more tragic than the death of an ugly person.

[GoodOmens]

The best thing to do about such coverage is to ignore it. Don’t watch it. Convince other people not to watch it. It’ll die on the vine like the next NBC sitcom. The JonBenet style coverage is not fueled by any ideology, it’s fueled by ratings and profits.

[Grrr]

Well, there’s the “white” component and there’s also the “rich” component.

Wealth makes people more interesting. A white woman attending a university, is part of a sorority, and is involved in academic activities; is much more interesting than a low income minority that has none of the aforementioned to offer.

Shame on us for it being that way, but there ya’ have it.

[UltraVires]

@Shakes

Well, there’s the “white” component and there’s also the “rich” component.

Wealth makes people more interesting. A white woman attending a university, is part of a sorority, and is involved in academic activities; is much more interesting than a low income minority that has none of the aforementioned to offer.

Shame on us for it being that way, but there ya’ have it.

I agree. Part of it is also the “my life ain’t so bad” aspect. Look at Laci and Scott Peterson. Rich, beautiful, and seemingly happily married with a child on the way, but secretly seedy stuff is going on. Although I live in my 600 sq. ft. house with credit card debt and no job, I’ve got it better than the Petersons and by implication all of those other assholes in the upper scale subdivisions.

Also Natalie Holloway. Yes, I wasn’t able to go on spring break, or alternatively drove my piece of shit car to Daytona, and this rich bitch gets to take a luxurious vacation in Aruba, but look at the bad shit that happens over there. Maybe Daytona isn’t so bad after all and it’s better off to be me than rich.

It’s the connection the viewer makes with the victim, being able to put himself (or in these cases herself) in the victim’s shoes. I don’t think there is necessarily a bias in the report, so much that news executives are screening out black victims. White crack whores that disappear don’t get this kind of coverage. But so long as we have a majority white population, and an overwhelming white majority that watches these programs, the unconscious biases will make news execs want to report these stories.

[you_with_the_face]

@jtgain

I don’t think there is necessarily a bias in the report, so much that news executives are screening out black victims. White crack whores that disappear don’t get this kind of coverage.

@marshmallow

News is about ads, which means eyeballs. Would people obsessively watch coverage of missing** non-famous, non-photogenic minority women **like they do the pretty white girl?

Both of these comments show racial bias. Racial bias, I might add, that has probably been reinforced by the phenomenon under discussion.

Notice how jtgain implicitly likens “white crack whores” with black victims, as if this an apple to apple comparison? One should question what is really being communicated here. Could jtgain be saying black kidnapping victims are underrepresented in the news because they are crack whores? I mean, what would be the point of mentioning white crack whores if that isn’t what he/she meant? Hmmmm.

Notice how marshmallow pairs “non-photogenic” with “minority women”, as if these qualities go hand in hand? As if the idea is completely alien that a photogenic black or Hispanic woman could go missing just as easily as a photogenic white woman could?

Where do we get our notions of photogenicity anyway? If we grow up being fed a TV diet full of “pretty white girls”, then won’t we be less inclined to see non-white women as less than pretty? Yes, we will. Especially if we’re also encouraged to associated crack whoredom with being non-white.

[you_with_the_face]

@Shakes

Wealth makes people more interesting. A white woman attending a university, is part of a sorority, and is involved in academic activities; is much more interesting than a low income minority that has none of the aforementioned to offer.

Shame on us for it being that way, but there ya’ have it.

Except that there are plenty of non-whites that are not low income. White does not equal wealthy, and minority does not equal poverty. Most missing white women who receive media attention are solidly middle class. Not unlike many (if not most) black women who go missing.

Here’s an article about racial disparities in the reporting of black and white kidnapping victims.This is not just a class issue, people. Just like police brutality isn’t just a class issue. Being in denial about this is beyond stupid. Why can’t we just admit that white people are valued more in this society than blacks? The truth hurts but it will set us free.

[Anaamika]

@you_with_the_face

Where do we get our notions of photogenicity anyway? If we grow up being fed a TV diet full of “pretty white girls”, then won’t we be less inclined to see non-white women as less than pretty? Yes, we will. Especially if we’re also encouraged to associated crack whoredom with being non-white.

The fact is, almost every minority girl I know - including myself - has at some point in her life wished to be “blond and pretty” like what we see in the media. I grew up seeing Christie Brinkley held up as the standard of beauty. All of my Barbies had long blond hair. Me with my curly hair and brown skin was not depicted anywhere in media.

It is better now, but we still think of white people as the “default”, and white males even more so, and everyone else as “other”. Look at almost every movie, it’s got a white male protagonist or it’s a “black movie”. Or a “stoner” movie (Harold and Kumar. Or whatever.

I am currently watching Guardians of the Galaxy and enjoying it, no doubt. But there’s no reason why the white guy has to be the lead. He’s as much as a fuckup as anyone else. Except that people won’t buy it if it’s not a white lead.

Hell, look at all of the hubbub about a black Spidey! And the only reason I want to see a black Spidey is because I want to see an Asian Spidey. Honestly the character of Peter Park really fits an Asian male in our society.

There is definitely more value in white lives.

[Peremensoe]

you with the face, I believe you are misreading those comments. They’re not saying that black victims don’t[ disappear. They’re saying that other media-‘negative’ qualities of victims, like being poor or ugly, also tend to make victims disappear.

Conversely and implicitly, media-‘positive’ qualities, like being rich or beautiful or famous, can ‘make up for’ being black. A pretty black actress victim gets more coverage than a homely white laborer, but that doesn’t mean a racual bias isn’t built in.