On April 14 more than 230 teenage girls went missing in Nigeria, kidnapped by suspected terrorists and potentially sold to the be the wives of militants for $12 U.S.
But despite a social media campaign and a fruitless protest by parents and relatives, that story has received significantly less coverage than ...
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The Nigerian girls were reportedly kidnapped at gunpoint from their boarding school by militants who who posed as the Nigerian military. The government is blaming extremist militants from Al-Qaeda-linked terrorist group Boko Haram.
And according to The Guardian, since their abduction the girls have been sold as wives to militants in the neighboring countries of Chad and Cameroon.
"Most of the people do sleep in the bush because of fear. And our daughters have been kidnapped, no action by the state government, nor the federal government."
Granted, CNN has the "Bring Back Our Girls" campaign front and center.
More than two weeks after the school girls' disappearance, a glance at the home pages of major TV networks will turn up zero headlines featuring an update on the girls.
So why the lack of coverage? In a world where 24-hour news networks are in abundance and online media is publishing 24/7, why wouldn't this tragic story that affects so many be getting the wall-to-wall news treatment?
A writer for PolicyMic argues it's because the world views Nigeria as a tumultuous place where this sort of thing is not uncommon, "It's easy to become desensitized to stories coming out of a conflict-ridden region, but that doesn't mean these human lives are worth any less."
Time points to the lack of relevance this story has on US foreign policy."We have a tendency to over-report stories that affect our foreign policy (especially in India, China, and the Middle East,) and under-report stories that have less geopolitical relevance."
A lack of coverage of international affairs and a lack of interest from viewers — especially when it comes to Africa — also likely play a role. According to the Tyndall Report, it took more than two weeks for this story of 200 African girls to make it to the nightly news on any of the major networks.
In comparison, the kidnapping of teenage American girl Elizabeth Smart, dominated news coverage for months while she was missing and again when she was found nine months later.
And while Lester Holt and Diana Sawyer will not be rescuing these girls personally, journalists do play a pivotal role in the lives of those affected by tragedy.
A former CNN correspondent writes, "Global attention will lead to offers for help, to press for action. Just as the intense focus on the missing Malaysian plane and the lost South Korean ferry prompted other nations to extend a hand, a focus on this ongoing tragedy would have the same effect."
There are petitions on change.org and whitehouse.gov that you can find in the transcript aimed at bringing these girls home. According to the International Crisis Group, terrorist organization Boko Haram has killed almost 4,000 people in the past four years.
