Quoted: Hemant Shah, director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s journalism school, said the pattern is part of a larger trend where white people are overrepresented as victims and people of color are overrepresented as criminals in mass media.
Part of the problem is the lack of diversity in newsroom leadership, said Shah, who teaches courses about mass media, race and ethnicity. White journalists may be more likely to latch onto stories of white victims.
“There’s a social psychology at work where you relate more to your in-group than to your out-group,” Shah said. “You may see in a missing white girl something that’s more relatable: It could be my daughter, my neighbor, et cetera. Whereas with a non-white young woman you might not have that same visceral connection.”