Madeleine McCann: What Shannon Matthews Is Worth, Asda And PR
MADDYWATCH - Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann and Shannon Matthews
THE SUN: “£20k reward in Shannon hunt”
THE Sun yesterday offered a £20,000 reward to find missing “little princess” Shannon Matthews.
Good on the paper. But does a reward help? Has it helped Madeleine Mccann? And why £20,000 when Madeleine McCann garnered so much more? Is a reward index linked to the missing child’s age? Or is it because Shannon’s parents are not middle-class - not doctors - and smaller amounts mean more to them?
We also printed posters urging our vast army of readers to help in the hunt for the nine-year-old schoolgirl. And last night her anguished mum Karen, 32, said: “I’m so grateful for all you are doing. It’s a fantastic gesture and means so much to us. We just hope it brings her back.”
Then, hugging Shannon’s stepdad Craig Meehan, 22, she added: “Our message to people is never give up . . . because we won’t until we find her.”
THE TIMES: “Poor little Shannon Matthews. Too poor for us to care that she is lost?”
“Her family may seem feckless. Neighbours can’t afford to run a PR campaign. How the public spotlight faded on missing girl.”
Shannon..?
Sarah Payne, smiling in her school uniform; Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, in their Manchester United shirts; Madeleine McCann, staring inquisitively with her distinctive bleeding iris . . .The names and faces of these girls who have disappeared are etched into the public’s collective memory.
Camera crews camped out in their home towns for weeks or months. Donations totalled thousands — even millions — of pounds. Members of the public, many of them strangers, came in their hundreds to offer help and prayers for their safe return.
Yet the trauma and mystery surrounding the disappearance of one nine-year-old girl almost two weeks ago appeared to drift from public consciousness within days…
She’s not Madeleine McCann. No doctors. No logo. No Maddy Catty. No watching the parents. The media treatment is no fault of the McCanns. But are we bored of missing children stories. Have the press caught Maddy fatigue?
Contrast the media-savvy McCann campaign with the brave efforts of Petra Jamieson, 30, a friend of Shannon’s mother, who managed to persuade her local branch of Asda to donate 24 white T-shirts on which the girl’s photograph had been printed.
What happened to Shannon Matthews? Who can we blame? The parents?
A deprived background, a dysfunctional family and a down-on-its-luck Yorkshire mill town: none of this is Shannon Matthews’s fault, yet it seems that she is paying the price.
No holiday scene. No excuse for hacks to go to hotter climes. Yorkshire in winter. Grey. Grim.
GLASGOW DAILY RECORD: “Mother’s Day Wish”
THE distraught mum of missing schoolgirl Shannon Matthews last night cried: “All I want for Mother’s Day is my princess back.”
DAILY MIRROR: “ALL I WANT FOR MOTHER’S DAY IS MY PRINCESS BACK”
Shannon Matthews’ desperate mother last night movingly declared: “All I want for Mother’s Day is my princess back.”As police continued searching thousands of homes for the missing nine-year-old schoolgirl, mum Karen, 32, said: “It is a special family day and we would all spend it together.
“Shannon would usually buy me a present or make me something at school.”
Stepfather Craig Meehan, 22, added: “It is going to be a heartbreaking Mother’s Day.”
LIVERPOOL ECHO: “Where’s media cry for poor Shannon?”
HOW disturbing that 10 days after Shannon Matthews disappeared, we still know so little about her. Her favourite band? The school she attends? The name of her best friend? All details that should be on our lips but aren’t.
But we do know her favourite song.
Somehow the vanishing of this little girl with her pony tail and fringe has failed to capture the media’s imagination; a story regularly consigned to the inside pages.
Why? Why do some cases attract saturation coverage and others don’t? I suspect it’s down to image, which stands for everything, and the skill now needed to work the notoriously fickle media.
Madeleine McCann’s parents have been criticised for employing a professional PR and for playing the media game, providing photo opportunities and press calls. But it’s paid dividends. The world now knows their daughter’s name and what she looks like.
Shannon’s mum can be no less distraught than Kate, but whether she has the support or the finance to get a media campaign on the road is doubtful.
But at the end of the day there is a little girl out alone in a harsh, cold world. And we should all be working together to get her home.
What part does the media play in finding a missing child? Don’t we have the police to search for Shannon and crack the case?
THE OBSERVER (Blog): “Speaker gets new spin doctor”
A Whitehall spin doctor who was a spokeswoman for Madeleine McCann’s parents has been hired to help the Commons Speaker, Michael Martin, deal with the media, it was announced today.
Not Campbell?
Sheree Dodd is an experienced communications expert who worked for John Prescott at the time it was revealed he was having an affair with his diary secretary.
Just another job…
Madeleine McCann- The PR Storm
Posted: 1st, March 2008 | In: Madeleine McCann, Tabloids Comments (798) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink
Comments
- ptet on Dietmar The German Stork Has A Wooden Leg
- yampster on Susan Boyle Weeps As The Press Set About Destroying Her
- Nansubuga on Michelle Obama Is A Monkey And Other Offensive Google Images
- yampster on Strictly Come Dancing’s Alesha Dixon Sparks I’m A Celebrity Race Row
- Lonnirose on Susan Boyle Weeps As The Press Set About Destroying Her
March 1st, 2008 at 2:23 pm
194
Marie Nicholas
Yes
The PJ”s commented twice about their mediatic circus.The first time was to warn them to keep low profile because it could do more harm than good and the second time was about the sighting-cant remember which- when they said the mcCons were trying diversion etc….
I dont like cops generally but in some instance they deserve a bit of credit and especialy in this sad case where a child is involved.
I hope the PJ is going to massacre them
March 1st, 2008 at 2:23 pm
171
Carrie
I think you have a point there.
Also I feel the Madeleine story is somehow more scary to the public because she was “taken” from her bed.
People want to know about that, we all know the outside world can be dangerous for kids. When kids “disappear from inside the home people MUST know how that can happen and they will stick to reading/buying papers.
March 1st, 2008 at 2:22 pm
ciara
Sorry, wrote a reply then bloomin lost it!
Just feeling a bit down with being spoon fed what people want us to believe not facts.
Anyway, its Mothers Day tomorrow and the boys are with their Dad, they left me some daffodils which are making me sneeze, but I don’t care x
I thought Kate may have made an emotional appeal for mothers day return of madeleine, missed the boat didn’t she.
you ok>?!
March 1st, 2008 at 2:22 pm
196…Gandolf
In your opinion of course.
Not mine however.
March 1st, 2008 at 2:21 pm
197…Dee
Cos Gandy doesn’t like to be reminded of the past.
March 1st, 2008 at 2:20 pm
Gandy, why are you giving Matt such a hard time?
March 1st, 2008 at 2:19 pm
Matt, a right bollock is only the opposite of a left bollock, if there are two bollocks, know what I mean ‘arry, so by the laws of mathematics your opinion is bollox.
March 1st, 2008 at 2:18 pm
189
opposite Says
The fawning, uncritical, poor-luvvy-lost press coverage, together with a sense of papist infallibility, and the sheer exuberant self-confidence which comes from knowing your arse is well-covered in high Scotch places, emboldened the dubious duo in their audacious rip-off, which still continues.
Wow Opposite, did you have dictionary for breakfast, heehee. Sorry only messing around, very well said. x
March 1st, 2008 at 2:16 pm
170 ppy
I was thinking about your post, and my conclusion is that money is of no avail in an abduction. In all cases that ended well, in England, in France, and other places I suppose, it was the police who found the child. They found the child thanks to their well organised work, and probably good tips from people who knew about the abductor, maybe combined with a little bit of luck.
Madeleine’s case, if it was an abduction, proves that a huge amount of money , and enormous publicity, didn’t help find her.
In Shannon’s case, what purpose would money, public marches, balloons and T-shirts serve? If it happened in my family, in the country where I live, my only hope would be the police’s swift and appropriate answer. I would help them with all the information I could, and keep in touch every minute. The newspapers treat the cases according to how they sell, but the police treat all cases equally, I think and I should hope.
March 1st, 2008 at 2:16 pm
188…Maria
Well….”abductor”….and “alleged abductor”…..are quite different. IMO.
March 1st, 2008 at 2:15 pm
Amused Bystander
Shannon Matthews parents are not suspects.
Her parents cooperate with the police who have put dozens of detectives on the case.
Shannon’s parents do NOT whip up a hystercal media frenzy against police advice and whine when critisised.
March 1st, 2008 at 2:13 pm
184…Gandolf
An opinion is an opinion. IMO.
March 1st, 2008 at 2:12 pm
Ciara, I think we will make a rock chic out of you yet.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mT7qBNpplUc
March 1st, 2008 at 2:11 pm
With regard to the curtailed deployment of Prince Harry in Afghanistan, and the so-called ‘media agreement’ (BBC) not to publicise it, only the bone-dead stupid can still believe there was not a similar coercive ‘agreement’ in force for the PDL child abuse.
As for Anorak, “The media treatment is no fault of the McCanns…”
Well, I don’t want to take us all back to those lazy, hazy Algarve summer days, to the glory of it all, and the strutting about Praia, and having the vision, and the trademarking, and setting up the funds, and the fawning public, and the fawning press, but I do think, Anorak, you are putting the cart before the horse. The McCanns are the fault, or result, of the media treatment.
The fawning, uncritical, poor-luvvy-lost press coverage, together with a sense of papist infallibility, and the sheer exuberant self-confidence which comes from knowing your arse is well-covered in high Scotch places, emboldened the dubious duo in their audacious rip-off, which still continues.
The Policia Judiciaria commented some time ago that the McScams had ‘lost control’ of their publicity machine.
And the PJ know a thing or two, or two hundred, that we do not.
March 1st, 2008 at 2:09 pm
171 Matt
OK! Doesn’t make any difference to the point I was making. I still think the police here would have arranged such an appeal as well as the description of the clothes.
One can’t really argue that this was because they suspected the McCanns at that stage because they don’t seem to have investigated them properly till months later. In any case, an appeal etc. would have done no harm. It should not have been left to the McCanns to organise this.
Their problem was that they were dealing with a foreign police force with a completely different approach (secrecy etc.) but, inevitably, had some awareness of what the British police would have been likely to do under similar circumstances. That’s not a criticism of either but just an attempt to understand how the McCanns might have felt.
March 1st, 2008 at 2:08 pm
183
Gandolf
2-0
March 1st, 2008 at 2:08 pm
Harry on the news again….blimey, who does he think he is, royalty or what?? ……oh..yeah he is….ok then
March 1st, 2008 at 2:07 pm
178
Gandolf
1-0
March 1st, 2008 at 2:06 pm
Matt, an opinion is ok if it’s valid, so why do you waste bandwidth.
March 1st, 2008 at 2:04 pm
*tiny
March 1st, 2008 at 2:04 pm
afternoon all
just been cuddling a tine newborn baby, awww how cute he is
March 1st, 2008 at 2:03 pm
178…Gandolf
Already given my opinion…sludgey.
March 1st, 2008 at 2:02 pm
170
pppy
Good afternoon pppy. Sorry you’re feeling a bit down, anything we can do to cheer you up?
March 1st, 2008 at 2:02 pm
Matt, why you to frightend to give your own opinion, that is if you have one.
March 1st, 2008 at 2:01 pm
172 Dee
Agree totally.
March 1st, 2008 at 2:00 pm
174…Gandolf
Best take that up with agw.
But be careful….remember what happened last time.
March 1st, 2008 at 1:57 pm
164 Amused Bystander
I actually thought Anorak’s presentation, especially this morning, for example, was very much coupling the two cases and possibly even moving towards the possibility of a general thread for missing children?? I suppose you can’t get away from the “sleuthing” interest of the McCann case, as the parents are arguidos, and Anorak inevitably reflects that. I don’t think one can say that Anorak hasn’t raised awareness on the other kids as well.
I do agree about guilt being implied quite openly even before charges have been laid against the parents.
March 1st, 2008 at 1:57 pm
So why can’t we have a thread for Shannon alone, very disturbing answer to that, it aint rock’n'roll, it aint in yer face enough, and how many posters would it get, whats the % on here any one able to calculate it.
March 1st, 2008 at 1:56 pm
167
clouseau Says:
___
Yeah, lol, i can feel a Michael Jackson enactment coming on….
March 1st, 2008 at 1:55 pm
Thanks for answering me Maria, everyone gave money in good faith and with the best of intentions, but this is why i think poor Shannon’s case has had detremental coverage.