Why is Sabina Nessa murder not all over the media?

[postingfortraffichere]

Such a tragic killing and sad, truly awful to hear about this murder.

Though I can't understand why, it doesn't get the same media/public attention as Sarah Everard who died in similarly tragic circumstances not long ago.

Both are equally tragic, two young women attacked in similar circumstances - the only difference I can see in these cases is the colour of their skin. Sarah's murder was everywhere - before we knew it was a police officer responsible.

Women had lined the streets in protest to make the country a safer place for women.

I can't help but notice where are these women protesting for Sabina? Or for the Killmarsh murders, or other women of colour?

The media treats women of colour - even to this day - very differently to white women.

It feels like the media are sending a clear message that black lives STILL 'don't matter' quite as much as their white counterparts.

[Theoldprospector]

Women, including young ones, get murdered all the time and it isn’t headline news.

To go back to the OP and the claim that women were lining the streets claim. The vigil in that case was organised in 10 days. This one has been organised in 7.

Is this now going to be a thing every time a woman goes missing that we start immediately demanding to know why someone (presumably not ourselves) didn’t organise the vigil quicker?

[Lightfish]

[quote MyPatronusIsACat]@MsHedgehog

Your post is a disgrace and an insult to Sarah Everard. And so is the whole thread. I am hiding this repugnant thread now. I am sure it won't last long. The OP @postingfortraffichere knows it's a stinker, and that is why she has posted it at almost midnight when there is little moderation.[/quote]
An insult to Sarah Everard?

Why? Because reference to the media coverage about her, a young pretty white woman, is being compared to that given to other young pretty black and asian women?

And your response is to demand the thread be deleted!

This is the reason why BAME, people of colour, etc, feel as if our lives do not matter.

[genericuserneeded]

@Charlize43

Could it also have something to do with the fact that someone was arrested almost immediately which implies that it might have been a DV or honour killing?

SE was missing for days and the killer wasn't known. A completely different set of circumstances.

I don’t think that’s the implication.

The perpetrator has been described as a stranger by the media so unknown to Sabina.

The person who was arrested has already been released (pending investigation) so it’s unlikely he’s definitely the perpetrator. The police are still investigating and looking for the perpetrator. If it was as clear cut as DV or honour based violence, they presumably would have issued a statement to say they are not looking for another suspect but the details are very scant here

[owlbethere]

People are murdered every day. The vast majority get no media coverage at all. People are all over Facebook and Twitter and here now talking about this, this is how stories get coverage.
I don’t see this as a race issue, the reasons some cases gain traction and others don’t are many and varied.

[postingfortraffichere]

@Theoldprospector no it isn't going to be a thing every time - as I appreciate it depends on the circumstances of the event, but I am highlighting yet another example of how the media pick and choose whose story to highlight - based on colour of the skin (age, socio-economic background also plays a part)

Sarah's death was very similar IMO and it was everywhere for weeks on end.

[Willyoujustbequiet]

Yabu. It's all over the news.

They key difference is that with Sarah it was a policeman which is always going to attract the media.

You're twisting it to fit your narrative.

[GammyLeg]

You are right, OP. I remember on MN the boards were flooded with posts about Sarah. And rightly so - every time a woman is murdered by a man, we should be in uproar.

But BAME women are not afforded the same outcry.

[TonyThreePies]

I have to agree with the posts that it is because Sarah's friends organised a very public campaign to find her because she was missing. As awful as both cases are. But we can't compare like for like because it isn't.
Another case that has surprised me that hasn't had more chatter on here is the woman who was murdered with her 2 children and one of their friends. Both of the fathers publicly devastated. Who has been arrested? The mother's boyfriend.
We need to get angry, loudly. Not against each other (as this thread is going, I hope it can get back on track and not deleted) but against violence against women. We have to, women who we haven't met - their lives depend on it.

[saraclara]

As others have said, Sarah Everard went missing, which got people invested. And she had friends in the media who put a massive amount of time and investment into getting her story out there. The coverage didn't happen organically.

This incident started with a body. There was no story leading up to it that ended with a dramatic denouement.
The media attention was never going to be the same, whatever this young woman's colour.

[NatriumChloride]

I was LITERALLY logging onto MN to start a thread on this and you’ve beaten me to it, OP.

I HEAR YA and completely agree. The coverage Sabina has received is perhaps 10% of that of the Sarah Everard case.

Yet again, the racist media are to blame. A white life is somehow so much worthier than the lives of women of colour. 😠

[Theoldprospector]

‘@Theoldprospector no it isn't going to be a thing every time - as I appreciate it depends on the circumstances of the event, but I am highlighting yet another example of how the media pick and choose whose story to highlight - based on colour of the skin (age, socio-economic background also plays a part)

Sarah's death was very similar IMO and it was everywhere for weeks on end.’

This happened less than a week ago. As they still haven’t found the perpetrator, this very well could go on for weeks on end.

[thaegumathteth]

Yes I agree and said the same to dh tonight. Mentioned almost as an afterthought.

[User5490453456]

YANBU OP, I'm online a lot and haven't seen anything about this case. Now that there's a thread about it, I do recall scrolling past one article low down on the DM a few days ago but there hasn't been enough coverage for me to remember the name. This is in stark contrast to the Gabby Petito case which is so prominent that virtually nobody can forget the name.

Other posters are being deliberately obtuse because if you google Sabina Messa, of course you're going to find articles from reputable papers to link here, but the huge difference is how long it was online and how many consecutive days were dedicated to the headline. I'm fairly certain that most newspapers do A/B testing on their headlines and if they notice certain stories losing traction then those get more hidden in favour of articles that pull in more views. It's a chicken or the egg scenario because once a story starts losing exposure then it's even less likely that people will know or care about it.

Interestingly the unsolved murder of two women in the USA from mid-August was also in a similar vein. They were white but in a same sex relationship and had an "alternative" type lifestyle that made them less relatable and the story disappeared from the news. However it only resurfaced again after Brian Laundrie (alleged murderer of Gabby Petito) was in the exact same area during his trip. It might all be a coincidence but it's proof how much power some cases have over others.

[MrsMaizel]

@smallandimperfectlyformed

It's been trending on Twitter today and I'm from the Borough, my Facebook is full of reposts about it today and the council have also released a statement on Instagram but it is weird that her body was found last week and there wasn't so much press then. I do agree that women of colour are not given the same level of attention or concern when they go missing. Another woman has gone missing within the Borough but there was very little press about her, she is white but in her 50s so I think age is also a factor as to how much publicity a person's disappearance gets.

Don't you think that the initial attention and concern would come from her own community action ? Where is that ?

[Diverseopinions]

It's the fact that this talented and inspirational person wasn't missing. In the Sarah Everard case, the focus was on working out what had happened to her. I think this is the difference.

I suppose there is a careful police operation being carried out, currently. Presumably, the police don't feel that publicity will improve the effectiveness of their investigations.

The people in Sabina's community or area are shocked and in tears. They will be devastated at the school where she teaches.

I think it's important to talk about the press, and what they do, and any perceived bias. It isn't a case that ordinary people care less. The Sarah Everard case appeared to be a random attack, a stranger on a stranger, and massive publicity was launched to apprehend a dangerous criminal. Perhaps, the police don't think that the circumstances in this recent crime were the same. If there wasn't much publicity earlier, as a previous poster has said, perhaps the police, for whatever good reason, didn't want that publicity, for certain reasons.

[TangledUp789]

I followed the Sarah Everard disappearance from when I first read about her online, and it wasn’t actually a big story until the police officer was arrested for her murder. She wasn’t on the front pages of the newspapers when she went missing or when she was found dead.

I watched the BBC news at six tonight and Sabina featured on the main news and was the top story on the London news - roughly the same coverage as Sarah received before the arrest. I think Sabina is getting quite a lot of coverage actually - it helps that she’s young, female and pretty.

[KittyWindbag]

This post is disingenuous.

Yes it’s true that non-white victims are not historically known for gaining visibility and momentum in the way that white victims are.

However two things. It’s not comparable as Sarah was a missing person so there was a campaign to find her.

But second and really most importantly, people go missing and are murdered every day. The media don’t even scrape the surface of the reality of what goes on. If they did people would quickly turn the news off because it’s overwhelming and disgusting and terrifying. So to say ‘why isn’t Sabina getting the same energy as x’ is disingenuous, you might as well say ‘why isn’t (unknown) getting the same energy as Sabina’. There are too many murders, too many missing people, too many children and women being failed. Yes there is a wider problem of racism when it comes to representation, the justice system And societal response to victims and crime, but this simplification does no one any good, I think.

[Theoldprospector]

‘Other posters are being deliberately obtuse because if you google Sabina Messa, of course you're going to find articles from reputable papers to link here.’

Well no, because that isn’t her name.

OP, you can ask MNHQ to edit the thread title to the correct name. It seems respectful to do so.

[genericuserneeded]

Yes I agree with @Diverseopinions though I don’t necessarily believe the killer was known to her.

The police are being selective with the information divulged to the public about Sabina Nessa. It could be that they don’t want to tip the killer off. It could be that there’s v unique details that only the killer would know so they don’t want to compromise an investigation by making it public knowledge too early etc.

Eg they purposely haven’t released the cause of death, or details of a potential suspect or what clothing Sabina wore that day/where she was travelling from in case anyone saw them earlier that day.

[Diverseopinions]

The murder took place on Friday and was discovered, I believe, on Saturday. It is only five days later now. I don't think there has been much information about this crime coming out. The local news shopper, within the last couple of days, had a short interview with one of Sabina's relatives, but locally , not a lot has been known, until, maybe yesterday.

[Theoldprospector]

It may be that the level of disclosure is because there are other victims.

[Thatoneoverthere]

I agree @KittyWindbag, 14 other women have died since August, at least 106 this year by men (stats care of Karen Ingala Smith) we won't know most their names either.
Also I'm in New Zealand and have seen and read about Sabina.

[Charley50]

RIP Sabina and Sarah and all the other murdered women. Agree with PPs saying there are big differences between the two cases; major one being Sarah being missing for days before the suspect being found to be a policeman with a history of sex offending, then her body being found.

Sabina wasn't reported missing so there was no search. There has been no details about if the attack was sexually motivated, and I think police initially suspected someone known to her. As we all know, a woman is murdered every three days by a partner or ex, and most don't get days of coverage, whatever their skin colour.

Let's hope they put enough resources into finding the killer so that women in that area can feel safer again.

[Eesha]

I felt exactly the same Op. It was much lower on the DM yesterday, towards the bottom, then this morning it's at the top.c I only really started thinking about this when Maddeline Mccann went missing and remains a huge news story. Then when those two sisters were murdered reasonably near me, it should have been one of the biggest stories. I just wondered whether people thought they were two black girls out late and somehow 'paid the price for that'. I can imagine if they were white, their names would gave been plastered over the media. I assume this story is not being given much press because she might have known her perpetrator. There's definitely a strong element of race issues here.

[ilovesooty]

[quote MyPatronusIsACat]@MsHedgehog

Your post is a disgrace and an insult to Sarah Everard. And so is the whole thread. I am hiding this repugnant thread now. I am sure it won't last long. The OP @postingfortraffichere knows it's a stinker, and that is why she has posted it at almost midnight when there is little moderation.[/quote]
That's really uncalled for.