Natalee Holloway

Natalee’s case authenticates the theory of the missing white woman syndrome as it is a perfect representation of the classic system for the MWWS state. The case revolves around a young beautiful lady who went missing during her high school trip in another state. This case went viral as the media created and diverted all attention towards the case. This part of the story was very essential as it made the headlines in the media during that time due to the fact that it revolved around a white woman going missing oversees. It is true that there are still a large number of black, Latino women who has also gone missing over the years within the borders of the United States but they have not yet gained the media attention as compared to that of the white woman going missing outside the boarders of US. This is an illustration of the biased media in US as they solely decided to offer an endless coverage on the case of a white woman missing in another state. They prioritized this particular case over the many other cases that involved black women who were also missing within US and they disputed the fact that these cases also needed coverage. In regards to whether the media is important in assisting in searching and finding the women who have been reported missing, it is essential to note that the media plays a supporting role in these cases. In Natalie’s missing case, the media assisted in enabling the American people to offer leads to police by giving them information that offered clues on the whereabouts of Natalie Holloway’s missing. Contrary to that, equal coverage on the many other missing cases of women within the borders of US, could have enabled the American people to provide potential information that would have given clues on where these women were within the US.

Beth Holloway’s use of Natalie’s case of disappearance did not offer her a chance to become a celebrity. This is due to the fact that any reasonable human being cannot at any given time use her child’s grieving story on a tragedy of losing her daughter to violence for fame. It is such a heartbreaking experience for a parent to lose a child especially if the missing happening is still a mystery. It is for this sole reason that Beth Holloway, the victim’s mother decided to take on this path of reexamining the evidence behind her daughters’ disappearance so as to get answers on what really happened to her daughter while in Aruba. According to Beth Holloway, it is quite evident that everyone’s life is important and therefore no life should be simply defined by a misfortune.  She therefore vowed to fight in order for her to get the truth of the happenings that had befallen her daughter while she was in Aruba. It is through this that she was able to move on from that heartbreaking moments and along the way she was able to even encourage other young women on the ways they could use so as to keep themselves safe. Her motive in using her daughter’s case was to inform and educate the general public making them aware that traveling to foreign countries is important but it requires one to be alert and safe.  Safety measures are quite important while travelling abroad, this is one of the greatest lessons that Beth Holloway learnt during her reexamination on the happenings of her daughter’s disappearance. It is as a result of Beth’s determination and hard work to unveil what really happened to her daughter that made her gain attention, that action of wanting to fight for the truth (Hawkins, 2017). However, we can all conclude that Beth motives from the start of her investigation on her daughter’s disappearance were not to gain fame but rather to unveil the mystery behind the disappearance. However, it is quite hard to keep the media out of a story that they regard as newsworthy and this is why Beth gained a lot of attention and fame thus becoming a celebrity in the US.

One of the most fascinating things about this book written by Dave Holloway is the manner through which it would help many people both of those who have never had the experience of losing a child and more so to the parents who have ever experienced the pain of losing a child. However, most of the people have long since that time criticized Dave Holloway for writing this book as they regard to the act as money oriented. However, this is all wrong since the family only wanted to return back the assistance that they received from the US society during their crisis situation by writing this book so as to reach out to many other people who may have heard that same experience. It was therefore ethical for the family to benefit from the book and the movie as part of the profit gained was still used in the investigation and the other part of the money gained was used in the Natalie’s foundation for assisting other people with similar experiences. Hence it is quite evident that by all means, the family had a right to gain from the book and the movie (Holloway & Sunny, 2009).

There is so much to be attained by simply going over the facts and findings of a given case. For those who were strictly following on Natalee Holloway’s case, it is quite clear that there were inconsistencies in the media in regards to the case. Just like in any other case, contradictions and obfuscations are just common. More than often, the media usually argue that there is basically nothing for them to go over again after a case has been closed. Media reporting on Natalee Holloway’s case was not concerned ultimately with the truth and is why they never mentioned about Natalee’s alcohol drinking as they thought that it would not be good for their ratings since Natalee was below 18 years and this was against the law since young people who are under 18 are prohibited from taking alcohol (Gilmore, 2005). This might be one of the reasons as to why the media failed to cover this part of the story as they regarded it to be an inconsistence in their part. Therefore it is clear that centering on access to media and encouraging sensationalism are incompatible goals with the search for truth. This however, results to loss of credibility as it did with the media in regards to Holloway’s case as they only focused on short term benefits rather than building in a reputation of honest reporting regardless of how contradictory the story seemed. The media thus framed the case in a manner that elicited emotional response from a large portion of their viewers. The media often given people what they want and they are good at dressing a story in a manner that will not contradict what people believe and thus they ignored the part where Natalee was seen drunk and her using the same vehicle with other three men while she was still drunk as this kind of information would have turned their viewers away.

The similarity between the two cases is that just like Natalee Holloway; Jenkins was also highly celebrating her friend’s birthday. The two victims partied with friends at far places from their homes but they later were reported as missing. Both of their friends are unable to exactly account for the whereabouts of these two victims or even how they went missing. The chronology of the last hours of Natalee Holloway were so unclear while the rumors behind this case interfered with the truth of what actually happened similar to that of Jenkins and this resulted to some degree of tainted play.

However, the contrast is in the race of the two victims. Natalee Holloway was a white victim while Jenkins is a black woman. It is due to this fact that the degree of media and public attention differed between the two cases. A public perception on the white case of Natalee is superior to that of Jenkins, a black woman (Lawson, 2017). Therefore what the public regards as tragic and untimely for Natalee Holloway is to be expected and Jenkins deserves it too. The two cases are a clear reminder that race is an influential factor that always manipulates law enforcement’s decisions, fairness and justice. Hence black lives do not matter as much as that of white girls. It is so unfortunate that black people’s cases are always prejudiced while white cases are often depicted as those where the whites are the victims and not the ones on the wrong and hence anything contradicting this is always ignored and hidden from the public. For instance, Jenkins underage drinking habit was all over the social media hence allowing the public to judge the poor black woman in a negative way (Lawson, 2017). On the contrary, Natalee Holloway had the same problem of drinking alcohol while she was a minor but her misconduct was hidden by the media and it never appeared to be a headline in her story. This is quite unfair since all of those cases would have been accorded the same attention. The fact that the two victims partied hours before their demise does not rule out her potential, however, Jenkins is punished to a certain extent simply because many of the viewers easily saw how she spent her evening partying as she was black (Lawson, 2017). Natalee Holloway’s story dominated in the media over a decade while Jenkins’s case only lasted for weeks after the demise. Jenkins as well as other black women deserves to be given the same respect and recognition similar to that of Natalee and all of the other white women who have experienced this tragedy.

Basing on the photographs that were posted on the website by the family, they depicted a lot of prejudice in them. The pictures were those of her best moment with none of the pictures showing the other side of Natalee Holloway. One could judge from the pictures that Natalee was just an innocent girl who had the best of her behaviors. However, the reality depicts a different picture of who Natalee actually is. Her behavior in Aruba as indicated by witnesses is of a different personality from that posted on websites after her disappearance. None of the photographs showed that she was outgoing or indicated the same but the reality is that Natalee was an outgoing lady who loved to club and have fun. As a result of this, it is therefore quite clear that the website photos posted by Holloway’s family were just slanted and biased and it failed to depict the reality of who she actually was in real photos.

To sum it up, media attention in the first phase after a person is reported missing is quite crucial especially when it is a young person or even a child. However, it is quite clear that this is not the case in missing cases involving black people. The media has an important role to play in searching for a missing person as this creates awareness across all places and this may aid in finding the missing person. Therefore the media should not only limit their attention to only a certain group of people while ignoring the other part of the group. Classifying black missing teenagers as runaways while taking missing cases of white people very seriously indicates how our society is prejudiced and unfair. All lives matter and therefore all cases should be handled with the same degree of seriousness and focus.

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