Think back to May 4th, 2007. Remember what you were doing? Do you remember this face? That was the day the world was told of Madeleine McCann’s disappearance in the Algarve region of Portugal. There wouldn’t be too many people in Australia that have neither heard nor know some information in detail of this matter. I brought your attention to this old case because it quite the same as the recent event that has caused the upmost concern of importance and immediacy for news media over the past 2 weeks; the disappearance of 6 year old Kiesha Abrahams.
How this event has gained media coverage is fairly self explanatory but the depth and length that the media has continued with this story is what has surprised and frankly annoyed me most. When speaking in regard to media reporting on crime stories, Chibnell in 1977 said the media are influenced by eight news values. The facet of novelty was of course in action on the first few days, but 9 days on, the media are still reporting on this case with no new or exciting leads (Cited in Hayes and 
Prenzler, 2007; Goldsmith et al, 2006). The Telegraph headlined on Friday the 6th with (the only new factual information) news that the biological father Mr Weippeart has now been considered a suspect in her disappearance. Chibnell also says that immediacy influences news reporting, but yet for the first 7 days straight after Kiesha went missing; she has front-paged the Daily telegraph everyday with the same regurgitation that was said the day before. So in other words nothing else ‘newsworthy’ enough happened in Australia or the world to take front page status in the past week; other than the federal election that is.
Looking more specifically at an article which I found interesting, featured in The Daily Telegraph August 7th “Little girl lost and a city searches for answers”. As Alyce brought up in the lecture “Mass media devote a great deal of energy to deviance and sensational crimes”, which is quite true in this instance (as cited in Cohen 1972:17). The article mentions that “such cases always seize attention because of the imbalance between vulnerable child and adult malevolence, whether the adult is known to the child or not” and “Allegations of poor mothering have compounded the public perception that Ms Abrahams is not telling the whole story”. Hayes and Prenzler, (2007, p.2) also outline that media reporting on crime is “selective and subjective” in which the continued reporting of Kiesha’s disappearance is attempting to escalate public fear, portraying that this event is infrequent, where in actual fact more than 35000 people going missing annually in Australia alone, according to The AFP’s National Missing Persons Coordination Centre (website link below).
Now I’m sure everyone has formed his or her own opinion on who has or hasn’t ‘kidnapped’ Kiesha, (I sure know I have), but this assumption is purely based on the influence of the media and how they have constructed the articles surrounding this incident, because nor you or I will ever have the opportunity to interview any parties in this proposed crime. Whether this is a crime or not, is still yet to occur but the attention surrounding this issue is one of great public awareness and speculation. And until her body is found, dead or alive, please I beg of you, Daily Telegraph (as your the only one I buy) don’t waste more of your precious resources and my ever so valuable time reading this dull, tedious and repetitive babble.
The AFP’s National Missing Persons Coordination Centre http://www.missingpersons.gov.au/missing-persons/overview.aspx
The Wikipedia article on Madeleine McCann http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Madeleine_McCann
The Daily Telegraph August 7th “Little girl lost and a city searches for answers”. http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/little-girl-lost-and-a-city-searches-for-answers-20100806-11oii.html
Other newspaper articles showing a different perspective on the Kiesha disappearance
Great post Emma. I think you are being a bit harsh on yourself saying your posts won't be stimulating!
ReplyDeleteAn interesting follow on from the newsworthiness (or otherwise) of this story is to examine the notion of a 'worthy' or 'deserving' victim, which we will do in future weeks. I think for the Tele the continued newsworthiness of this story had something to do with the victim, an innocent child, as well as the digging up of details of the family she belonged to, who you discuss.
An interesting blog, look forward to reading more in the future.
Alyce
It's interesting to note that on the missing persons site it states one person goes missing every 15 minutes. This would mean that since Kiesha was reported missing on the 31st of july - that quite a lot of people have been reported missing that we've never heard about. It almost seems unfair that those missing people dont get their fair share of media time.
ReplyDelete- If you want your missing person to get lots of attention, make sure they disappear in a really suspicious way! (sarcasm).
With all this focus on Kiesha and only Kiesha, it puts unnecessary strain on the efforts made to find her and opens the police up to a can of criticism if they cannot find her.
And especially with some people accusing the family of behind behind her disappearance - the family are going to be social outcasts for as long as this case lasts thanks to the media and people being a little too vocal about their opinions.
i'd like to know exactly why it is that each of those people that go missing every 15 mintues (as lachlan mentioned above)do not receive the attention that others do. Why is it that society focuses on one persons story rather than the hundreds of others out there that have been missing for much longer and who have recieved no attention from the media whatsoever? Obviously the media latches on to one story and creates a personal background for society to relate themselves to, or sympathise with in some way, but as emma pointed out, there has been little additional evidence or even personal information that the media can add to their story, so why is it that we are still so attached to this one story of a missing little girl, when we could be attached to hundreds who have gone missing since her disappearance?
ReplyDelete