The Murder of Meredith Kercher

You may. or may not know who Meredith Kercher was, but I can almost guarantee you know who Amanda Knox is. That is predominantly due to the way that the media covered the murder of Kercher.

Meredith Kercher was 21 years old when she was sexually assaulted and murdered in her home in Perugia, Italy. She was a foreign exchange student from England, who was living with other students at the time of her death.

One of these girls was American Amanda Knox. Knox faced gruesome criticism from the press as they painted her as a seductress and murderer.

In her 2016 Netflix documentary, Amanda Knox, Knox outlines how everyone forgot that there was an actual victim in this story, someone who died, and no one was talking about that. Instead, everyone was focused on the American party girl obsessed with sex, when in reality Knox wasn't known for going crazy and being abnormally promiscuous.

In articles written by The Washington Post and The Guardian, they outline how filmmakers noted the Supreme Court and how they blamed “stunning flaws in the investigation and increased media attention” for the wrongful accusations against Knox. They also detail the pressure that the media coverage placed on the investigation and how eventually instead of looking for justice, law enforcement started looking for a story to give the press.

It is vital that when covering investigations and crimes, that journalists do not try and over-sensationalize the facts. It not only produces faults in the legal system but it also discredits journalists and can make an audience lose trust. When facts are not presented accurately and in their purest form, then they can misconstrued and blow up into something they shouldn’t be.

The Gabby Petito Case

A more recent example of the impact of media on investigations is the story of Gabby Petito. One of the main factors in the media coverage of Petito was more so the amount of coverage versus the kind of coverage.

When Petito first went missing, her case blew up the internet and there was coverage on her everywhere. The media flocked to cover her even more when she was pronounced dead later on in the investigation.

In an article written by The Baylorariat, they quote a professor on why there was such a flood of media coverage on Gabby Petito. The simple answer is that she had privilege and the right connections.

Petito was a YouTuber and a conventionally attractive white woman. She had all the hallmarks of what make a good story. How could this normal woman be missing?

It begs the question of why journalists choose to cover certain stories. There were plenty of conversations around the thousands of missing black and brown women, of minority women, of women who aren’t deemed “ideal subjects” in the eyes of the public, when Petito’s case when viral. None of them were ridiculing the fact that Petito was getting coverage but more so why other women weren’t. As journalists it is our responsibility to be fair and to report all news and stories that need to be heard, so it is important for us to check our biases and what we are covering to ensure that we do not stifle the voice of someone else in hopes of amplifying another.