Opinion

Not all missing people created equal

"Kenji Ohmi is lost somewhere. I know, he's not white, female, or psychotic … but we could try to send out more than two detectives in search of him."

This quote, taken from the comic strip "Better Left Unsaid" in The Badger Herald, refers to the unsuccessful efforts of the past month to find University of Wisconsin exchange student Kenji Ohmi. While UW attracted national attention with the disappearance of Audrey Seiler two years ago, the community has been relatively quiet in reaction to this recent episode. Though a little blunt, the comic strip does bring to light some of the issues that are affecting both the news coverage and investigation into the Japanese exchange student's disappearance.

Mr. Ohmi was last seen leaving his apartment at 6:30 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 28, wearing a black jacket, jeans and white sneakers. While the disappearance of Ms. Seiler attracted immediate attention from both the media and the police, the response for Mr. Ohmi was decidedly less overt in the media. Although there was a fairly sizable grassroots campaign led by the international community, the efforts failed to attract more widespread attention or efforts to locate him.

Before delving into the possible reasons for the discrepancies in attention, it is necessary to look at the differences between the Seiler and Ohmi cases. At the time of Ms. Seiler's disappearance, foul play was considered a distinct possibility in the case, thus fueling abduction claims and arousing security concerns among other UW students. Mr. Ohmi's disappearance immediately lacked the urgency of Ms. Seiler's. Abduction suspicions did not pervade his case in the same manner, and it is not unprecedented for a male student to wander off and never be seen again.

Yet while there was increased speculation surrounding Ms. Seiler's case, it still cannot fully explain the disparity in coverage between the two episodes. The principal reasons behind the reaction to the Ohmi case might just reside with what the authors of "Better Left Unsaid" originally wrote.

The relationship between media coverage and sensationalism is analogous to a moth and a light source; the former is inextricably drawn to the latter. As such, the media tends to focus on events with the requisite composition of traits that lend themselves towards exploitation. By drawing on traditional gender roles and by subtly using the race card, the media was able to make a bigger story of the Seiler disappearance.

Being a young, white girl, the story became one where the events of the case could be extrapolated to the everywoman; it could be anyone's daughter, sister or girlfriend that disappeared. Furthermore, being from the Midwest, there was a more concentrated communal presence that lent itself to a stronger reaction, thus helping to garner more media attention. The press could also point to the grieving parents and put them on screen in front of a large television audience.

These were all traits that were missing in the Ohmi case. His disappearance could not be as easily extended to the everyman in the same way, based on his gender, race and background. Based on traditional gender roles, women are the ones who are regarded as vulnerable and more susceptible to physical violence; thus it is harder to arouse the same sense of communal vulnerability stemming from the disappearance of a male. There were no grieving parents immediately available for interview, nor was the community reaction for an exchange student commensurate with that for a fellow Midwesterner.

While the cartoon specifically mentions the police reaction as being insufficient, their response is most likely a typical reaction to a missing person case at this stage of the investigation. There is not the same level of immediacy the month after a disappearance as there is in the first few days.

The reasons why the case was not able to surpass the level of a "typical" investigation stem from the same reasons why the media reaction was lacking. It is necessary for there to be a greater sense of community between all students at UW. This is not to suggest that it is necessary for everyone to rush out and become best friends with all, but it is necessary for representative campus groups to increase communications and cooperation. If this happens, in the future we might not have to resort to comic strips to bring attention to Mr. Ohmi's disappearance.

Mike Skelly (meskelly@wisc.edu) is a senior majoring in finance and political science.