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 2nd, 2008 at 12:27 am
672
brandon
Mari Luz: nada/nothing
Juan went to Italy because the italian cops contacted the spanish cops send a file and the spanish cops contacted Juan who immediately flew to italy to SEE if the little girl who had been found was Mari Luz.
He also went to portugal to eat some sardines with his pals in PLD and send his good wishes to the mcCannos via the “pals”.Very thoughtful Juan.
They have no cash whatsoever and are selling everything(nothing really) they own as a reward.
They are actually a little bit better off than Shannons mum.Poor old thing!She has no support whatsoever.It is heartbreaking.
March 2nd, 2008 at 12:27 am
pppy
March 2nd, 2008 at 12:26 am
667
RedRooster
Glad you’re okay. I’m glad you had a chance to talk about things tonight. I’m always here for you.
March 2nd, 2008 at 12:25 am
Jo
It happened before with Milly Dowler, Dannielle Jones, and Hannah Williams
with the press I mean, not the parents.
[edit] Contrasts in news media coverage
There was a stark contrast between the girls’ backgrounds and the news media coverage that each received: Images of Amanda, a middle-class girl from a stable family background who had never previously gone missing, were splashed on the front pages of national newspapers as her disappearance attracted national attention. Danielle, similarly, fulfiled the news media’s criteria for a model middle-class schoolgirl. Williams, however, was a girl with a working-class background from a single-parent home who had spent time in care and had a history of running away, and attracted barely any coverage from the media.[2][5][4][6]
A police spokesperson described Williams’ mother as “not really press conference material”, and whilst Dowler and Jones continued to dominate newspaper headlines, Williams was forgotten by the news media almost immediately. The National Missing Persons Helpline noted in commenting upon the case that the news media in treating such stories would often ask for cases where the subject was female, within a particular age range, and with a particular social background.[7][8]
Most of the coverage of Williams , a total of 62 articles in British newspapers, was at the time of the initial discovery of her body, and resulted from the initial interest in the possibility that the body was Jones. In contrast, the media coverage of the two girls who were victims in the Soham murders generated 898 articles in under two weeks.[9]
The only regular coverage was by the local newspapers The Mercury and the South London Press which covered the disappearance of Williams from two weeks after she first vanished to the day her body was found and beyond to the murder trial of her killer.
An anonymous Kent police officer was quoted in The Guardian: “There are serious questions to be raised about the original missing persons investigation. This is very sensitive, but if Hannah Williams had been a Milly Dowler, she may not be dead now.”.[2]
March 2nd, 2008 at 12:25 am
I have returned from my one night shagfest to get pregnant by an unknown, thus enabling me to claim more benefits.
Hello, Everyone xx
March 2nd, 2008 at 12:24 am
677
jo Says:
March 2nd, 2008 at 12:21 am
665
brandon
It makes me sick.
You dont think they care about anyone else do you. They dont even care about their own child IMO
What on earth are the mcHorrors trying to show the world?
What have they done to others? why dont they help Shannons mum with a bit of cash? BASTARDS
Whats the f…is going on with these people?
******************
its simple jo they’re just bloody evil
March 2nd, 2008 at 12:22 am
Ciara…im losing it i think, I meant I was playing it earlier…
March 2nd, 2008 at 12:21 am
665
brandon
It makes me sick.
What on earth are the mcHorrors trying to show the world?
What have they done to others? why dont they help Shannons mum with a bit of cash? BASTARDS
Whats the f…is going on with these people?
March 2nd, 2008 at 12:20 am
stevet
Yes they didnt bank on this at all did they!
They thought their networking system was flawless!!!
March 2nd, 2008 at 12:20 am
674
SteveT Says:
March 2nd, 2008 at 12:18 am
I honestly think that if it wasn’t for the internet the McCanns would be home and dry by now
*************
no doubt it would have been dead and buried by now …..no pun intended
March 2nd, 2008 at 12:18 am
I honestly think that if it wasn’t for the internet the McCanns would be home and dry by now.
March 2nd, 2008 at 12:18 am
669
jo Says:
March 2nd, 2008 at 12:16 am
RR
Yeah…even in such a delicate situation he would carry on being an absolute prat I dont doubt it
SteveT
now theres a thought, i’d like to see that
…or choke on a stuffed sardine?
****************
March 2nd, 2008 at 12:17 am
jo
Hi ya congrates on new job!
any news on marie luiz ?
March 2nd, 2008 at 12:17 am
Hello Brandon,
Back to Sweden monday morning.
March 2nd, 2008 at 12:16 am
when will the interveiws be ?
will we know before?
will they let on the questions like before?
March 2nd, 2008 at 12:16 am
RR
Yeah…even in such a delicate situation he would carry on being an absolute prat I dont doubt it
SteveT
…or choke on a stuffed sardine?
March 2nd, 2008 at 12:15 am
Stevet
Hello
Sweden or uk tonight?
I am starting to think us anoraks do fleet streets bloody jobs!
March 2nd, 2008 at 12:15 am
662
Ciara Says:
March 2nd, 2008 at 12:11 am
RR,
http://pop.youtube.com/watch?v=h_m-BjrxmgI
you’re so nice.
**********************8
I was playing about it earlier babe and thinking about you.
Our song babe….
March 2nd, 2008 at 12:13 am
665
brandon flours
Says it all!
March 2nd, 2008 at 12:12 am
Madeleine McCann
Age: Four. Parents: Kate, 40, a GP. Gerry, 39, a cardiologist. Siblings: Twins, now aged two.
Home: Detached house, Leicestershire.
UK press stories after nine days: 465.
Rewards offered: £2.6m: the ‘News of the World’, Stephen Winyard, Philip Green, Simon Cowell, Coleen McLoughlin, ‘The Sun’, Sir Richard Branson, J K Rowling.
Public donations: £1.1m:
J K Rowling, Bryan Adams, David Beckham, Cristiano Ronaldo, John Terry, Phil Neville, David Moyes, the England cricket team.
Wikipedia profile: 2,182 words after nine days.
Shannon Matthews
Age: Nine. Parents: Karen, 32, and Leon Rose, 29. Stepfather, Craig, 22. Siblings: Six boys and girls, from her mother’s partnerships with five different men.
Home: Three-bed council house, Dewsbury Moor.
UK press stories after nine days: 242.
Rewards offered: £25,500. Made up of £20,000 by ‘The Sun’, £5,000 from Huddersfield firm Joseph International, £500 from Wakefield pensioner Winston Bedford.
Public donations: Thousands at most, including Leona Lewis.
Wikipedia profile: 151 words after nine days.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/missing-the-contrasting-searches-for-shannon-and-madeleine-790207.html
March 2nd, 2008 at 12:12 am
658
jo Says:
March 2nd, 2008 at 12:08 am
RR
SteveT
Reviewing old stuff really….
News will come out by the end of next week.Not before this.I was wondering if clarrie is going to do one if his “pirouettes” a “grande finale”. It would just be so claass
***********
he wont be able to stay quiet for much longer, he likes the limelight just like the McScams
March 2nd, 2008 at 12:11 am
660
brandon flours
They did!
March 2nd, 2008 at 12:11 am
RR,
http://pop.youtube.com/watch?v=h_m-BjrxmgI
.
March 2nd, 2008 at 12:10 am
658
jo
Roll on the interviews!
March 2nd, 2008 at 12:10 am
I see they got to see the french CCTV then!
March 2nd, 2008 at 12:10 am
Ciara, its amazing you should pick this song for me. Its got great significance for me…..it means a lot to me. Not for the reasons you may think, i’ll tell you when I speak to you.
thanks for that
March 2nd, 2008 at 12:08 am
RR
SteveT
Reviewing old stuff really….
News will come out by the end of next week.Not before this.I was wondering if clarrie is going to do one if his “pirouettes” a “grande finale”. It would just be so claass
March 2nd, 2008 at 12:05 am
654
Ciara Says:
March 2nd, 2008 at 12:01 am
RR,
I’m okay. Just a young guy there says his parents are away for the weekend and he came in and the small bedroom had lots of smoke in it. There is a strong smell of gas too and the emergency services are still here. No one hurt or injured , that’s the main thing.
Hope you are okay RR, sorry for rushing away.
I love this song and am posting it for you, hope the link works. It never seems to for me I don’t know why.
http://pop.youtube.com/watch?v=59Q8KcsPg5Y&feature=related
********************
ive been worried about you. Its not too close to you I hope
March 2nd, 2008 at 12:02 am
652
jo Says:
March 1st, 2008 at 11:59 pm
Crystal clear
************
shes bloody evil isn’t she
March 2nd, 2008 at 12:01 am
652
jo
“You know” - Yes we do!