Missing White Woman Syndrome

The term "missing white woman syndrome" is when the media gives a lot more attention to missing white women, especially on TV, compared to missing males or females of color. It also means the media focuses a lot on young, attractive, white, and upper middle-class women. 

While the term came from missing-person cases, it's also used for other violent crimes. 

This happens a lot in countries like the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa, where most people are white.

The term "missing white woman syndrome" is pretty popular, but there haven't been many studies on it. 

A study from 2019 found that the media tends to pay more attention to missing women, especially if they are white. They also found that missing person cases involving white people get more media coverage than those involving black people. The study also mentioned that women of color who are not black, like Asian and Latina women, also get a lot of attention in the news. 

So yeah, it's more about the lack of coverage for missing black women.

Another interesting thing from the study is that missing women are twelve times more likely than missing men to get attention in the media, even though men and women go missing at similar rates.

The way missing persons cases are covered in the media has led to some changes in the law, especially from conservative politicians who want to be tough on crime. These changes are often named after white women who went missing and were later found harmed. 

Along with race and wealth, things like how attractive, thin, or young a missing person seems to affect how much attention their case gets in the news. But, when a black women go missing, the news often focuses on their personal problems, like bad relationships or drug use. 

It's so horrible. Everyone should be treated equally... So why aren't these victims treated equally? I don't get it.

Also, when white women go missing, the news is more likely to talk about their roles as mothers, daughters, students, and community members. Which is fine, but shouldn't we focus on these positive attributes for everyone?

For example, in 2003, the San Francisco Chronicle published an article detailing the disparity between the coverage of the Laci Peterson case, (which we have all heard about right?). Laci's death was horrific, but there was another disappearance that year of Evelyn Hernandez...

Evelyn was a Hispanic woman whose case got next to no coverage. Also, the media coverage of soldier Jessica Lynch, Shoshana Johnson, and Lori Piestewa after they were ambushed during the Iraq War in 2003 was biased. 

Jessica, who is a young, white woman, received much more attention than Shoshana, a black single mother, and Lori, an Indigenous single mother from a poor background. 

Critics say this happened because Jessica fit the media's preferred image of a victim.

Make that make sense!

Some people have pointed out that the media often focuses too much on murder trials involving young, white, and attractive female defendants. They've also noted that in these cases, the accused person gets a lot of attention, while the victim is sometimes overlooked. This happens even when there's strong evidence against the accused.

Examples of this include well-known cases like Amanda Knox, Jodi Arias, and Casey Anthony. 

Also, In response to cases of people going missing, some laws have been created and named after the person who disappeared. Experts have noticed that laws like these are more likely to be made when white women go missing, compared to when non-white women or men go missing. 

Some examples of these laws in the United States are Sarah's Law, Lori's Law (named after Lori Hacking), Megan's Law (Megan Kanka), Jessica's Law (Jessica Lunsford), and Caylee's Law (Caylee Anthony).

It's crucial to keep in mind that the content we consume is often shaped by profitability and audience engagement. 

News outlets receive numerous requests for specific stories, and these requests greatly influence their coverage decisions. 

Consequently, stories about Caucasian individuals tend to attract more attention and resources due to their widespread appeal.

Despite my efforts to avoid discrimination in my own storytelling, I've observed that the majority of the cases I cover focus on Caucasian individuals. This trend is attributable to my pursuit of cases with accessible online information, which appears to predominantly pertain to mainly white woman. This realization has prompted me to reconsider the need for a more inclusive representation in my storytelling.

In response, I've made a conscious commitment to cover more stories about individuals from diverse backgrounds on my channel. It's imperative to me that everyone is treated equally and that I'm not fixating solely on cases that generate the highest viewer engagement.

Additionally, I've noted that my stories about white women attract significantly more viewers than those about men or individuals of color, a disparity that I am dedicated to rectifying.

I firmly believe that we can all contribute to fostering greater equity by taking a more vested interest in stories that receive less coverage and demonstrating care and concern for all individuals. I am committed in my intention to diligently research and showcase a broader spectrum of cases moving forward.

So, please stand with me to bring attention to everyone's stories. We need to be equal! 

But I'm just one person with a small channel. Can I really make a difference? Probably not, but I can do my part.

And this brings us to the end of today's story.