In the past few weeks, every time I have come across the TV in the cafeteria playing the latest news, I have not been able to get passed 30 seconds without seeing an update on the crash of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.
For the few that might not be aware, there recently was a Boeing 777 that reportedly crashed while crossing the Indian Ocean. Two hundred and twenty seven passengers and 12 crew members are currently missing and are presumably dead, considering how long it’s been since the crash.
What was strange about this specific occurrence was what occurred prior to the crash. According to return pings picked up by satellites after the air traffic control lost contact with the plane, the plane continued to fly for several hours.
So far, there has been much speculation as to what happened and there are currently many questions unanswered. But I have a question that is very different from everyone else’s.
Why is this plane crash so important that it must be the focus of every news broadcast and regular “breaking news” updates?
I understand the entire situation is very tragic and more than 200 people suddenly disappeared. However, there are so many other issues that the media needs to address.
According to a 2010 statistic by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, about 16,000 people in the U.S. alone are killed in homicides. This means that in the two weeks that have been devoted to this story, about 600 other individuals might have been murdered with relatively abysmal media coverage in comparison.
Even with heart disease annually killing more than three times that amount of people in the U.S., we don’t see breaking news reports every 30 seconds reminding us to eat healthy. It really bothers me that there is such an obsession over a situation where the viewers have such little control; the crash has already happened, and putting more attention on the past won’t help change it.
I think even the media is starting to stray from its original purpose. When the news of the Malaysian flight first broke, the media was covering the story and spreading the word on what had just happened. There was even some coverage on some of the families who had loved ones on the flight. Now though, there are constant updates on the typically fruitless efforts of the search parties that are looking for the remains of the plane crash along with the latest conspiracy theories of what may have occurred during the last moments of the flight.
How does it help to play out a bunch of “what if” scenarios? What a grim reminder to those same families that the news outlets covered, receiving new scenarios of what might have happened to their beloved during that flight on a daily basis. Although it’s the media that is constantly scrutinizing this story, I think that the people who are consuming it and perpetuating this sort of attention also are to blame.
People should have better things to do than to sit and speculate with friends about whether or not terrorists were the reason for the plane’s mysterious disappearance. If people sincerely cared about the deaths of these individuals and wanted to make a difference, then they’d be taking on more active roles to help mitigate the untimely deaths of individuals — active roles, such as lowering this staggering homicide rate in the U.S. that has somehow gotten overshadowed by this one international incident.
Even taking care of ourselves and promoting healthier lifestyles might be more impactful than stressing over a tragedy that already occurred. Instead, Flight 370 continues to captivate the public’s interest while other more pressing matters don’t get the attention they deserve.
Henry Pan is a chemical engineering sophomore. Reach him at panhenry@msu.edu.
