22-year-old Gabby Petito and her boyfriend, Brian Laundrie, left for a long road trip on July 2nd 2021. Petito's family reported her missing on September 11th after not hearing from her since August. A body was found near Grand Teton National Park and while it has not been officially identified, it fits the description of Gabby Petito. The cause of death has also not been confirmed, but her family is anxiously waiting to hear an update.
Social media has played an extremely important role is this case because it has helped people searching for the missing woman. A Florida family that was traveling the country, and filming while they did it, noticed a white van on their journey that looked like Petito's van from her trip. The sighting of the van was recorded on a GoPro and later discovered by the family while editing clips for their YouTube video. After noticing the van and realizing the timeline fit perfectly, the video footage was submitted to a page dedicated to tips on the case and the Petito family was contacted. This shows how social media can have such a great impact in certain situations because the footage of the van was very beneficial to the Gabby Petito case.
Link to the YouTube video:
Family believes they spotted Gabby Petito's white van on trip in Grand Teton National Park
Photo from Google Images
Seeing how this case has sent the media into a frenzy has definitely helped this case. I learned about Gabby Petito from Tiktok, where people were trying to figure out where she was. There was so much evidence being posted on social media that directly helped this case. It saddens me to know that they found her body, but hopefully her family will get closure somehow.
ReplyDeleteThis case has been really interesting to watch. I learned about it from Tik Tok and have been able to keep up-to-date about developments of the case through Tik Tok. I think is the first time Tik Tok specifically has been used as a tool for investigators. Most of the time social media is a place people go after a wrongful death to call for justice, but this time social media was used to help solve it.
ReplyDeleteI feel like this explosion of social media, in relation to Gabby Petito, has driven the mass media coverage of this story. This may be a new trend in the future, where stories that go viral on social media are picked up very quickly by corporate media companies/outlets. Social media coverage has already created the audience. In the past, people followed news stories on the television, but now the information on social media is ahead of television news reporting. The only problem in relation to news on social media in the future is that it is not always trustworthy. The only way to truly understand an event like the disappearance and homicide of Petito, is to listen to evidence presented to a jury.
ReplyDeleteThis case reminds me of the Casey Anthony case, because of how it has exploded in the public eye. I feel like the Gabby Petito case got so much coverage, because of the amount of True Crime content creators there are now. If you look at it from a creator point of view, you need the next big mysterious case to capture an audience. This spread through social media, and finally picked up by major news sources. In this case it seemed as social media was two steps ahead. However, this does have its disadvantages. For example, there are THOUSANDS of people on TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook giving their input on what happened, how Brian Laundrie may have posted photos on Instagram or edited comments, how Brian may have killed two other women and he is on a killing spree, etc. These are why social media can be so dangerous. On one hand it is good that this case got momentum and they were able to find her. Yet, people grip circumstantial evidence and present it as facts. This misinformation spreads and Brian is perceived by the entire nation as guilty BEFORE a trial. I, myself, was in a rabbit hole on this case, and sure he was guilty, but I do not have all the evidence, True Crime content creators no not have the evidence. That may be presented to a jury in the future but for now we will have to wait.
ReplyDeleteSocial media can be a very powerful and detrimental tool in politics but in other cases, such as this, it can also demonstrate its use for good. Honestly, if it wasn't for social media, I might have not heard about this case. What is interesting is what you mentioned, on how social media helped to solve this case in efforts to find Gabby. Additionally, the awareness and overall concern for her safety could have never been prominent if it wasn't for social media.
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