06:01 AM Tuesday, February 09, 2010
Where's Jada? Missing Black Child Ignored by Major Media
Date: Tuesday, June 23, 2009, 5:02 am
By: Denise Stewart, BlackAmericaWeb.com
Two-year-old Jada Justice of Portage, Indiana has been missing now for a week. But you wouldn’t know it from watching national television news shows.
The child, a black toddler, was last seen last Tuesday when her cousin said she left the child alone in a car at a Gary, Indiana, convenience store while she went inside.
Justice is now listed on the Web site for the Center for Missing and Exploited Children and on the "America’s Most Wanted" Web site. Television stations, radio stations and newspapers around Gary and Chicago have followed the story and shown photos of Justice with numbers to call to alert authorities if she is spotted.
But unlike the recent cases of Kaylee Anthony of Orange County, Florida and Haleigh Cummings of Satsuma, Florida, the search for Jada has not received the same kind of national attention.
“Unfortunately, in cases like this, it’s not until someone writes about the fact that there is no national attention that they start doing stories,” said Eric Deggans, media and television critic at the St. Petersburg Times.
Gary, Indiana is technically part of the Chicago media market, which is actually larger than the markets where others have lived whose cases of either abduction or exploitation were featured prominently on national television, Deggans said. Major networks often pick up stories from their affiliates in those markets and develop national stories.
“If there were reporters who cared about this, they could be all over it,” Deggans told BlackAmericaWeb.com.
Yanick Rice Lamb, associate professor at Howard University and editorial director for Heart & Soul magazine, said missing children cases are something that people care about, regardless of color.
“People are concerned about their children and their children’s safety. This is something people can relate to,” Lamb told BlackAmericaWeb.com.
There are a couple of factors that can go into a decision on whether or not to give a story national news coverage, she said.
“Who are the decision makers? How great is the public outcry? The squeaky wheel gets the grease,” she said.
Also, more than 40 years after the Kerner Commission Report pointed to the impact of a lack of newsroom diversity on coverage in urban communities, there still are issues in our nation’s newsrooms, Lamb said.
While the case has not received lots of national attention, Gary Police Commander Anthony Titus said he is getting strong support from local and federal law enforcement agencies.
Representatives from the FBI, U.S. attorney’s office and local district attorney’s office met Monday to discuss the search and investigation, Titus said Monday evening.
“We have some work going on tonight, and if they don’t turn up anything, we’ll be back out in the morning,” Titus told BlackAmericaWeb.com.
“Our goal is to get Jada back home and to see if there is anything criminal involved in her disappearance,” he said.
Angelica Castillo, 18, told police Jada was missing when she returned to the car after buying a gallon of milk.
Family members said they are suspicious about the way Castillo told authorities the child went missing.
Melissa Swiontek, Justice's mother, said, "I don't know. I don't know what to feel. I don't know. I feel there are so many speculations, there's so many things. I feel like I'm going to find her. I mean, I do feel like she can't be gone ... like this is not even happening."
Titus said the search for Jada has been ongoing. “Anytime we’re out, we’ve got helicopters. We’ve got bodies on the ground,” he said.
Interviews and pictures have been posted on YouTube.com, and the Center for Missing and Exploited Children has developed fliers that family members and friends have been distributing in the Gary area.
“All I .....
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When we hear the term missing persons we immediately conjure up images of Caylee Anthony, Natalee Holloway, and the like, but what about persons of color, such as Jada, with similar fates who need coverage too? The public is misled in believing that the typical victims of abductions and kidnappings are white. However, according to a rpt by the FBI close to 40% of all missing persons are persons of color. To combat this disparity Black and Missing, Inc was created to provide a voice and an equal opportunity for ALL missing persons. To learn more, please visit www.blackandmissinginc.com.
by
Walterandnat
July 7, 2009, 12:58 pm
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First of all, the FBI is a joke in this country when it comes to Blacks! It's a shame that a kid should be mising for a week and no major network is covering
this. I guess we haven't arrived after all!
by
Beedybo
June 26, 2009, 8:13 pm
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The police and FBI didn't believe the sitter's story. And they were correct, since the child's body was found Thursday afternoon. A lot of information that couldn't be released has come out now, and the sitter and her boyfriend have been arrested. I suspect that the police knew pretty early on in the investigation that she wasn't going to be found alive and that's why they didn't raise a bunch of red flags. Not discrimination.
by
Cbxcbxcbx
June 26, 2009, 1:44 am
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There is a great "how to"guide on Lisa Stebics website .... on how to stick out in the m edia and things to do when trying to get your story out there..... even if the family is having to hard of a time right now maybe some close friends or family can take a look and help them get her face out as much as possible..... its worth checking out....
by
Noise85
June 25, 2009, 12:41 pm
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Anyone find it strange that there is an FBI contact with the article, but this little girl is not on the FBI's missing persons list, even after a week of being missing??
by
Lichelle75
June 25, 2009, 11:34 am
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Two-year-old Jada Justice of Portage, Indiana has been missing for a week. You wouldn’t know it from watching national news.
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