I have been watching the news and hearing about a local girl who was allegedly abducted from her home. The entire community has pulled together to help look for her, and there has been daily coverage on her disappearance. After about a week of coverage, there was a shorter story about another woman, who had lost her husband, within the same county, however, there was no noteworthy story of his disappearance. The woman went on to say that media coverage has a direct relation to the amount of leads that can be uncovered. I am sure that there are many more cases, not just within the county, but also the state (or at least within the news coverage area), in which people are kidnapped or just turn up missing, and yet, there is only a mention, if any coverage at all. So who is it that determines what is newworthy? Who is it that says one person's life is more meaningful than anothers? Who is it that says what we are allowed to hear and know? I think that we all deserve to hear all of the news and not just what an individual decides to sensationalize. If there is going to be a story of a missing person, I think they should list more information, such as:
Number of people missing within that city/county YTD
Number of solved cases/returned people vs missing persons reports YTD
Average age/sex/nationality of missing persons
Number of active cases vs cold cases YTD
List of name/age/sex/date of disappearance of missing persons
This would be a good start to providing the full spectrum of news, and not being so completely unfair to the persons who also have suffered such a fate.
