News Media and Missing Persons of Color

It has been in the news for weeks.  The search for Gabby Petito.  The 22-year-old woman from long island vanished on a cross-country trip with her boyfriend Brian Laundrie.  Her body was found last week in Wyoming.  She had been murdered.  The whereabouts of her boyfriend remain a mystery. But the blanket news coverage raised the ire in many black communities where people of color who go missing rarely get the same kind of attention.  Ironically… Petito’s family has implored the public and news media to put the same energy into helping find other missing people as they did Petito.

Ivan Singleton, Former DC Police Officer/Relative of Missing Daniel Robinson (not pictured)

Nicky Mayo, President, Baltimore Association of Black Journalists

Jennifer Thomas, Associate Professor of Journalism, Dept. of Media, Journalism and film, Howard University Cathy Hughes School of Communications