Dateline: What's missing? Gender and racial profiling in missing persons coverage

[NFS4]

Until I began to research this story, though, I had no idea how lopsided the numbers really were as pertains to missing Americans. Most aren't young, attractive, white women. In fact, most are men. About 30 percent are black, a much higher percentage of the missing than blacks are of the U.S. population. And they attract almost no coverage nationally.

Why is that, I wondered. The answers aren't easy ones. With every dollar being squeezed and every budget scrutinized, there's clearly a temptation on the part of news managers to try to go where they think the audience is. And the hard truth is that stories like Laci Paterson spike the audience numbers. The highest-rated "Dateline" of last season was Matt Lauer's interview with Amber Frey. The second highest was the interview with Scott Peterson's half-sister. So why do we do it? Because it works.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8828472/

 

[91TTZ]

Pandering to the sheep. Sad.

 

[Viper GTS]

I would be interested in seeing a viewer demographic breakdown for all the major networks. I don't consider network news to be much more than entertainment (and highly competitive at that, with networks clamoring for viewers), & as such it's in their best interest to give their viewers what they want to see.

Viper GTS

 

[FeuerFrei]

I really don't think anyone cared about the Laci Peterson case. I think the press was just feeding off its own hype. They thought it was popular because every network ran coverage of it, but nobody actually watched the coverage. Trust me.

 

[Rastus]

Originally posted by: Viper GTS
I would be interested in seeing a viewer demographic breakdown for all the major networks. I don't consider network news to be much more than entertainment (and highly competitive at that, with networks clamoring for viewers), & as such it's in their best interest to give their viewers what they want to see.

Viper GTS

QFT

Also, another thing that bears mentioning is 99% of the missing people are runaways.

 

[lokiju]

Nothing new there, News shows are just about ratings.

 

[Rebasxer]

I didn't care about scott peterson case, who did?

 

[klah]

(White) Women We Love

 

[NFS4]

Originally posted by: Viper GTS
I would be interested in seeing a viewer demographic breakdown for all the major networks. I don't consider network news to be much more than entertainment (and highly competitive at that, with networks clamoring for viewers), & as such it's in their best interest to give their viewers what they want to see.

Viper GTS

If we're talking about selling a car or pushing some products on people, I would say that I agree with you. Know your audience.

But in regards to a human life, the more people you can reach, the better your chances are at coming to a resolution. What good would an Amber Alert be for a kid from the ghetto if you only had electronic billboards along highways that displayed the alert in that particular ghetto in that particular city instead of throughout the state and on the radio?

 

[NFS4]

Originally posted by: klah
(White) Women We Love

Interesting read

 

[Compton]

Don't forget about Terri Schiavo too. If she wasn't a white woman I doubt we ever would've heard about her.

 

[PokerGuy]

I've said it before -- it has nothing to do with racism or sexism on the part of the networks. Bottom line, they cover whatever gets them the highest Nielsen ratings. If that means they have to find some story of a cute blonde bimbo missing in Aruba day and night, then that's what they do (even though there are more than 10,000 unsolved murders every year, not to mention missing persons).