News & Politics - News of Missing People Becoming Racial Issue?

Lain · 05-24-2005, 02:37 AM

For the record, I'm not trying to be a racist on this issue. Got it? Good, okay I think we can start now.

We have millions of people, children, adults...what not, missing or abducted every single day. Yet in the world of news, majority of the missing people they deal with nationwide (Not local, not state) are actually caucasian. No offense, but some people are like Elizabeth Smart, Laci Peterson, Jennifer Wilbanks, the two children (of course they didn't deserve to get abducted). But is the media making so much of a big deal on one race. I was looking over the Runaway Bride story and one of the poster's comment kinda struck me. Now that I think about it...I mean, the only usual times that another person of another race (celebrities don't count) is usually on news in when they get pressed charges or if something bad happened ("Precious Doe", Wendys Chili finger...)

Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying I'm right but it's just what I'm noticing. What do you guys think?

Citizen Sarah · 05-24-2005, 02:54 AM

Intresting that you bring that up, was recently reading an article about the ritulistic murder of that young black boy inwhich they only found his torso in the Thames and apparently 300 young black kids have gone missing in london alone the past 5 years- teachers just assume they go back to their country of origin (most of them were immigrants) but police have tried to trace them and have found nothing.
Somebody made the comment that theyd be national outcry if 300 white kids went missing.

GhostWriter · 05-25-2005, 07:18 PM

I gotta agree with both of you. Since I am black, I have noticed that. As a matter of fact, I'm pretty sure all black ppl do. We just don't talk about certain things outside of our race. And before anyone says anything negative about that, so does every race in the world! They don't becuase, well, because there are still ppl who believe we should still either go back to Africa or get our asses back in the fields and pick cotton. And that's putting it nicely. But I'm not saying everyone's like that, but more than not, their parents and/or grandparents were and subconsciously, that view is still imprinted in their brain, no matter if they want it or not.

By the way, Sarah, I love that signature!

Subject · 05-25-2005, 10:44 PM

I think that a big problem is that a lot of people see things in terms of white or black. Meaning two ends of the line...especially on television since I watch a lot of it. It seems that if you need a minority spot filled get a black person. All of the groups in the middle between white and black tend to be lost. Which is true for a lot of aspects.

Another thing that I don't like which isn't about race but about spotlight. Whenever a celeb dies or someone in the spotlight people tend to get really sad at this thought. Sure, those people may have influenced the lives of others by the things that have done and that does bring some special consideration to them. It just doesn't matter to me. People die everyday..just because most of the those people were not in the spotlight it doesn't make their lives any less important.

meretwins · 05-26-2005, 05:53 PM

honeslty it's nothing new...it sadly funny how when a missing person is reported as white from well off socio economic background it becomes national news but if said person was say black/hispanic/etc it most likely makes local news and that's it....case and point the 'runaway bride' not only was it national news but she also claimed to have been sexually assaulted by a hispanic male and the search was on...

susan smith, mom who drowned her kids, did the same thing by saying a black man abducted her kids and folks jumped all out of the woodwork to help find them...it's sad when anyone goes missing or is killed but the reality is that race does play into how the story is reported and who hears it...any idiot knows race is a problem it's only fools who think it doesn't exist....

WalkingOnSunshine · 06-01-2005, 11:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by angel_boogiepop

But is the media making so much of a big deal on one race.

I don't think we can actually put the blame of picking & choosing of stories that air on the media, but instead the blame falls on the viewers. The media chooses stories that will attract and keep viewers. Let's face it - the majority of people knew and stayed tuned to the events of Elizabeth Smart, Laci Peterson, Jennifer Wilbanks.

Eddy · 06-02-2005, 06:49 AM

Eh. The media controls the viewesrs. Not the other way around. What they report influences the masses' opinons. Watch your local news one night and see what people of color they choose to interview when something bad happens.

ceilirose · 06-02-2005, 08:52 AM

The media chooses what story it wants to report when it comes to these missing people. Does anyone really think in a country as diverse as the US that only blond-haired, blue-eyed children go missing or well-off 20 to 30 year old Caucasian women?

Those are the only people we should care about..let's not even mention kids who don't fit that category or even middle aged people or those that aren't photogenic. It's not news.

Truthfully I don't even think any of it should be national news. To me it's all of local interest.

WalkingOnSunshine · 06-02-2005, 09:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eddy

Eh. The media controls the viewesrs. Not the other way around. What they report influences the masses' opinons. Watch your local news one night and see what people of color they choose to interview when something bad happens.

The media shows the viewers what they want - that is my point.

In the local news here they interview white and black people when something bad happens. So I don't know about where you are, but that is the way things go around here.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ceilirose

Truthfully I don't even think any of it should be national news. To me it's all of local interest.

I agree. When I heard about Jennifer Wilbanks I thought it was awful if something had happened to her, but I didn't understand why it was national news. However, I do understand her family doing its best to get their daughter's disapperance to make nataional news. Be honest, if a member of your family went missing wouldn't you hope to use all available resources? So while I do criticize the media & viewers for becoming so attached & infatuated with these stories I can understand the human nature part of it.

DDD · 06-02-2005, 07:13 PM

Very good points here. As a kid I always thought African Americans didn't get lost or go missing. I doubt I heard of 1 missing African American before I hit 20 in my State, In fact I have still never heard a report of a black person from 13-60 missing in my area.

I don't think it's a lot of it is overt racism just that people tend to be more concerned about the people who they can't relate too, .. well I hope it's just that. Aside from a few heavy handed searches, the whole issue is probably unreported by the media compared to other nonstories it's improved a bit.

mh67511 · 06-02-2005, 09:18 PM

It probably depends on where you live. I remember a few summers ago in Chicago two black girls went missing and it was pretty big news. Don't think they ever found them

wanderer78 · 06-14-2005, 03:47 PM

I completely agree. First of all, obviously, no one deserves to go missing or be kidnapped. But whenever I read or see something on the news, it's usually a blonde, blue eyed Caucasian. I do live in Chicago BTW, and while we're more racially diverse and aware than the country at large, we're not immune to the cases of Elizabeth Smart, etc.

Actually Laci Peterson was 1/2 Latina, on her father's side. I had assumed she was hispanic b/c of her looks and her relatives. And a lot of people seem to assume she's white.

I do think the media to a certain extent reflects society at large. We have racial inequities in real life, so of course it'll be that way in TV and Newspapers too.

Lain · 06-16-2005, 06:51 AM

You guys might want to read this.

Quote:

Some say missing minority cases ignored

By ERIN TEXEIRA
AP NATIONAL WRITER

Most of the missing adults tracked by the FBI are men. More than one-in-five of those abducted or kidnapped are black. But you might not get that impression from the news media, and some journalism watchdogs are now taking the industry to task for what they see as a disproportionate emphasis on cases in which white girls and women - overwhelmingly upper-middle class and attractive - disappear.

Television executives, who receive much of the criticism, defend their coverage. They stress that cases such as the recent disappearance in Aruba of 18-year-old Natalee Holloway of Alabama are extraordinary, and would be newsworthy no matter her background.

Indeed, no critic denies that the Holloway case and other disappearances are wrenching for those involved. But some insist that media attention on so few people overshadows the more than 100,000 active files on missing adults and children currently tracked by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

"To be blunt, blond white chicks who go missing get covered and poor, black, Hispanic or other people of color who go missing do not get covered," said Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Washington-based Project for Excellence in Journalism. "You're more likely to get coverage if you're attractive than if you're not."

Said Dori Maynard, president of the Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education, a group that works to improve diversity in newsrooms and news coverage: "In terms of giving citizens the information they need, I think we're failing because we're not giving an accurate portrayal of the world around them."

On its Web site, the National Center for Missing Adults profiles more than 1,000 individuals, including photos, physical descriptions and short narratives of when they were last seen. They are young and old, working-class and professional, of all ethnic backgrounds. Most are average-looking.

And most never receive a mention in their local newspapers or television broadcasts, said Erin Bruno, a case manager at the center who tries to interest media outlets in publicizing missing adults.

"We want everyone to get coverage, but we don't get to make those choices," said Bruno, who estimates that one out of the five news releases she sends out each week gets media attention.

Of the nearly 47,600 active adult cases tracked by the FBI as of the beginning of May, 53 percent were men and 29 percent black. (About 12 percent of the U.S. population is black, Census data show.) About 62 percent of those missing are white, but that figure includes Hispanics.

"Quoting those (FBI) statistics - it's like saying '99 percent of the nations in the world are not at war, so why are you focusing on the war?' But Iraq is an extraordinary event involving Americans," said Mark Effron, vice president of news at MSNBC. "What makes news is the unexpected."

He said Holloway's disappearance during a chaperoned trip is unusual, and would be heavily covered by MSNBC regardless of her gender or ethnicity.

Christa Robinson, a spokeswoman for CNN, said that a wide range of editorial considerations - including competition from other news events - impact the attention given to each potential story. The race or ethnicity of a possible victim, she said, is not a factor.

But Rosenstiel said that analyses of cable news in recent years shows an upward "trajectory of the salacious crime story" including those of missing white females such as Chandra Levy, Laci Peterson, JonBenet Ramsey and Elizabeth Smart.

Many consider women more sympathetic potential victims than men - and white women even more so, said Kristal Brent Zook, a professor at Columbia University's journalism school who wrote an article published in this month's Essence magazine about missing black women who are largely ignored.

"Who's appealing? Who's sexy?" she asked. "The virginal, pure, blond princess is missing. ... It has a lot to do with class and sexuality and ageism, not just race."

Maynard said many news directors, editors and everyday people stereotype men and minorities who turn up missing and assume "it's drugs or criminal activity or some sort of pathology." If journalists - consciously or unconsciously - expect men and minorities to be crime victims, she said, few will consider it newsworthy if that actually happens.

"I don't think it's a conscious thing," she added. "I think it's an unconscious bias."

Dan Shelley, chairman of the Radio-Television News Directors Association, agreed that unconscious bias is possible.

But "to the extent that we as an industry have created a perception in some that we're ignoring missing person cases involving men or people of certain ethnicities, it's unfortunate," he said. "The more diverse our work forces are and newsrooms are, the greater the chances our stories will truly reflect our communities."

In 2004, 22 percent of the broadcast news work force were people of color, up from 17 percent in 1995, RTNDA data show. About 30 percent of Americans are minorities, Census data show.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/nation...0People%20Race

In many ways, I agree with this article. Now you can wonder more.

Semmer · 06-16-2005, 08:26 AM

I had been thinking along those lines recently. But not about it being a racial issue, I was thinking that most of the girls reported missing are very very attractive. Hundreds of girls going missing every year but the only ones that get media attention are beauty queens.
I mean, maybe unattractive girls just aren't taken or something....but I just don't get how the news choose one out of so many to concentrate on. They act like this is the only person missing in the world.

I never really thought about the racial issue before, but now that you point that out, I will admit that you don't see a lot of black or any other kind of race making news coverage.

ceilirose · 06-16-2005, 10:31 AM

This link has the missing adults listed with the National Missing Center for Adults -

http://www.theyaremissed.org/ncma/ga...=Adult&alpha=A

I just heard that Jennifer Wilbanks signed a deal to create a movie on her life. Probably she'll have more information when she talks to Katie Couric next week on Dateline. I do find it unseemly that she's making money off of her story considering the whole thing was staged. It's sort of the American way but it still doesn't seem right.


Fan Forum > Archived General Discussion > News & Politics > News of Missing People Becoming Racial Issue?