General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: We see regular, often harsh criticism of the media for their decisions on what and who to cover [View all]Decoy of Fenris
(1,954 posts)150,000 people go 'missing' a year. How many do we hear about at the national level? Three, four? How many of the size/intensity of Gabby? Once every five or six years or so?
I agree with you in that the media's representation of 'Missing POCs' is skewed racially, but I also feel that you need to understand that certain "Missing white girl" cases have elements that catch the public's attention. For every "Missing white girl" out there, there's 50,000 more that go unseen/unnoticed at the national level. Same with Native Americans, same with Asians and Blacks, same with everyone of -every- demographic. There just isn't an interest unless there's exceptional circumstances that catch the public eye. In this instance, it was the highly-documented and highly-digital nature of the crime that resulted in it getting the attention it has.
Let me ask you a rhetorical, which you're of course free to not answer. If it were a black woman who'd gone missing, and had numerous Reddits spring up surrounding and devoted to solving her disappearance, and who had over half a billion TikTok searches about her, had a population equal to that of America focused on her story, do you honestly have any doubt that the media -wouldn't- cover such a cultural phenomenon? It'd be Media Suicide NOT to take notice to something of that magnitude, regardless of race.
ON EDIT: A shorter form of that question: If Gabby were black and ALL OTHER circumstances were the same, do you feel it wouldn't have garnered national coverage?