A story of two disappearances
*Note* story updated 5/1/11 after teenager was found safe and well, therefore name removed.
Joanna Yeates and a teenager, two young people who went missing in December, have received very different amounts of media coverage. Naturally these are stories which are extremely distressing for the friends and relatives of those involved and it's important to bear that in mind when thinking about attempting any kind of comparison, or even whether a comparison is a fair thing to make.
The national press doesn't seem very interested in the disappearance of the teenager - the story hasn't been widely covered other than by news outlets such as the local press near to her home, the Voice and on social media. The story is now receiving some attention because of the social media connection, and the celebrities who have been involved with tweeting details in hope of the disappearance reaching a wider audience. For example, this coverage by the Daily Mail seems as much about the tweeting of the story by people such as Stephen Fry and Rio Ferdinand as it is about the teenager being missing. Nonetheless, the news has made the mainstream and it's laudable of the Mail to pick it up; it also demonstrates how social media stories can drift into a wider view.
With the Jo Yeates case, there was also a small amount of local coverage in the early stages, until police held a press conference on December 22 - after which time the story appeared in all the major national papers, on television, radio and elsewhere. Why did the story get so big? There are a number of reasons, including it being a slow news period with newsdesks scratching around for stories when this tale fell into their laps; the police press conference including the visibly distraught relatives; the presence of CCTV pictures which meant it could be covered on TV news without just still photos; the unusual nature of the disappearance, with the person involved having been seen buying a pizza which then disappeared; and the mystery of the whole affair; this was an atypical disappearance in that the person who went missing was a professional in their 20s who had no history of mental health issues; there is the possibility that police suspected foul play at the time; also, the police needed assistance with the inquiry and therefore turned to the public for help. There is also the fact that the missing person was a woman, young, blonde and attractive. At another time, it may have been different; at another time, it may have been not as prominently covered.
It's difficult, then, to compare that disappearance with the disappearance of the teenager. Without any undue speculation, it is worth noting that many teenagers do go missing and their disappearances often attract no more coverage than stories in the local press, and these teenagers are often located soon after. Aside from this teenager, at least three other young people went missing in December - and were subsequently found safe and well. Quite rightly in my view, when missing youngsters are found, the local papers who covered the stories often remove them from their websites so they're not there forever.
All that said, there is more than a faint suspicion that there may be other reasons why the disappearance of someone like Jo Yeates might attract more coverage. Would the Jo Yeates case be considered such a strong story if she were not white, not a professional, not - for want of a better term - middle-class? I don't know and I am not sure. As regular readers of this blog will know, I am not enamoured with the tabloid press, and they have certainly produced some deeply unpleasant stories with regard to the treatment of Chris Jefferies - but I am not sure I can be certain they have been discriminatory in their comparatively quiet coverage of the teenager's disappearance. There may be many other reasons - the type of disappearance, the steering from police with suspicion of abduction or foul play, the availability of footage and photographs adding to the mystery of the disappearance, the story having broken at a time when so little was going on and thereby attracting more attention in the public's imagination, and so on. I'm not ruling out a discriminatory attitude; I'm just saying I am not sure we can conclude that is what is going on.
Missing people is one of those quietly unseen stories that causes untold sadness and pain to families across the country, whether those who go missing are found again or not - it's a story that doesn't get widespread national coverage because, perhaps, it isn't seen as a national issue, more a localised one. It is probably not straightforward to know what's best to do in every circumstance, as each individual is different, may respond differently to publicity, and so on. However, as the response to the teenager's case shows, people do engage with the story of a missing person - regardless of ethnicity - and they are interested in the outcome, even if they do not live nearby and possibly cannot help with sightings or information. All we can hope is that, where appropriate, all missing person cases get the coverage they deserve, and that the coverage might help them come home safely.
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January 4th, 2011 - 16:58
I think it’s pretty bad how much the media has taken over these stories, both social media and print media. The fact that Jo Yeates’ grief-stricken boyfriend had to step up and tell all those tweeting about Jo that it was ‘shameful’, and the fact that that comment got retweeted a lot, says it all. The Mail coverage about the man questioned for Jo’s murder (who used to teach at my old school) was apparently very leading (I avoided it) and similarly to the case of the young woman murdered in South Africa, even the most conscientious media-user can’t help but be leading.
On another note, I’m from Bristol and seeing the city plastered with Jo’s missing posters, even after her body had been found, was horrible. Her poor family.
January 4th, 2011 - 17:06
I read a statement from the police investigating the case at the weekend. They said Joanna’s death had a particular resonance because women could “relate to her professional and especially personal life”. I’m still trying to work out what they meant by that. Presumably I’m supposed to think it’s tragic because she lived with her (male) partner, but if she were single or a lesbian we’d all think good riddance? Or it’s worse when people with careers go missing as opposed to students or the unemployed? I don’t think the police understand, well, people.
January 4th, 2011 - 20:12
I’m not sure – it’s possible that they meant simply that a young woman disappeared, was abducted and murdered while out having a good time, something that a lot of people do at this time of year.
I’m not always a fan of the police, but I think they deserve the benefit of the doubt here.
January 5th, 2011 - 13:19
I took it to mean just the experience of walking home after a night out- it reminds you how vulnerable you can be, particularly as a woman. I think you’re reading a bit much into it by interpreting it as implying that any single and/or gay women would obviously deserve it.
Personally, my actions on the same night that Ms Yeates went missing were very similar- I went for a quick drink after work with some colleagues to celebrate the start to the holidays, then picked up a couple of beers and a Chinese take-away on my way home. I was also like her due to spent the night on my own, as my partner was away at a work Christmas bash and I wasn’t expecting him home until the early hours of the morning. I’m afraid I couldn’t help but compare myself to Ms Yeates when I became aware of the story. Silly I know, but I think it’s only human…
January 6th, 2011 - 10:15
I don’t think it was the police that said so. That came from some talking head professor on the news.
January 4th, 2011 - 20:11
I did mention to my wife this morning I wonder how many other people have went missing and/or been murdered over the past 2/3 weeks and yet not received anything like the coverage of Jo Yeates. This is of course is a very tragic and sad case for the Yeates family. I do however have a feeling that this feeling about her being ‘middle class’ might not be far off the mark.
January 4th, 2011 - 21:01
I’ve always been uneasy with huge media coverage of any disappearance, murder, abduction, mystery etc…
On one hand, especially when things are still uncertain and there’s a chance the person might be alive and simply missing, intense media coverage is understandable and even noble; you want the pictures of the missing people ingrained in people’s minds, you want the very topic brought to the attention of as many people as possible because it increases the chances of finding the person alive. But in the cases where the person is found dead and the coverage still goes on, it bugs me. It’s unnecessary in many cases, the sheer level of saturation. It’s just a circus of death. But that’s standard journalism nowadays; sensationalism and drama sells papers, so whatever.
The real thing that bugs me about things like this is that it’s inherently insulting to other people. To cover one person’s case in so much detail and with so much focus is to exclude other people’s stories and their importance in the world. To take probably the most obvious example from recent times, the media coverage of Madeleine McCann is an insult to every other child who went missing during the same period, and their families.
That’s not to say the case of Madeleine McCann, or Joanna Yeates, *isn’t* as important as the other cases. Far from it. It’s just that in order to put so much focus on one case which is, in most ways, not particularly different from many other cases, you must explicitly ignore everything else going on at the time. And that is just wrong, in many ways.
January 5th, 2011 - 10:08
Huzzah. Guardian’s reporting that she’s turned up alive and well.
January 5th, 2011 - 11:11
What point are you actually trying to make with this, if any? Is it that the unbalanced reporting of disappearances and murders isn’t as egregious and motivated by prejudices as has been suggested in the past? Perhaps I’m being dense but it doesn’t seem clear to me.
January 5th, 2011 - 12:47
Well there you are, you see, you did see a point, after all.
January 5th, 2011 - 11:33
NewsThump hit the nail on the head here: http://newsthump.com/2011/01/05/the-death-of-one-middle-class-woman-is-equal-to-that-of-six-prostitutes-reveals-uk-media/
January 6th, 2011 - 17:59
I did a post about this yesterday: http://fortyshadesofgrey.blogspot.com/2011/01/media-and-ideal-victim.html
As much as I enjoy reading your blog, and usually agree with you, I’m not sure if I can reach the same conclusions as you on this issue.
January 6th, 2011 - 18:17
Well I think on this issue we actually agree on quite a lot. I strongly suspect that white middle-class victims do indeed get more coverage; but I don’t think comparisons between the disappearance of a teenager and the disappearance of Jo Yeates are entirely fair to draw, as there are a number of differences between the two cases – and teenagers’ disappearances very frequently do not make the national news. This is because, as we’ve seen – and I’m glad it’s the case – most teenagers who go missing then do turn up safe and well a few days later.
January 6th, 2011 - 18:24
Yes, I agree that there are significant differences between the cases of Joanna Yeats and Serena Beakhurst. I may have been too quick to say that I disagree with you. Having just re-read the article, I think we were focusing on different matters. Sorry!