Missing white woman syndrome
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Missing white woman syndrome, also known as missing pretty girl syndrome, is a term coined by some media critics to reference a form of media hype in which excessive news coverage is devoted to a specific missing white woman or girl, while virtually ignoring missing men, non-white women, or other news stories. According to these critics, reporting of these stories often lasts for several days or weeks, sometimes even months, and displaces reporting on other current events that some people consider more newsworthy, such as economics and politics. This syndrome appears to be most prevalent in US media, but famous examples can also be found elsewhere in the world, e. g. the United Kingdom.
While journalists such as Gwen Ifill have referred to the phenomenon as "missing white woman syndrome", and the label is used in certain journalistic circles[1], there is not yet any standard label. Conservative commentator Michelle Malkin has referred to this phenomenon as "missing pretty girl syndrome" and "damsel in distress syndrome." [2]
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Stages of the news cycle
Breaking story
Sometimes the story begins to make news because an Amber Alert is issued across the United States or Canada. According to advocates of MWWS theory, the typical case involves 24-hour cable news media providing regular coverage on a daily basis of any and all developments, accompanied by lengthy discussions about the meaning of such developments by the shows' hosts and their guests. Such guests typically have a background in law and are invited by the host to freely speculate about evidence, suspects, and motive. Family pictures and video of the subject are shown frequently and repeatedly, and friends and family of the subject or a spokesperson for them are frequently invited as guests and asked their opinions of the investigation and any evidence or suspects.
Public consensus
Media critics suggest that this speculation often leads to a false consensus effect. Those involved in the investigation of the case (detectives, prosecutors, etc.) are invited onto the shows and asked pointed and accusatory questions suggesting that they are incompetent or negligent. Sometimes, the suspects themselves are invited on the shows and asked similarly pointed and accusatory questions about their involvement.
In the case of JonBenét Ramsey, a young girl first thought kidnapped and then found murdered in the basement of her own home, rampant speculation in the news media led most people to believe that the parents were guilty. Later developments, some believe, pointed to a murder by a stranger, and the case went cold.
Fading from view
If the case drags on for several weeks, the resulting public sympathy often prompts friends and family of the victim to establish a website with detailed information about the case and a charity foundation, first to offer a reward, then, when the case is resolved, to provide scholarships or aid to the families of the victims of similar tragedies.
Eventually, the case is resolved by the police, the news media gradually lose interest, or else a new, more urgent story comes to dominate coverage. Critics of the media say that very few follow-up stories are done unless major new developments occur.
Legacy
Frequently, cases that seem to fit this profile generate enough public interest that legislators are pressured to enact new laws that are meant to protect would-be victims of violent crime. Often, such laws are named or nicknamed for the victim in question. This is often cited by critics as an example of a deviancy amplification spiral.
Examples
Media critics consider the following cases to be examples of MWWS:
Missing White Female
- Jill Carroll - Captured in Iraq and released on March 29, 2006.
- Imette St. Guillen (February 25, 2006) - Darryl Littlejohn is the chief suspect in the murder of the 24 year-old graduate student.
- Jennifer Kesse (January 24, 2006) - Missing 24-year-old, never reported to her job in Orlando, Florida.
- Tara Grinstead (October 22, 2005) - Still missing [3]
- Taylor Behl (September 5, 2005) - 17 year old Virginia Commonwealth University freshman disappeared and was later found dead. Suspect currently in jail on unrelated charges.
- Scout Taylor-Compton (August 25, 2005) - Found alive; at friend's house
- Natalee Holloway (May 30, 2005) - still missing, active investigation
- Shasta Groene (May 16, 2005) - found alive, brother killed; kidnapper captured
- Jennifer Wilbanks (April 30, 2005) - ran away from impending marriage, faked kidnapping
- Sarah Lunde (April 9, 2005) - found murdered; murderer convicted
- Jessica Lunsford (February 23, 2005) - found murdered; murderer captured; prompted Jessica's law[4]
- Megan Holden (January 19, 2005)-abducted from Wal-Mart parking lot, found dead
- Lori Hacking (July 19, 2004) - found murdered; murderer convicted; prompted Lori's law proposal[5]
- Brooke Wilberger (May 24, 2004) - still missing, presumed dead. man arrested for murder
- Audrey Seiler (March 28, 2004) - confessed to faking own kidnapping in Madison, Wisconsin.
- Carlie Brucia (February 1, 2004) - found murdered; suspect captured; prompted Carlie's Law proposal[6]
- Jessica Lynch - Captured in Iraq War. Cited as an example of Damsel in Distress Syndrome.
- Dru Sjodin (November 22, 2003) - found murdered; suspect captured; prompted Dru's law[7]
- Laci Peterson (December 23, 2002) - found murdered; murderer convicted; prompted Laci and Conner's law
- Samantha Runnion (July 15, 2002) - found murdered; murderer convicted; prompted Samantha's law proposal[8]
- Elizabeth Smart (June 5, 2002) - found alive; kidnapper found incompetent to stand trial
- Jennifer and Abby Blagg-reported missing from Grand Junction, CO November 13, 2001. Jennifer's body found June 4, 2002. Husband convicted in 2004.
- Chandra Levy (May 1, 2001) - found murdered; cold case
- Brandi Stahr (September 28, 1998) - Texas A&M University student disappeared, found alive and working at a Sam's Club in Florence, Kentucky. Stahr went into hiding from family, ashamed of grades and debt.
- Amy Lynn Bradley (March 24, 1998) - still missing, possibly sighted in a Curaçao brothel
- JonBenét Ramsey (December 25, 1996) - found murdered; cold case
- Amber Hagerman (January 16, 1996) - found murdered; cold case; prompted establishment of AMBER Alert
- Megan Kanka (July 29, 1994) - found murdered; murderer convicted; prompted Megan's Law
- Polly Klaas (October 1, 1993) - found murdered; murderer convicted; prompted renewal of Three strikes law
- Sara Anne Wood (August, 1993) - kidnapper confessed sexual assault and murder, but refused to tell where he buried the body
- Dail Dinwiddie (September 23, 1992) - still missing from South Carolina; cold case
- Patty Hearst (February 4, 1974) - kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA). On April 15, 1974, she was photographed wielding an assault rifle while robbing the Sunset branch of the Hibernia Bank. Later communications from her were issued under the pseudonym Tania and revealed that she was committed to the goals of the SLA. A warrant was issued for her arrest and in September 1975, she was arrested in an apartment with other SLA members.
- Marian Parker (December 14, 1927) - William Hickman kidnapped and murdered 12-year-old Marian Parker, the daughter of a Los Angeles banker. A few days after being paid a small ransom, Hickman was arrested and tried. On October 19, 1928, became the first American kidnapper to be executed for his crime.
Missing Non White Female
LaToyia Figueroa was a missing 18-year-old woman of African-American/Hispanic heritage from Philadelphia area whose case became prominent because of an organized Internet campaign to counter missing white woman syndrome[9]. Internet bloggers campaigned 10 days after Figueroa was presumed missing. On August 20, 2005, the body of Figueroa, who was pregnant, was found in Chester, Pennsylvania. The charges are pending against Stephen Poaches, the boyfriend of Figueroa. The major networks did not aid in breaking the story.
Reyna Alvarado-Carerra, a 13-year-old Hispanic-American girl, disappeared in Norcross, Georgia. [10]
Missing Male
Kenji Ohmi - a Japanese male exchange student. Japanese media cited low coverage in the U.S., comparing it with Audrey Seiler, a student who went missing which sparked wide media coverage and police hunt (she later admitted to staging a hoax), as an example of MWWS.
Criticisms of MWWS in the Media
On July 4th, 2005, the collaborative website Kuro5hin.org posted an editorial highly critical of the the media coverage of the investigation into the Natalee Holloway disappearance. The editorial accused the mass media of subtle racism for covering the Holloway case but ignoring the case of Reyna Alvarado-Carerra, a missing Hispanic girl. It was also critical of the great expense and time devoted to the search for a single missing person despite many other issues of concern the media could have covered instead. The openly combative and harsh tone of the editorial sparked hundreds of angry responses, including legal threats directed towards Kuro5hin's staff.
MWWS in the United Kingdom
MWWS may also exist in the United Kingdom. For example, the case of Sarah Payne, a white 8-year-old girl who was abducted and murdered in 2000, received extensive attention and led to calls for Sarah's Law. The Soham murders, which involved two 10-year-old white girls in a small town, received widespread and unprecedented coverage in the summer of 2002.
In January 2006, Commissioner of Metropolitan Police in London, Ian Blair claimed that the media displayed “institutional racism” in their coverage of murder cases, citing the Soham case among others.
However, some criticisms can be made from a British context:
- Over 90% of the UK population is white, so it is likely that the majority of abduction and murder victims will be white.
- Other factors may influence the degree of media coverage. For example, the murder of two children by a non-family member is very rare so the Soham murders may have been newsworthy even if their race and gender had been different.
- Cases involving young black victims such as Stephen Lawrence, Damilola Taylor and Victoria Climbie have also received widespread media exposure.
External links
- Eugene Robinson: "(White) Women We Love", The Washington Post (June 10, 2005; Page A23)
- ABC News - "Some Say Missing Minority Cases Ignored"
- USA Today - "Spotlight skips cases of missing minorities"
- MSNBC - "If you’re missing, it helps to be young, white and female"
- National Vanguard - A racist white supremacist group takes on "Missing White Women Syndrome"
- The Detroit News - "Media should stop obsessing on missing white women"
- Buzzflash - "Hold The 'Missing White Woman' Stories, Please"
- News Record - "A Missing Answer"
- White Women in PERIL - "a tongue-in-cheek look at a media phenomenon which has redefined what qualifies as news"
- Missing-girl cases differed - "Two 17 year old girls from Richmond, Va. One white, one black. Police deny bias."
- Met chief accuses media of racism - Head of London's police says murders in minority communities appear "not to interest the mainstream media"
- Press should not feel too smug after Blair's blunder – Journalist comments on Police Commissioner’s remarks
