In this high-stakes situation, the motivations and responsibilities of participants can become a little murky, according to UNE’s Associate Professor Sarah Wayland, who has spent more than 15 years studying missing persons.
In her latest research, Assoc. Prof. Wayland is inviting the public, in phase one of her latest study, and then families of the missing and journalists (in phase two) to reflect on their behaviour. The goal is to better understand the ways that missing persons’ cases are reported. Ultimately, she hopes it will lead to new media guidelines and more sensitive and nuanced coverage.
“The family’s intention is to locate the missing person, the police share updates with the media to assist with the location, and the community’s reaction is often to try to assist,” said Assoc. Prof. Wayland. “But some media outlets can create a tsunami of information and you can begin to wonder if this is in the public’s interest or a form of infotainment. In the perpetual telling and re-telling of the story, it’s important for the media to consider what their ethical obligations and limitations are.”
And it’s not just the media that might re-evaluate their actions.
“The community can contribute to the hysteria,” Assoc. Prof. Wayland said. “The more the public clicks and likes and comments, the more the news outlet is going to want to provide updates, to sustain this audience. This is the nature of the 24-hour news cycle, and news framing to meet that need is important to acknowledge.
“Nine times out of 10 the media is lovely to the family but there can be pressure from within their media organisation about what they want the story to be, versus what the story actually is.”
In collaboration with leading mental health institute Everymind and the Missed Foundation, Assoc. Prof. Wayland is conducting a major survey and two thinktanks.
“This is a multi-dimensional space; the reasons why a person goes missing are different in each case,” Assoc. Prof. Wayland said. “It’s not as simple as lost and found – there’s a person behind the story, as well as their family and friends. Not every news story has to provide a back story, but some stories require nuance and sensitivity.”
The researchers are inviting Australians to complete an anonymous survey https://unesurveys.au1.qualtrics.com/.../SV_es5fZEuP7q1gpyC ahead of the two thinktanks involving the families of missing persons and media professionals.
Some 50,000 Australians go missing each year and 99% are found alive and well.
