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WEKU
WEKU
Jonathan Franklin

Racial bias affects media coverage of missing people. A new tool illustrates how

A missing persons flyer, bearing the name of Annie Le, shown here in New Haven, Conn., in September 2009. This year, the Columbia Journalism Review (CJR) launched a new tool that allows users to openly share their "press value" with the world if they were to go missing. (Thomas Cain/Associated Press)

Thousands of people are reported missing in the United States each year. And while not every missing person case will get widespread media coverage, the fight to locate them — whether alive or dead — is always the main priority.

However, when it comes to missing person cases involving people of color, that same media attention quickly dissolves, ultimately feeding into the phenomenon of 'Missing White Woman Syndrome' — a phrase coined by the late journalist Gwen Ifill that addresses the media's fascination with covering attractive, middle class-looking white women in comparison to missing persons of color.

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