Originally published on the CGS blog on May 7, 2014.
On April 15th, 234 Nigerian school girls aged 16-18 were abducted from their school by a known terrorist group, Boko Haram. The next day a South Korean ferry sank, killing 260+ people on board, most of who were students. Both of these events are newsworthy tragedies. But while most of you reading this know about the ferry in South Korea, many probably never heard about the missing Nigerian girls.
Most media chose to ignore this story, and reports they may have been pulling together were eclipsed by the ferry disaster. For the past two months CNN continued almost non-stop coverage of the search for Malaysia Airlines plane 370, which went missing in early March. Where are those green screens and field reporters for these missing girls? Only now, almost a month later, has there been any significant news coverage on the efforts to locate and rescue the Nigerian girls.
Anyone who watches crime shows can probably tell you that the most crucial time to find kidnapping victims is in the first 12-24 hours. The Nigerian government stated 24 hours after the abductions that all of the girls had returned safely, when in fact almost no effort had been made to even begin looking for them, let alone coordinate a rescue effort. The 30 girls who have made it back home escaped of their own initiative with no help from the government.
The effort to find the rest of the girls fell on the shoulders of their families, who have rallied together and are finally gaining some attention through a campaign they have labeled #BringBackOurGirls. They have forced the media and the world to pay attention to their daughters through social media efforts on Facebook and Twitter that are beginning to pick up momentum. (This time-lapse video shows how the conversation spread across Twitter here.)
US Secretary of State John Kerry and President Obama have finally taken notice, pledging that the U.S. will help with counterterrorism efforts to bring the perpetrators to justice. Just today CNN has stepped back from searching for flight MA 370 to publish one article about the missing girls. Finally the media and the world are beginning to take notice.
But is it too little too late?
The media failed these girls and their families by ignoring the kidnapping when it first began. Now there are reports that some of the girls have been forcibly married to their captors and others are being sold for $12. And today there is an account of the abduction of eight more girls. 22 days later we are no closer to rescuing these girls.
Instead of capitalizing on and sensationalizing the same stories day after day, the media needs to report on every story. The networks have a responsibility to report fairly. They cannot continue to shirk this responsibility in favor of the stories they believe they can capitalize on for ratings.
The news needs to contain the news, and on April 15th the story of these girls should have been the biggest headline.
