Monday marked the sixth day of the rescue operation in recovering bodies from the sunken South Korean ferry “Sewol.”
Since the ship sank, the captain has been taken into custody and has been called a “murderer” by a number of major news organizations, including The Guardian, CNN and The Los Angeles Times.
All the attention placed on the South Korean ferry has left us wondering what news consumers are actually interested in.
Much like the coverage of the disappearance of Malaysian flight MH370 before it, a lot of the media coverage has been based on speculation with some placing blame without any factual evidence backing their claims.
When flight MH370 disappeared on March 8, the 239 people on board were lost without a trace.
In the case of the South Korean ferry, an estimated 215 passengers were still missing with 87 are confirmed dead as of yesterday. The majority of passengers on board were high school students from Ansan, South Korea, according to CNN.
Most of the American news organizations’ coverage of the South Korean ferry seems more like a dramatic murder mystery, similar to that of the MH370 coverage.
We’re beginning to wonder why media outlets are covering the story about the sunken South Korean ferry similarly to the way they covered the disappearance of flight MH370. That story spiraled, and continue to spiral, in the direction of controversial theories on who was at fault and where the plane is.
The bigger question is, if sensationalism sells news, what’s the incentive to stop?
It seems that many readers may be more interested in conspiracy theories and prefer being swept up in mystery and speculation rather than being given actual information.
We would like to see media outlets cut back on sensationalism linked to speculation and rather report on the facts, but unfortunately, that’s the nature of the beast.
We would like to think many people agree with us, especially those who have been directly affected by these tragedies.
The most unfortunate thing about how news media covers these disasters in how it impacts the victims’ families.
It’s hard to imagine what it would be like to place ourselves in the shoes of the victims’ families, but we can assume that reading headline after headline of misguided assumptions wouldn’t bring any sense of comfort.
We appreciate that the MH370 focus of coverage has moved to focus on the search party and that’s exactly the way the South Korean ferry news coverage should be handled.
Sure, it may offer a sense of closure to place blame on someone or something, but recovering loved ones from the debris should be the main focus.
Entering day six with less than half the bodies recovered from the sunken ferry is something to raise concern, instead of condemning the captain and crew. It’s time to move on to the facts at hand — we’re missing hundreds of people and families are grieving without closure.