Miss(ing) Representation: Examining How Race Shaped News Coverage of Missing Women Surrounding Gabby Petito’s Disappearance

Abstract

ABSTRACT Gabby Petito, a 22-year-old white woman, went missing during a cross-country road trip in September 2021. Police later found Petito’s body in Wyoming and traced the cause of death to her fiancé, who was traveling with her. Every detail of Petito’s disappearance played out for the world to see through mass media, yet this coverage also received criticism for failing to shed light on women of color, who are often ignored when they go missing. The purpose of this content analysis was to compare coverage of Gabby Petito’s disappearance to women of color who went missing around the same time to examine whether they gained more coverage after Petito’s received so much criticism. Findings revealed that women of color still had fewer stories, less national coverage, and lower word counts than missing white women. However, some coverage inequity improved in the months following the Petito case. Also, problematic narratives about women of color from past literature (e.g., they are often described as at risk of becoming missing persons because of patterns like domestic violence, drug use, and mental illness) were rarely depicted across coverage, which may indicate short-term improvement in how missing women of color are treated in news coverage.