diff --git a/lib/pinchflat/media.ex b/lib/pinchflat/media.ex
index db304c1..3f2aed1 100644
--- a/lib/pinchflat/media.ex
+++ b/lib/pinchflat/media.ex
@@ -105,9 +105,9 @@ defmodule Pinchflat.Media do
       select_merge: %{
         matching_search_term:
           fragment("""
-            snippet(media_items_search_index, 0, '[PF_HIGHLIGHT]', '[/PF_HIGHLIGHT]', '...', 20) ||
+            coalesce(snippet(media_items_search_index, 0, '[PF_HIGHLIGHT]', '[/PF_HIGHLIGHT]', '...', 20), '') ||
             ' ' ||
-            snippet(media_items_search_index, 1, '[PF_HIGHLIGHT]', '[/PF_HIGHLIGHT]', '...', 20)
+            coalesce(snippet(media_items_search_index, 1, '[PF_HIGHLIGHT]', '[/PF_HIGHLIGHT]', '...', 20), '')
           """)
       },
       order_by: [desc: fragment("rank")],
diff --git a/test/pinchflat/media_test.exs b/test/pinchflat/media_test.exs
index fc5521f..a4692b4 100644
--- a/test/pinchflat/media_test.exs
+++ b/test/pinchflat/media_test.exs
@@ -267,6 +267,13 @@ defmodule Pinchflat.MediaTest do
       assert String.contains?(res.matching_search_term, "The [PF_HIGHLIGHT]quick[/PF_HIGHLIGHT] brown fox")
     end
 
+    test "doesn't set matching_search_term to nil if one of the attributes we search on is null" do
+      media_item_fixture(%{title: "foobar baz", description: nil})
+
+      assert [%{matching_search_term: matching_search_term}] = Media.search("baz")
+      refute is_nil(matching_search_term)
+    end
+
     test "optionally lets you specify a limit" do
       media_item_fixture(%{title: "The small gray dog"})