As promised to the writer of the article "Air France: misguided Media Attention" I will give an opposing answer to his post and explain why I don't believe the media is blowing an international incident like this, out of proportion.
I am not a journalist nor have researched this topic extensively. This is an attempt at an educated response.
(disclaimer: I am just a scientist)
One of the reasons why some think these types of news should not be advertised as much is the relative number of people that die on flights compared to any other medium of transportation as insignificant. Although on paper numbers might seem reasonable, truth of the matter is that there are many other factors why the media should focus on events like this.
How important is it for the general public to know if a plane goes missing or falls?
-Almost everyone will use airlines at some point in their lives and I believe it is important that people are aware of what could happen before they make a decision on how to travel.-gregor-morrill's point is right on the bull's eye. When over 100 people die in a given incident it is noteworthy. If 100 people die in a car crash it would definitely make national news.
-Someone has to report these crashes and let everyone know about them. It is just fair again to the general public.
-You usually pay over 1000 bucks for an international flight as opposed to a tank of gas for 30 bucks. These expenses are supposed to cover proper maintenance of the planes and a knowledgeable crew.
For god's sake if something that big falls off the sky I want to know about it.
- The plane went -missing- -When you get on a plane you are not the one flying the plane. You are putting your life(and 200 others) in someone else's hands.
Now why should the media focus on this events so much?
MANY PEOPLE DIED in an international flight (why it should not be covered in just one country) and on a MAJOR airline. I have not traveled by plane too much but on the few times I have, I have used this airline.
Now I know that planes from this airline have failed.This will make me and many more on the general public reconsider when I am trying to find that cheap ticket on Expedia.
This is not good publicity for Air France . They might assume responsibility and hopefully make their pilot selection more strict, their check ups more through etc etc
Twitter is a whole different realm and you cannot necessarily call it "the media" Unlike most twitter power users the rest of us follow our closest friends say 20 to 50 people. Not one of my friends posted about it so how many times it was posted on twitter is relative to the number of users.
The writer also expressed his disbelief on how people were troubled by these tragic stories, when they should be bothered by other stories that happen in their immediate lives. communities etc.
I believe many of us actually do take part in this community news that affect our immediate surrounding though. When I read my school's news paper, sometimes I take action, whether it is to join a club, go to a protest or go to the latest concert.
Why are we fascinated with news about death?
Aren't news ways to re-tell stories? stories are knowledge. Processing the past, learning from it and building upon it.
If I am aware of these stories maybe I can prevent dying? I am not sure about that one since I am no psychologist but maybe this is why the death news are the ones that intrigue us.
Maybe these stories help us cherish our lives. They let us know we are lucky enough to be alive?
I do agree that TV news are lame and thats why I love the internet, feeds, categories tags, etc. They give us specific types of news so we can avoid some and use others.
1 comments:
I wold like to first and foremost thank you for the time that it took you to one read this, and two to respond with what did in fact appear to be an educated response. So from me to you, thank you.
I do not want to repeat everything that I have already stated in my previous points. But I do agree with some things that you said. However, I feel that when one person dies it affects his or her family and friends. When 200+ people die that is affecting a lot of people. But I still do not feel that this is news worthy.
Also, I agree that nearly everyone will fly in his or her lifetime and that yes, they should be worried about issues like this. However, comparing the price of a plane ticket (and where the heck are you flying that will cost you that much) to the price of a tank of gas is not even close to comparable. A tank of gas gets you so far compared to that plane ticket in terms of miles.
I am flying to Nicaragua this summer. That is over 2,000 miles and I am flying for less than $500. Figure that is less than a quarter a mile. Good luck getting that in any car on the market today.
In addition, the number of people on Twitter is relative to the number of Tweets on Twitter. I agree. But, there are people from all over the world, ones that have no interest, no concern, and no relation to anyone on that flight that are upset for the families, that are sad for the those that died, etc. I just do not see the personal connection to waste energy and emotion on people you have never and will never meet.
We agree on some things. We disagree on others. And this, sir, is exactly why I blog. This is exactly why I Tweet. I want reactions that inspire someone to make a statement about my post. If I affect one person, then my day was worth waking up.
Thank you for the response.
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