Pretty, young white girls:
Iesha Husted last saw her brother in Centerville, Iowa, in January. Sebastian Husted, 19, has been missing ever since.
“Nobody has written about it,” Husted said.
That’s in sharp contrast to the case of 20-year-old University of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts, who was listed as missing from Brooklyn, Iowa, on July 18.
Her unsolved case has received considerable state and national media attention from the Register, television stations and national media outlets, including ABC, CNN and Fox News.
Iesha Husted believes she knows the reason why.
“I think it is because our family is poor. We don’t have the funds to get his face out there,” said Husted, 25. “We don’t have a tight-knit community to rally around. A lot of people think he was an 18-year-old boy running away from his problems.”
Investigators from the Centerville Police Department and Mercer County Sheriff’s Department did not return messages seeking comment on the case.
Iowans showed alarm on social media when a list of missing people in Iowa was widely shared after the Tibbetts disappearance. Nearly 400 people are on the list of those missing, and some wondered why few others are known about.
There was enough concern that public safety officials clarified in a news release that the numbers of those missing were steady and most were runaways.
But criminal justice researchers say the attention disparity among the missing in the media and public is not uncommon.
“Victims that are white, young and female are more likely to be covered, especially on the national level. The victim is seen as more innocent,” said Michelle Jeanis, assistant professor in the criminal justice department at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.
Jeanis said her 2016 study, "Newsworthiness of Missing Person Cases," mirrored findings by other researchers that show selection bias in coverage but could not conclude if the cause was a bias of race, age, gender or class in a sampling of 50 cases in Louisiana.
“Are the news outlets telling viewers what they want, or are the viewers telling the news media what they want?” Jeanis asked. “Who is biased? It’s hard to know.
“But there is something about the young coed story that is incredibly enticing.”
It’s important, she says, because law enforcement officials encourage news media to raise awareness to gather more tips and “get more eyes on their photos to bring them home safe — though that hasn’t been proven,” Jeanis said. State officials expressed that sentiment about Tibbetts on Tuesday at a news conference in Montezuma attended by reporters from national media outlets.
Jeanis' latest unpublished study on social media shares and likes on posts about missing persons showed similar bias among the public.
“Social media is seen as the great equalizer,” she said, yet missing young and white victims get more likes and shares.
At least one person wanted the case of Sebastian Husted to be known among her Facebook followers.
Riley Drake, a doctoral student in social and cultural studies in education at Iowa State University, wondered if the lack of coverage has anything to do with Husted’s race or class. She is also from Centerville but doesn’t know Husted.
“In our community, we celebrate baseball tournaments — we just won the state tournament. It was exciting to see the Facebook posts of everyone celebrating and being supportive,” she said in an interview. “But where is the support and compassion for a young man that is missing?”
Car magnets printed by Live Now Designers in Brooklyn, Iowa, pictured on July 22, 2018. Community members continue to search for Mollie Tibbetts, a 20-year-old Iowan who was last seen on July 18, 2018. (Photo: Matthew Leimkuehler/The Register)
Drake and others say they want to be clear: They applaud the attention and focus on Tibbetts and hope the best for her and her family. But what about the rest?
More at: https://www.press-citizen.com/story...edia-bias-attention-missing-person/872539002/
Iesha Husted last saw her brother in Centerville, Iowa, in January. Sebastian Husted, 19, has been missing ever since.
“Nobody has written about it,” Husted said.
That’s in sharp contrast to the case of 20-year-old University of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts, who was listed as missing from Brooklyn, Iowa, on July 18.
Her unsolved case has received considerable state and national media attention from the Register, television stations and national media outlets, including ABC, CNN and Fox News.
Iesha Husted believes she knows the reason why.
“I think it is because our family is poor. We don’t have the funds to get his face out there,” said Husted, 25. “We don’t have a tight-knit community to rally around. A lot of people think he was an 18-year-old boy running away from his problems.”
Investigators from the Centerville Police Department and Mercer County Sheriff’s Department did not return messages seeking comment on the case.
Iowans showed alarm on social media when a list of missing people in Iowa was widely shared after the Tibbetts disappearance. Nearly 400 people are on the list of those missing, and some wondered why few others are known about.
There was enough concern that public safety officials clarified in a news release that the numbers of those missing were steady and most were runaways.
But criminal justice researchers say the attention disparity among the missing in the media and public is not uncommon.
“Victims that are white, young and female are more likely to be covered, especially on the national level. The victim is seen as more innocent,” said Michelle Jeanis, assistant professor in the criminal justice department at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.
Jeanis said her 2016 study, "Newsworthiness of Missing Person Cases," mirrored findings by other researchers that show selection bias in coverage but could not conclude if the cause was a bias of race, age, gender or class in a sampling of 50 cases in Louisiana.
“Are the news outlets telling viewers what they want, or are the viewers telling the news media what they want?” Jeanis asked. “Who is biased? It’s hard to know.
“But there is something about the young coed story that is incredibly enticing.”
It’s important, she says, because law enforcement officials encourage news media to raise awareness to gather more tips and “get more eyes on their photos to bring them home safe — though that hasn’t been proven,” Jeanis said. State officials expressed that sentiment about Tibbetts on Tuesday at a news conference in Montezuma attended by reporters from national media outlets.
Jeanis' latest unpublished study on social media shares and likes on posts about missing persons showed similar bias among the public.
“Social media is seen as the great equalizer,” she said, yet missing young and white victims get more likes and shares.
At least one person wanted the case of Sebastian Husted to be known among her Facebook followers.
Riley Drake, a doctoral student in social and cultural studies in education at Iowa State University, wondered if the lack of coverage has anything to do with Husted’s race or class. She is also from Centerville but doesn’t know Husted.
“In our community, we celebrate baseball tournaments — we just won the state tournament. It was exciting to see the Facebook posts of everyone celebrating and being supportive,” she said in an interview. “But where is the support and compassion for a young man that is missing?”
Car magnets printed by Live Now Designers in Brooklyn, Iowa, pictured on July 22, 2018. Community members continue to search for Mollie Tibbetts, a 20-year-old Iowan who was last seen on July 18, 2018. (Photo: Matthew Leimkuehler/The Register)
Drake and others say they want to be clear: They applaud the attention and focus on Tibbetts and hope the best for her and her family. But what about the rest?
More at: https://www.press-citizen.com/story...edia-bias-attention-missing-person/872539002/
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