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CNN Live Today

How Does Media Decide Which Child Abduction Cases to Cover?

Aired August 14, 2002 - 12:31   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Danielle Van Dam, Elizabeth Smart, Samantha Runnion -- you may recognize the names, all children abducted this year, this summer, their stories well publicized. But how does CNN or any other media outlet decide which cases to cover?
CNN's David Mattingly has been looking into that.

And you know, David, sometimes it just doesn't seem fair.

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It doesn't, particularly to some of the families involved, and there have been so many families making the news lately. There was the Cortez case coming to the happy ending in California. Now the new one today of the child being snatched from the parking lot in Texas. But what we are looking at are stranger abduction cases. These cases remain relatively rare, so they almost always attract some kind of media attention.

Whether it's national attention and how much attention these cases attract, however, according experts, depends a lot on the parents of the children.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's okay, and then we are out of here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It has a lot do with how media savvy they are and how willing they are to put themselves before the media. This is one of the rare situations in which people who are distraught are willing to put themselves in front of America as a whole. And that is a difficult bridge for some people to cross, and people who are more familiar with the media and how it works, are better able to do that.

MATTINGLY (voice-over): This is one big reason why a child like Elizabeth Smart captured so much attention for weeks at a time, the Smart family at one time was holding almost daily news conferences, keeping the story in the national headlines. These stories are driven so much by emotion, that experts continue to suggest that it's after the parents go public, it is how they and their lifestyles are perceived that can also have an impact on how the public and news media reacts, and how much attention is focused on their child.

KELLY MCBRIDE, POYNTER INST.: I think the main criteria is, is it a good story to tell? And after that, I don't think most national media outlets break that down to the elements of, why do we consider some missing children good stories to tell, and others too messy or too complicated?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MATTINGLY: Some of these complicating factors can be social and economic in nature, but very often they become personal, sometimes coming from the most private areas of a family's life. Those complicated factors that can distract from the emotion that is stirred up by these kind of stories.

LIN: So aren't you, in effect, saying then that some of our decisions are based upon race? Its depends on whether the parents are English speaking, it depends on whether they live in a very urban area, maybe even have a criminal background themselves, which doesn't have anything to do with the missing child.

MATTINGLY: True. There is Not one single expert I talked to who says there is any editor in this country making a decision that says this child will get more attention because this child is white or some other color. They do suggest that economic decisions come into -- maybe subconsciously come into play. And one of the experts I talked to was lamenting the fact that journalists used to be working class, that we used to be more in tune with the needs of working class families. Today, we make a little more money, we'll a little more well healed, and perhaps we lost touch with that audience a little bit.

LIN: That is a good point. What about the circumstances of the kidnapping though? For example, this morning when I woke up and saw, oh, my gosh, yet another child kidnapped, but the circumstances were so dramatic that a woman could grab a baby out of a van while the mother was just 10 feet away. This in Abilene, Texas.

MATTINGLY: That's right. All of these cases of stranger abduction are dramatic, because they are relatively rare. That why they almost always get attention. What we're looking at is why some cases seem to get more attention and for longer periods of time than others.

LIN: Well, David, you got more on Connie Chung tonight. We will looking forward to this report.

MATTINGLY: Thanks so much.

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