Is it true that Lowcountry audiences don't want to hear and don't care about missing women?If you live in one of those all-news-all-the-time households (and I do), you have more than a sampling every day of what interests the news media and what doesn't. No, I should say that what the media cover reflects what the media believe their audiences want to hear.
Did we really want to see wall-to-wall coverage of Michael Jackson's accomplishments and pecadillos for a week and more? Was the passage of cap-and-trade ignored simply because it was too esoteric for our poor little pea brains to comprehend? Apparently the media thought so. Frankly, most of the time media act like lemmings. You need only switch from channel to channel during the nightly news to prove that.
Over a month ago, local media briefly noticed two local women: Teista Burwell and Katherine Waring. The first had been missing for almost two years, and the P & C picked up the story that she was finally put on a national missing persons data base. The second made the front page of the P & C only five days after she disappeared. Nothing since.
No doubt the P & C and local TV stations will say in their defense that they dropped the stories because no developments have occurred. Really? Well, then, why bombard us with repetitions of other stories without developments ad nauseum? Has anyone on the planet not heard of Governor Sanford's trip to Argentina?
I struggle to understand why media and police put such low priority on missing females age 18 and over. Every one of them is someone's daughter. Really, how much time would it take to provide updates on these cases to keep them in the public eye? Maybe Charleston should have its own version of America's Most Wanted.
Too many times the idea that adults have the right to disappear if they wish is used as an excuse to avoid the work of finding them. Too many times they're not found alive.
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2 comments:
Thank you.
The Post and Courier is certainly a newsless, gossip publication which holds next to no clout with the educated. It is a shame there are no real news producing media in the Charleston area to provide information which directly affects the wellbeing and safety of the Community. No one ever hears of the violent attacks, muggings, robberies, and break-ins experienced by the College students in the City. Nearly everyone I know has had a stranger in their home, been robbed or mugged yet you never hear about public outcry or movement to remedy the disturbing events.
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