At the end of last October, a Russian
commercial airliner flying from Sharm el Sheikh in Egypt to St. Petersburg in
Russia crashed in the Sinai Peninsula killing all 224 people on board. In the first hours after the crash, the cause of the destruction of the aircraft (mechanical
failure, weather, pilot error, terrorism) was not immediately clear. What
was clear was that every news organization around the world carried this story
on their front pages almost immediately after the event happened.
Since virtually all of the passengers
on the plane were Russians returning home from vacation at a resort along the
Red Sea, there is merit to the Russian media carrying the story and treating it
with importance. Families of the victims
needed to know what had just happened to their loved ones. However, why did Brazilians (as I first saw
the story on a Brazilian media website) need to know about this event? Does it affect them in any way? No Brazilian was on the airplane. The crash happened far from Brazil. Yet Brazilians, like other people around the
world, were very interested in the crash of the plane and the tragic deaths of
224 passengers and crew. Why? Was it empathy for fellow human beings? No! I
believe that it was voyeurism, but without
the sex. Something bad happened, yes, but to someone
else. And bad news, that happens to someone else, sells.
We must always remember that privately
owned news organizations, such as CNN in the USA and Globo in Brazil, are
operated to make a profit. Without it,
they cannot continue to operate. And how
do they make a profit: by selling air time or space to advertisers, who know
that the news organization is attracting a sizeable audience. And how do the news organizations make
certain they have a sizeable audience:
by putting out stories that attract the attention of the masses. As President Obama recently stated, “The media is pursuing ratings.”
Ever notice how drivers of cars speeding
along to their destination are very curious to see what happened when there is
an accident on the opposite side of the highway? They are so curious that they slow down to
see what they can see. It’s called a “gaper
block” because people will gape at the site of the accident and this will
inevitably cause the traffic to slow down significantly. Ever had the experience of seeing someone
high up on the ledge of a building threatening to jump? What a great way to draw a crowd. Another way is to start a fight on the street. People enjoy seeing someone else getting
beaten up. That is why boxing and UFC
are popular sports.
Human beings are curious by nature. Among the things they are curious about are
the misfortunes of others. Human beings
are capable of feeling pleasure when others suffer, which is known as schadenfreude. A simple example is the delight we feel when a
stranger slips on a banana peel. We like
to watch vídeos on TV of other people making fools of themselves. We felt pleasure when Martha Stewart went to
prison. We enjoyed seeing Bill Buckner
let a ground ball go through his legs.
And then we reveled when Ronda Rousey got knocked out.
Every minute of every day, thousands
of airplanes successfully land at their scheduled destinations. Nobody is injured. All arrive safely. Why don’t news organizations report such good
news to their eager audiences? Because
nobody would be interested. But, when
that rare event occurs, when an airliner crashes and all are lost, the rest of
us are glued to the television to see the circus we are offered by the media. They show us the families of the victims
crying as they await information from airline officials as to the fate of their
loved ones. Then they show us the wreckage
from the scene of the crash. Do we
really need to see this or do we only
want to see it? Unfortunately, we humans are flawed.
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