The Ratings Game

The case of Gabby Petito is making international headlines. In fact, the BBC News page for the United States and Canada has two stories about her up as of this morning. And, accordingly the case has made the Wikipedia list of Missing white woman syndrome cases.

While I understand the inclusion of the Petito case on that list, I'm not sure that it does the situation justice. Because the perceived need of news organizations to cover this story in order to prevent their detail-hungry audience from going elsewhere is down to more than just the fact that Ms. Petito was White (she is, as I understand it, now presumed dead, as a body has been found). The Wikipedia article notes: "In addition to race and class, factors such as supposed attractiveness, body size and youthfulness have been identified as unfair criteria in the determination of newsworthiness in coverage of missing women." (Personally, I would replace "supposed" with "conventional" or "mainstream." While beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and the women in question may not be "hot" by college standards, they do tend to fit into a rather common Western standard of desirability.)

The idea that conventionally pretty, young, fit, middle/upper-middle class, White women don't deserve to be murdered, and are the type specimen for people who deserve better than their fate leaves more than just non-White women out in the cold. While I am no less likely than anyone else to find such whining tiresome, the idea put forth by some conservatives that "men are expendable" can also be tied to Missing white woman syndrome.

Western media outlets tend to find themselves on the horns of a dilemma in this. The public's creation of a class of victim and family that are singularly deserving of justice and closure is fed by the media's response to their desire for same. And while it's easy to proclaim that journalists have a responsibility to push back against the public in the name of principles, idealism doesn't sign paychecks. Principles are wonderful, but eating is required and principle is inedible.

There is, however, another problem with expecting "the media" to take the lead on making this change. This presumed that journalists and other members of the media ecosystem are themselves separate from, and more enlightened than, the public at large. I caught myself in this while listening to the BBC podcast series Who Killed Emma? I found myself faulting Samantha Poling for seeming to go out of her way to cast Emma Caldwell as being deserving of justice, despite the fact that she'd been a prostitute, by concentrating on the standard list of Missing white woman characteristics. But perhaps Ms. Poling was just as convinced as others seem to be that this list of characteristics, lottery-like as they are, were what made here innocent enough to be entitled to proper justice. There was irony in the fact that sex workers interviewed for the podcast series were incensed by the police rating them as less worthy of resources, while the podcasts themselves seemed to reinforce that same sense that worthiness could be measured and some people had more than others.

Resources for justice, like public attention, are limited. And this makes them valuable. Societies have never been good about doling out valuables equally, and people are loathe to concede that they've received as much as is appropriate when they've received less than they understand they need. "Missing white woman syndrome" is a pithy, but inaccurate name for the phenomenon that governs this uneven distribution. But it's also one that can lead, perhaps, to an uneven understanding of the factors that lead to it, and the thinking that drives it.