Abstract
While it has been accepted that the government consists of three branches which separate its powers among the branches so no single party can have too much influence, there is a quickly emerging fourth branch, which has gone unchecked for too long: the media. While the media doesn’t have designated powers like the government does, it arguably has more influence. In this article, I examine what I’d like to call media gerrymandering. Gerrymandering means to manipulate the boundaries of (an electoral constituency) to favor one party or class. What if we applied this concept to the media? The media is drawing their own lines to favor one party or class, marginalizing many groups, elevating others, and controlling the constituency. Specifically, I’ll be discussing the recent case of Gabby Petitio. and the ramifications of her coverage in the media.
“Missing White Woman Syndrome”
The term “missing white woman syndrome” was first coined by Gwen Ifill of PBS, and it expresses the inherent bias that exists that the media will cover a story and search for a white woman over a colored woman. According to black feminist theory, those who disappear who are typically white, female, and young receive much greater media attention than racial minorities who also disappear. Often the news headline will use words like innocent to portray the victim as perfect and angelic, not deserving of such treatment. Black women are no given the same exaltation in the media when they go missing.
Speaking of missing white woman syndrome, have you heard about Gabby Petito? If you have connection to the internet, then you’ve probably heard of her. Searching her name brings almost 18 million results. If you’re unfamiliar, Gabby Petito was a 22-year-old, white woman from New York who went cross-country road tripping with her fiancé which ended in a murder investigation, Petito the victim. While the case is very sad and we should be talking about it, there is a limit to how much coverage one person should get, especially at the expense of other cases and groups of people. Every major media source covered this story for weeks and you couldn’t get on social media without this story being shared. I’ve read many interviews where people ask reporters if she was a celebrity based on the amount of coverage she was getting. In the video from Monica Coleman from ABC 10 I’ve shared, shows one of these instances With the entire media covering the story of an average white woman’s disappearance, it fails to cover stories of black women who go missing or are victims of heinous crimes. CNN contributor Ana Navarro expressed sympathy for the Petito family, issued a call on Instagram for more inclusive coverage. “I want to take nothing away from this horrible case. My thoughts are w/her family,” she wrote. “I just want there to be same interest and energy [for] every disappeared young woman in America.” Omékongo Dibinga, a professor at American University, argues that the issue is deeply rooted. “People just don’t see us in the same way that they see these White women and White girls,” he said in an interview. “We want the Petito family and everybody else to get justice, but we’re just saying that we want some of that coverge], too, and we don’t get it.” There is a real sentiment of feeling left out and misrepresented in the media by many. I can’t remember a time when a black woman got media attention in a criminal case. As journalist Mara Schiavocampo said on CNN, “This actually has real life implications for women of color. Why? This makes them less safe because perpetrators, predators, know that if you want to get away with murder, you seek the victim that no one is going to look for.
Native American Representation
White American institutions and individuals have overwhelmingly created and defined prevalent representations of racial minority groups, including Native peoples. The resulting representations reflect negative, inaccurate ideas about Native Americans while ignoring positive, accurate ideas. Consequently, biased understandings of how contemporary Native Americans look and behave permeate U.S. society. A simple google search can show that the media still portrays Native American wearing traditional garment and feathers, when this is not an accurate contemporary view of many cultures. You might be surprised to know that many Natives wear your average T-shirt and shorts. Biased ideas and representations of Native Americans – particularly the scarcity of positive, accurate, and contemporary ideas and representations – constitute the modern form of bias against Native Americans and perpetuate a recursive cycle of low expectations, prejudice, and discrimination that reinforces disparities in domains from public health to education. Here in the United States, there is an overwhelming priority to wealth and success. It is generally very respectable if someone goes to Law school or becomes a doctor. Many people would view wealth as the driving force for life itself. Culturally, we see that many Native Americans don’t align with these principles. This causes majority white groups to view these groups as lower class, and a group to have power over. The very birth of this nation was conceived out of bloodshed and subjugation of Native peoples. Much like the relationship between whites and African Americans, there is a very dark history between them that is still deeply rooted in our institutions. The Indian Child Welfare Act is a recent example that steps in the right direction as far as fighting back against white assimilation. In 1978, The Indian Child Welfare Act gave Native American tribes jurisdiction over child welfare cases involving Native children. Up until then, the U.S. government separated 25-35 percent of Native children from their families and placed them in foster homes, often placed in non-Native homes. Surveys revealed that children were removed from homes because their families practiced communal childrearing, which is normative in Native American communities, but conflicts with the nuclear family model that prevails in white, middle-class homes. The blatant media bias toward white women leaves primitive ideas about groups that do not allow the average viewer to be informed about minority groups.
What does this have to do with Gabby Petitio and white women syndrome? In Wyoming, the state in which Petito was found dead, a report released this year by Wyoming’s Taskforce on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons found over 700 Native American people went missing in the state alone between 2011 and 2020 with virtually zero media coverage. Abigail Echo-Hawk, an enrolled citizen of the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma, is the director of the Seattle-based Urban Indian Health Institute and executive vice president of the Seattle Indian Health Board. “What we see is systematic bias, institutional and structural racism and the vilifying and the placing of blame on the victims themselves and their families for when these people go missing and murdered,” Echo-Hawk said. “And what we see is absolute injustice. And that is why Washington state ranks one of the highest for missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.”
A More Representative Future in Media
It has been clearly stated that minority groups are not represented in the media, and when they are represented, they are misrepresented. The root issue might be in the teams behind producing news and media content. Many news teams lack diversity and so there is inherent bias for white women on news teams to cover white women, because it hits home for them. What if we diversified every media team or at least try to promote minority cases and stories? We are so easily shaped by the content we consume. Changing the media changes hearts. We need to promote stories of all people from all walks of life so we can be better informed and love others better. We live in a culture where we love following cold cases and binge shows about serial killings that involve white women, like Ted Bundy for example and are inoculated to horrifying stories. There is a true danger in presenting a single story. It marginalizes important minority groups and elevates others. Showing the single white woman story tells minorities that they are not important or worthy to be represented.