The New Milk Carton Campaign: An Analysis of Social Media Engagement with Missing Persons’ Cases

Abstract

Abstract The unique feature of social media as a platform for news is that the public can directly engage with content. In this way, the public shapes the narrative on current issues, including crime. Criminal justice agencies have leveraged this engagement to relay information about missing persons’ cases quickly and efficiently to a large audience. Whereas previous research has explored disparities in news coverage of missing persons’ cases, it is unknown whether the public perpetuates these same disparities in the social media realm. This study contributes to the current literature by examining public engagement with missing persons’ social media content. Results suggest that engagement along some dimensions corresponds to disparities found in traditional news coverage, namely with regard to race, where marginalized victims experience less engagement. Further, there is evidence of an interaction between race and runaway status. Certain posting behaviors are also related to several forms of user engagement with missing persons’ posts; however, case characteristics remain prominent engagement-shaping factors. Implications for these findings are discussed from both a theoretical and practitioner standpoint.