From the Wikipedia entry (as of August 10, 2008): Missing White Woman Syndrome (MWWS) is the descriptive term for the disproportionately great degree of coverage in television, radio, and print news reporting of a missing person case involving a White woman, compared to the disproportionately slight news reporting of missing person cases involving women of color, like-wise with men.
The essential elements of the Missing White Woman Syndrome are her sex, her race, (relative) prettiness, and age, the "damsel in distress" stereotype. Thus, the MWWS provokes positive discrimination in the reporting a white woman's disappearance as news, and so increase public interest in her disappearance. Moreover, the MWWS is a measure of U.S. society's racism — the public's general attitudes towards the health, the welfare, and the physical safety of its minority citizens.
Spotlight skips cases of missing minorities
Why do we care about Natalee, Laci, Jennifer?
Diagnosing 'Missing White Woman Syndrome'
Race Bias in Media Coverage of Missing Women?
Met chief accuses media of racism
Press should not feel too smug after Blair's blunder
"Two Young Women Missing, Two Different Levels In Media Coverage"
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2 comments:
It is mostly about CLASS and BEAUTY.
You do not see used up or obese 'white trash' women in missing national stories either.
When a pretty Black actress is shot in Chicago, it is national news. When a Black man killed 5 white women in a Chicago area store, THAT news was dropped as soon as possible, no follow up.
http://welcomebackrosenthal.com/tinley-park-5-women-murdered-on-chicago%E2%80%99s-south-side
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