The Media’s Portrayal of One: Missing White Woman Syndrome

Gabby Petito was first reported missing by her mother on September 11, 2021. Within days of her missing persons report, mainstream and social media outlets began to spread her story across the globe. Every major media outlet from CNN to Tik Tok was flooded with information and debates surrounding her disappearance. Eight days later, Gabby Petito’s remains were discovered by police in Bridge-Teton National Forest, Wyoming. And as #GabbyPetito rapidly spread across social media platforms, a different hashtag aimed at expressing concern over the media’s fixation with reporting only select demographics, #missingwhitewomensyndrome, followed as quickly.

#missingwhitewomensyndrome or “MWWS” gained renewed interest after MSNBC host Joy Reid discussed the disparities in media coverage of missing persons with Derrica Wilson and Lynnette Grey Bull, two women who advocate for missing Black and Indigenous women and children. But, #missingwhitewomansyndrome is far from a new concept. Originally coined by the late PBS journalist Gwen Ifill during a Journalist of Color conference, the term “missing white woman syndrome” (MWWS) has been around for nearly two decades. While not new, many–due to social media platforms–are just now starting to see the trends that most media outlets tend towards in choosing to focus on missing white women from affluent backgrounds rather than missing Black, Indigenous, or People of Color (BIPOC). Racial discrimination in media reporting is often due to a lack of data and awareness surrounding how to represent cultures that are not part of the majority. More often than not, this is because these cultures don't represents the media's target audience.

MWWS triggered white anxieties, with many claiming it was an “attack on white society.” Those who try to portray the notion of MWWS as an attack on white society have often pointed to databases like the FBI’s National Crime Information Center’s (NCIC’s) Missing Person and Unidentified Person database as proof that there is no disparity amongst races. This database is used to collect all the missing person files across the nation into one location. People often cite that in 2020 alone, of the 543,941 missing persons (male, female, and all ages), about 60% were classified as white, while 40% were minorities. (See image below) They use this data to argue that white women are represented in the media more often due to the fact that there seems to be a higher rate of missing white people in America.

Image of the 2020 Missing Persons by Race and Gender as reported by NCIC

But, this isn't the case as demonstrated by the 710 Indigenous people reported missing in Wyoming between 2011-2020—the same state in which Gabby Petito went missing and was ultimately found. Of these 710 Indigenous people, 85% were juveniles and 57% were women. But of these 710 Indigenous people, only 5 were reported by the United States Department of Justices (USDOJ) which operates the National Missing and Unidentified person system (NamUs). This is a clear issue with proper data collection.

The lack of proper data collection becomes even more apparent when focusing on how the police report and document cases on missing minorities. In 2019, the Urban Indian Health Institute (UIHI) released a report in which they shared their data collection from over 71 cities across the United States, attempting to piece together the number of missing Indigenous women and children from 1900-2018, with the majority of the data coming from 2010-2018. Of the 71 city police agencies and 1 state police agency surveyed, nearly 2/3rds of these agencies provided no or partial data with significant compromises. The study was met with a wide array of responses from the police agencies who were contacted. Some of these agencies provided data that included non-Indigenous persons who had been classified as Indigenous from the field reports. Others misclassified Indigenous people as different races due to names or physical appearance. Some agencies simply refused to release any information due to a lack of resources, or simply didn’t respond at all. When it is considered that these agencies are responsible for passing this data along to NamUs, this lack of cooperation presents concerning consequences—for example, in 2016, 5,712 reports of missing Indigenous women and children were reported by the National Crime and Information Center but NamUs logged only 116 cases; only 2% of total cases.

Collecting data is only one aspect of how missing BIPOCs are misrepresented. The aspect with more far-reaching effects is the ineffective media coverage and negative portrayal of BIPOCs.

In the case of Gabby Petitio, and other white women like her, there is a common thread of representation. Media outlets tended to focus on using her social media posts–most notably her Instagram–which showed her as a young woman who loved to travel and always smiled. The outlets also showed stills from the police recording of their interaction with Gabby Petito a few weeks before she was reported missing, which showed her visibly distraught over an altercation with her boyfriend of the time. These reporting angles helped the media communicate a common narrative found in MWWS—the western notion of a damsel in distress. A young woman, full of life, and eager to explore the world only to have that taken from her. This created the understanding that Gabby Petito was a victim from beginning to end, even before all of the facts surrounding the case were released.

This is where missing BIPOCs portrayal by the media is vastly different. The majority of media outlets tend to use violent language in articles and reports to describe BIPOC victims. Often, racism, racial stereotypes, or misogyny can be found in articles written about Indigenous women that have gone missing. As UIHI found in examining 934 reports covering 129 of the 506 examined cases this representation and use of violent language by media outlets was prevalent in that:

• 38% had references to drugs or alcohol

• 33% had trans-women victims that misgendered the victim

• 31% had references to the victim’s criminal history

• 8% gave false information on the case or did not name the victim

• 4% made excuses for the perpetrator or used victim-blaming language

• 3% showed images or video of victim death

This disparity in victim-blaming Indigenous women in contrast to only showing white women as victims creates a false narrative for society that non-white women somehow deserved for these crimes to happen to them. Negative media coverage of BIPOC paired with the lack of law enforcement data only helps to push the biased narrative in victim-blaming BIPOCs. It becomes even more concerning when only 30% of Indigenous homicide victims had newspaper media coverage (compared to 51% of white homicide victims). It should also be noted that Indigenous women experience homicide rates 6.4 times higher than the homicide rates for white women. This disparity in victim blaming will continue to happen so long as there is a lack of representation of BIPOCs in the media industry; when BIPOCs are not placed in a position to represent their culture, their communities are left with only the stereotypes and generic assumptions that white people use to punctuate their stories.

Though this article focuses on comparing Gabby Petitos' case treatment to BIPOCs’ case treatments, its intentions are in no way geared towards undermining the horrible things that happened to Gabby Petito and the suffering her family has gone through. Instead, the focus is on the damaging effect that MWWS has had (and continues to have) on BIPOC communities. The resources allocated to Gabby Petito's search should have been used to the full extent to which they were. But, it should also be noted that BIPOC communities often lack the funding or resources to hire private investigators, offer a monetary reward for information, or garner enough attention to stay in media circulation. This is changing to a certain extent, as now we see a lot more activity from social media platforms aimed at circulating more information about missing BIPOCs. But even with this open-source sharing of information, there is still an ultimate need for major media outlets to represent BIPOC communities with the same enthusiasm that they represent missing white women with—because no matter one's race, gender, or age, a missing person should be allocated all the necessary resources to be found.

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