It just wouldn’t be summer without a huge wave of
media-driven hysteria. Last year’s “summer of the
shark” sent Americans scurrying from the beaches. This
summer, round-the-clock kidnapping coverage has filled the
fear-gap, leaving parents and children in a frenetic state of
alert. It is the latest example of media-hype gone wild.
The “abduction epidemic” picked up steam following
the horrific murder of Danielle van Dam, and since then has reached
a fever pitch. Cases usually reserved for local outlets have been
transformed into national sagas. Amber Alerts have been burned onto
television screens. And the talking heads have been talking. Larry
King and his all-star panel fuel the fire each night by doing what
they do best ““ speculate. Even the usually non-emotive Bill
O’Reilly has stirred the paranoia pot by calling this
“a summer of hell for America’s kids.”
Parents are terrified ““ and who can blame them? With such
a sharp spike in the national media’s coverage of kidnappings
(from around two cases per year to more than a dozen this summer),
the public has little reason not to believe the actual abduction
rate has jumped accordingly.
But, like last year’s “summer of the shark,”
the current “summer of abduction” is more hype than
fact. If parents waded through the media frenzy, they would see the
number of child kidnappings by strangers has actually been
decreasing in recent years. According to FBI reports, there were
115 cases in 1998, 134 in 1999, 106 in 2000, and 93 in 2001. This
year, the drop has continued as 46 cases have been recorded in the
first half of 2002.
As it turns out, the actual probability of a child being
snatched up and murdered is about one in a million. To provide
perspective lacking in the media, a child is twice as likely to
fall victim to accidental shooting, 10 times more likely to drown
in a backyard pool, and 100 times more likely to be seriously
injured or killed on a bicycle. As Barry Glassner, a sociology
professor at USC puts it, “It’s hard to imagine any
serious danger to children that is less likely than kidnapping by a
stranger.”
So given the recent decline in kidnapping rates and exceedingly
long abduction odds, why is the media over-reporting child
abductions? The answer lies primarily in the ratings. CNN, FoxNews
and MSNBC have all enjoyed solid gains in viewership by exploiting
parents’ fear of child abductions. As a result, anxiety is
being whipped up without adequate justification. According to a
Princeton survey, a parent’s greatest fear, amid far bigger
threats, is now child abduction.
While the media’s fear-mongering is passed off by some as
“informing the public” or “heightening
awareness,” the media should under no circumstances give
Americans a false impression of the news. No matter the intention,
news outlets cannot afford to turn into a giant public service
announcement — even if doing so would aid some abduction cases. If
the media was purely in the business of saving lives, non-stop
reporting on bicycle-related deaths would be a more effective means
of protecting children. But since its job is to report news, the
media has responsibility to cover stories in accordance to their
impact on society, not ratings or image.
As it stands, adults across the country are left to believe
summer is a dangerous time. But behind the hype and hysteria, the
real summer epidemic is not child abductions, but media
sensationalism. And until the public can separate fear from fact,
expect a new summer threat this time next year.