Study: media biased with crime reports

Carol Forsloff -  News media often muse over whether minorities are given equal time when victimized by crimes, especially involving women and children; and recent research verifies indeed there is racial and ethnic discrimination by the media.

Missing white women get far more attention from the media, according to research by Dr. Mia Moddy, assistant professor of journalism and media arts at Baylor University.

What the news media covers by way of stories affects the attention given by viewers and also by authorities.

Professor also declares that despite the tenet of journalism to be objective, despite journalists' good intentions, often the news is "framed" in such a way that coverage becomes magnified or minimized based on such factors as a woman's youth, beauty and occupation.

“Framing is not intentional — it’s different from ‘spin,’ where you know what you’re doing — but it’s based on your race, your gender, your values, your upbringing,” Moody said. “You cover an issue based on what you bring to the table. We just have different viewpoints."

Moody based her research on an examination of mainstream media coverage of different stories involving women and intends to do additional ones to see if the same differences occur in blogs and other new media.

“The research is ongoing,” said Moody, who has enlisted students to assist in the effort. “I don’t want to let it go.”

Moody observes that despite the media's pronouncements and self-criticism about relative ignorance of minority women who are missing, nothing much seems to have changed since the early 2000's..

The coverage during those early criticisms was dubbed “Missing White Women Syndrome” or “missing pretty girl syndrome.”   Moody said that missing women of color seldom had these headlines.

Because researchers found it impossible to include all women relevant to the study for empirical results, they focused on coverage of four of the most publicized cases between 2002 to 2005: Laci Peterson, 27, and Lori Hacking, 27, both Anglo; Tamika Huston, 24, who was African-American, and Latoyia Figueroa, also 24, who was of Hispanic and African-American descent. Huston and Figueroa were perhaps the most publicized missing minority women, researchers said.

Investigators reviewed  738 transcripts and articles from NBC and CBS television networks and articles in The Washington Post and USA Today.

The coverage of black and Latino women was also different in the actual content, with mainstream press coverage of Anglo women including interviews with friends and relatives and the personality of the missing woman.  With black and Latino women, their poor circumstances or personal difficulties were highlighted instead.


Being white and being pretty play important roles in whether a woman gets media attention when missing.  The study found Laci Peterson was the best example of that, as the attractive woman, a wonderful wife, pregnant, young and by the media put on a pedestal.

“You also don’t see much coverage of overweight women,” Moody said. “It’s nearly always about someone who’s attractive or petite. What does that say about women who are poor, unattractive or overweight? That tells us that they’re not as important.”

Moody declares it is important to study the ways individuals are portrayed by the media to increase awarenessness, and “if members of the media are aware, they can change the way they cover those groups.”

Moody said other groups often are overlooked or stereotyped in media coverage and at present is writing a book called Invisible Damsels: Media’s Framing of Women, Minorities and the Elderly.