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
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March 1st, 2008 at 4:29 pm
MODS & ADMIN - please see 350 - email and ip are showing
Where?
March 1st, 2008 at 4:29 pm
347 i don’t care….
blahblahblah
but single motherhood is not good for children, as a rule.
IS THAT RIGHT.
Read on Mr Batman
Single parenting is strongly associated with an increased risk of a number of negative social, behavioral and emotional outcomes for children. However while the association is strong, on balance the effect size and the actual numbers effected is modest. Most children from single parent families do well. Many factors influence how children develop in single-parent families: the parent’s age, education level, and occupation; the family’s income; and the family’s support network of friends and extended family members (including the non-resident parent, if available). Disadvantages in these factors that often accompany single parenting appear to cause most of this association rather than single parenting itself [11] [12].
Taken from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_parent
You can follow a link, can’t you?
God you are a loathsome poster.
March 1st, 2008 at 4:27 pm
175 Gandolf
Yes that was my point. Madeleine’s been worked to death on Anorak (sorry for the most unfortunate turn of expression…but ten months of it????). Perhaps a moratorium on Madeleine (ie. no more new threads on her) and instead concentrating on other equally important causes of disappeared children, even if they get a lot less posts, might be making an eloquent point? It IS true that M&A seem now to be guiding posters in this direction which I have stupidly missed but which many posters equally stupidly do not seem to be getting the hint about either.
(first bold type missed in previous post!)
March 1st, 2008 at 4:27 pm
#
347
i-dont-believe-them Says:
March 1st, 2008 at 4:24 pm
……. but single motherhood is not good for children, as a rule.
——————————————
Are you smoking your garden or something? If single motherhood is not good for children, then in that case, would you care to marry me so that my son doesn’t grow up without his physically and mentally abusive father as a role-model? Mind you, I don’t know what would be worse ….. YOU or HIM!
March 1st, 2008 at 4:25 pm
Mods and Admin
To Amused Bystander
Amused Bystander
176 Maria
Hope you’re right.
262 agw
Well my comment got noticed even if despisingly so! Ditto 176.
Administrator: It is not despising, It is out and out despair for your lack of comprehension. Read what is written not what you would like to see.
I have told you what Anorak stands for. Perhaps you’d like to calm down; stop being over-excitable and take part in the debate. That is what we are about in here. You CANNOT solve anything…but you can talk about it. -agw
I would further add that you stop involving or courting agw, he does not debate.
There are plenty here to debate with however
March 1st, 2008 at 4:24 pm
#
345
pppy Says:
March 1st, 2008 at 4:22 pm
Am I in mods…?
————————————
Nope I can see you
March 1st, 2008 at 4:24 pm
175 Gandolf
Yes that was my point. Madeleine’s been worked to death on Anorak (sorry for the most unfortunate turn of expression…but ten months of it????). Perhaps a moratorium on Madeleine (ie. no more new threads on her) and instead concentrating on other equally important causes of disappeared children, even if they get a lot less posts, might be making an eloquent point? It IS true that M&A seem now to be guiding posters in this direction which I have stupidly missed but which many posters equally stupidly do not seem to be getting the hint about either.
March 1st, 2008 at 4:24 pm
darlings, i used the word ‘common’ as meaning ‘often seen’. being a single mother is not necessarily ‘common’, meaning lower class or trash. but single motherhood is not good for children, as a rule.
March 1st, 2008 at 4:23 pm
343
pppy Says:
March 1st, 2008 at 4:18 pm
342 dee
Not bad for a SM (single mum)
Shall we do a joing Clunck whoosh and make his disappear?
___
Yep sounds good, 1..2..3…
March 1st, 2008 at 4:22 pm
Am I in mods…?
March 1st, 2008 at 4:21 pm
322
i-dont-believe-them Says:
March 1st, 2008 at 4:02 pm
*******
304 Dee
sorry, I was not kicked out for having an affair, i see my kids daily, and i give the money only a little bit, which she doesnt even think i give her.
the reason why Shannon doesnt get the press is because everyone already knows the horrors of single motherhood and the dangers to children. it is old news. sure, your child is brilliant but the social damage created by benefits and a mother centric legal system is catastrophic….
I’ve never claimed benefits actually, i have worked hard, and he has not gone without and now has a strong view on working for a living.
We’re not all leeches you know!
March 1st, 2008 at 4:18 pm
342 dee
Not bad for a SM (single mum)
Shall we do a joing Clunck whoosh and make his disappear?
March 1st, 2008 at 4:16 pm
309
pppy Says:
March 1st, 2008 at 3:52 pm
304 Dee
hmmm… apparently we are all common though darling. Being common and claiming benefits is an evil way to live according to batman, the single dad from london.
Lets bet he had an affair and his wife kicked him out, and he has limited visitation to his child, who he does not have this weekend hence the time he is sitting here winding up all up.
He pays (diddums) too much maintenance and had not enough contact and is a little bit bitter.
how am I doing so far?
_____
I would say you were probably very close to the mark, heehee x
March 1st, 2008 at 4:16 pm
Gandy …
March 1st, 2008 at 4:14 pm
323 lilith
I thank you for you kind words especially “classless simplistic colours” Nice.
X
March 1st, 2008 at 4:14 pm
312 i-don”t believe-them
I don”t know what grievances you have, that is your business. Where I do take
issue is your sweeping statement about “ingrained child hatred amongst most social classes in this Country”. This is DEFINITELY UNTRUE!!!! Most
Parents want their children and love them, there are some who are neglectful
and cruel but IMO only a fraction.
March 1st, 2008 at 4:14 pm
PPPY, you go girl!
(Don’t mean go away)
March 1st, 2008 at 4:13 pm
pppy - lol dont worry, i’m with you on what you say
March 1st, 2008 at 4:12 pm
Julie, is there anything I can do to help you open them, I am at your bidding.
March 1st, 2008 at 4:12 pm
Can anyone tell me, before I go, where all these child haters are? Especially the upper class ones? Can anyone please also tell me what is upper class and then can they tell me how a little man from south london who only pays a little money has got such a crushingly large chip on his shoulder?
March 1st, 2008 at 4:10 pm
332 Dont believe in what? education?
Your grammar is appalling.
March 1st, 2008 at 4:08 pm
331 veritablequandary
I know…and apparently single mothers are common and bringing up children dangerously! He can’t even string a sentence together.
He should not be left alone with a pen let alone a keyboard!
March 1st, 2008 at 4:07 pm
let me correct that:
on the other hand, Madeleine has shown on how deeply ingrained child-hatred is amongst even the most upper of the social classes in this country.
**************
Mods and Admin
What upper social classes?
March 1st, 2008 at 4:06 pm
I-D-B-T
–
You give the money a little?
Go away.
March 1st, 2008 at 4:06 pm
Thank you ade
xxxxx
March 1st, 2008 at 4:05 pm
322 I don’t believe……anything you say
When you can type proper english come back. Anorak, as we all know, is a stickler for translation.
Your sentences do not make sense.
March 1st, 2008 at 4:05 pm
Gandy … I KNEW IT!! (I shall say no more, my lips are sealed
)
March 1st, 2008 at 4:04 pm
176 Maria
Hope you’re right.
262 agw
Well my comment got noticed even if despisingly so! Ditto 176.
Administrator: It is not despising, It is out and out despair for your lack of comprehension. Read what is written not what you would like to see.
I have told you what Anorak stands for. Perhaps you’d like to calm down; stop being over-excitable and take part in the debate. That is what we are about in here. You CANNOT solve anything...but you can talk about it. -agw
March 1st, 2008 at 4:03 pm
324 julie now you see ewhy i’m at home on anorak
March 1st, 2008 at 4:03 pm
I Don’t Believe it…
is this you
http://www.israelnewsagency.com/fathersrights.jpg