What do OJ Simpson, Casey Anthony, Drew Peterson, Scott Peterson and the parents of Jon Benet Ramsey (among others) have in common, aside from having insane amounts of media coverages for their murder trials?
All of the above cases involve a white female victim.
How do the media go about selecting what to make the next "Trial of the Century"? Is it as simple as the victim that is killed? I know that more than just white females are getting murdered, but that seems to be what the media highlight in almost every big murder story. In OJ Simpson's case, I believe his story would have been news no matter who he (allegedly) killed due to his previously gained fame as a hall-of-fame NFL player. In the other people's cases, it's startling that stories of other demographics don't get the face time that these other cases do.
Having been surrounded by, a consumer of, and even once a part-time employee of media, I know that the things that are reported are reported because there is a need to tell news that people want to hear (i.e. stories that will sell newspapers/get viewers). Usually, this is accompanied by images that draw in the reader/viewer. A picture or an image of a young girl that is reported missing or dead will immediately get the attention of an audience.
Is this phenomenon a product of who controls the media moreso than the audience? Probably not, but they probably know that their audience will likely pay attention to something that involves one of their own. For every Casey Anthony situation, there are thousands of other similar murders happening in lower class areas of the country all the time.
Does the fact that "it happens all the time" make it less newsworthy? Perhaps, but it definitely gives an impression that the media are not really covering all of society the same way - which is truth. It seems to be common knowledge that a lot of urban areas around the country are not the safest of areas, so the media say, no need to cover these stories to the same level that we would a murder in the suburbs.
Certainly, that's not to say that there are not local reporters who do a damn fine job of covering these stories as part of their beat. In fact, here in Chi-town, we have some award-winning reporters for such stories working at the Sun-Times.
But these stories will never have a national appeal to them that will catch the eye of the CNNs and Fox Newses of the world. Sadly, I think it has to do as much with the audience that they are targeting as it does with the demographics of the victim.
