Still, the emptiness: Micro-documentary and research on missing people in the United States

Professional project report submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Arts in Journalism from the School of Journalism, University of Missouri--Columbia. ; Still, The Emptiness is a micro-documentary about families in Missouri who have missing loved ones featuring Marianne Asher-Chapman, Yvonne Erwin-Bowen, Don Ross and Donna Ross. Marianne's daughter, Angie, has been missing for 14 years. Yvonne's brother Donnie has been missing for five, and the Ross' son Jesse has been missing for 11 years. The film shows the stages of grief as well as the constant questions family members have about their missing loved one's case. People associate missing cases to TV programs, such as 48 Hours Mystery, where the story is an hour and has an ending. Many family members will go their entire lives not knowing what happened to their loved ones. This project was created to tell their story, which happens to over a thousand families per year in Missouri. SUMMARY OF ANALYSIS COMPONENT I gathered missing person's data from Houston, Texas, from 2016. Then, I looked at the Houston Chronicle, the city's main newspaper, to see how often missing white women and women of color were reported on that same year. From there, I had a coding sheet and recorded language used, if the article used photographs, if there was a follow-up, the missing's age, the missing's race and where the missing was from. I analyzed this coded data to see if missing women were covered, how they were covered and if there was a difference in coverage based on race.