Professionals Project

Media Studies
Malaysia Airlines Analysis

COM 201-06
Jessica Polny
Trina Scuderi
Alex Varoutsos
Abstract

Malaysia Airlines had two incidents in 2014, one missing plane flight M370, and flight
M17 which got shot down in the Ukraine. The media studies group has collected data across
various media - newspapers, televised newscasts, and social media such as Facebook and Twitter
- in order to analyze the two incidents. From the analysis we have compared the tone, focus, and
overall agenda of the media releases and internet artifacts focusing on the incidents. The shift
from formal reporting to sensationalism is the most apparent aspect between the comparison, as
well as the reaction of the public.

Introduction

Comparing the first Malaysia incident to the second, how did the media treat the two incidents
differently and how did the media influence Malaysia’s response for the second incident?

    The Malaysian Airlines have been discussed a lot lately. The Two planes M370 and M17 were
the ones getting all the attention from the news to newspapers to even celebrities tweeting. The
broadcasting and internet networking became increased when the second incident M17 got shot
down.
    The first M370 brought discussion in the news world, they criticized the Malaysian Airline
company and the people that were involved with the company. But when the second incident
happened the world and media exploded. This happened with different conspiracies of the
broadcasts. One thing thats interesting is that M370 created an uproar  on the internet and social
networks. When the broadcast discussed the M17 and thats when the debate leaked into the
newspaper and television.
    The second M17 was big in the media, with not just the airline company but the involvement
of political leaders and most likely war. With the amount of coverage they wanted more coverage
that would get the people’s attention. The breaking news came later with more information but
with non-direct information to get the audience in the loop of the cultural and political, which
was for the United States, Russia, and Ukraine.
     Even though M370 influenced the media on how they would report M17, these
incidents reveal the intent to get the viewers to follow certain political and sensational stories.

Literary Review

The sensationalism of an airplane crisis - whether an accident or a terrorist attack - has

enveloped all methods of mass communication in a craze for attention. For instance, KTVU San
Francisco, in July of 2013, aired a fake story about a crash with Asiana Airlines that included
“erroneous, and racially offensive” names of the fictitious pilots (Check and Double Check).
Such offensive actions are proof of our current age of entertainment in the media, which
apparently is prioritized above all other informational and integral values. From this radio station
story, to gags regarding 9/11 on television shows like the crudely satirical American Dad!
(S7:E16), it is apparent that sensitivity towards such crises has become null and void for the sake
of sensationalism. In “a news world that travels at the speed of electrons” (Check and Double
Check), there needs to be more sensitivity towards such tragedies, which media currently
disregards for the sake of more viewers and higher entertainment value.
The article, Relationship Maintenance In A Time Of Crisis: The 2001 Oklahoma State
University Plane Crash, talked about the January 2001 plane crash that killed members of the
Oklahoma State University basketball team.  The school had a crisis plan that was set in place,
but didn’t apply to the situation because it wasn’t developed for a long distance crisis.  The plane
crashed 500 miles away, outside Strasburg, CO.  Because the crash occurred on a weekend night,
many OSU administrators were not on campus, and the plan to send a representative to obtain
information wasn’t practical.  Acquiring information was difficult, but the university was able to
contact authorities in Colorado, and confirmed the crash, and its victims. Eddie Sutton, head
coach of the OSU basketball team, personally called each of the victims’ families to deliver the
news.  The reason that OSU didn’t face a lot of backlash for how they handled the crisis because
they put the victim’s families first.   (Relationship Maintenance In A Time Of Crisis: The 2001
Oklahoma State University Plane Crash).  
The article, Airline Disaster Highlights Need for Ethical Coverage, describes Pan Am
flight 103 exploding over Lockerbie, Scotland on December 21, 1988. The plane was carrying
students from Syracuse University. A communication Professor at Syracuse instead of condoling
 students had to do his second job and be on camera. While students gathered in a chapel at
school the professor was on the other side with the rest of the media. At the end of the prayer
service he had to go up to students and ask questions. Most students did not want to talk, but one
of his students said “it’s just like you said it would be... it’s a nightmare”(Airline disaster
highlights need for ethical coverage).

Methodology

For this project, we each used the internet as a way to search for sources and articles about the
Malaysian Airline crises of flights MH370, and MH17.  Jessica Polny used the Google search
engine to find various online news articles.  She used sources such as ABC News, CNN, and The
Guardian.  Alex Varoutsos searched Youtube, and the websites of different news stations to find
videos about the crises.  Trina Scuderi searched through Twitter, Facebook, and looked at
comments from different articles to obtain her information.  

Data Analysis

For online newspapers, the tone of the Malaysian incidents drastically change from the
first story to the next. Looking at the breaking news coverage for the missing MH370 plane,
reporting was focused and precise. Presented in the first article from The Guardian are many
statistics: “Flight MH370, operated on the B777-200 aircraft, departed Kuala Lumpur at 12.41am
on 8 March 2014. MH370 was expected to land in Beijing at 6.30am the same day. The flight
was carrying a total number of 227 passengers... 12 crew members” (Quinn, Ben and Branigan,
Tania). Even as the story continues, the focus does not extend beyond the involvement of
Malaysia Airlines, which was “last year voted was voted Asia's leading airline at the World
Travel Awards 2013, beating 11 other big name full service carriers. But it has been struggling
financially. Earlier this year, it posted its fourth consecutive loss” Quinn, Ben and Branigan,
Tania). While the article may be diverting attention away from the incident itself, Malaysia
remains centred in the news coverage. As the story continued to be investigated, facts were
shared in a formal manner, such as the ABC network’s timeline describing “flight MH370, with
239 passengers on board, was scheduled to fly from the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, to
Beijing in China on Saturday March 8. It disappeared from civilian radar screens about an hour
into the scheduled six-hour flight... On March 15, Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak said
investigators believed someone on board had deliberately turned off its communications systems
and diverted it well west of its planned flight path,” and so the detailed timeline continued
through April.
However, similar networks covering the second incident of Malaysia flight MH17 being
shot down in the Ukraine, wrote more sensationally and less focused on the Malaysia Airline
company. The Guardian also wrote a breaking news article for this incident, but the writing
changed drastically. Instead of listing statistics, in the article were provocative statements,
providing a strong imagery for the scene of the crash: “a dismembered foot could be seen on the
one road leading through the village. A strong smell of aviation fuel hung in the air as
pro-Russian separatist fighters attempted to secure the area” (Walker, Shaun and Salem, Harriet).
The objective is no longer providing information, but entertainment, eliciting emotions and
stimulating bias emotions. The reason that there is such a change in objective is the change of
context of the second incident; now involved are political leaders, Obama and Putin being two
most prominent of the many. The media want to evoke empathy for the victims of the crash and
promote American politics, rather than focusing the fault of Malaysia Airlines having a second
deadly incident within months of the missing plan. One of the major news networks CNN
describe the “Charred wreckage stretched for kilometers, he said. Stunned rescue workers and
rebel fighters combed the area, Sneider said, planting sticks with white cotton ribbons where they
found bodies in the fields” (Shoichet, Catherine and Fantz, Ashley). The integration of creative
writing in this article pulls in the readers to bring their attention to the political issues, such as
when “The Pentagon said Wednesday that Russia now has 12,000 troops on the border with
Ukraine”  (Shoichet, Catherine and Fantz, Ashley). The use of sensationalism in the plane attack,
and deviation from formal, objective news-writing, is how written reporting is creating a story
that will evoke more of a response not towards Malaysia airlines, but to redirect towards
American, Ukrainian, and Russian politics.
Most of the messages found on social media about the Malaysian Airlines’ flights
MH370 and MH17, gave links to online news articles and blogs with theories behind the crises.
 Other users either mocked the airline and Malaysian government for how they handled the
crisis, or expressed their condolences to the families of the victims.  In one instance, singer
Courtney Love believed to have found missing flight MH370.  She posted a photo on Twitter,
showing a satellite image with arrows pointing to what she believed to be oil spills and plane
wreckage.   Some of the comments mocked her, since she doesn’t have the best reputation of
being sane or logical.  But, other commenters praised her, saying she’s done more to find the
plane than both Malaysian Airlines, and the Malaysian Government (Malaysian Airlines Flight
MH370 Found by Courtney Love? Singer Thinks She's Located Plane's Wreckage in Satellite
Image).  Few have been sympathetic, citing the difficult situation that Malaysian Airlines and the
government face.  One example is Abu Eesa Niamatullah’s tweet, “I know there’s grief/anger
and I’m not belittling it, but sorry all this hate against Malaysia and Malaysian Airlines is
ridiculous #MH370”(Twitter).  Most Tweeters made jokes after months of searching for missing
flight MH370.  Paul Connolly tweeted, “If we took the Twitter energy focused on the Kardashian
bum right now, we could probably use it to find #MH370 in about 10 minutes”(Twitter).  The use
of social media allows for many different people to share their opinion and theories about why
the crises of MH370 and MH17 occurred.  While useful to distribute information quickly, social
media can also spread false news about the incidents.                   
The news broke about the Malaysian Airline flight missing on March 8,2014. When
watching Fox News some of the reporters were already giving negative feedback to the viewers.
Former FAA spokesperson Scott Brenner says “does not sound good, normally when you lose
connection with an aircraft”. (Fox News) Another reporter said that the pilots and air traffic
controllers rely too much on the aircraft. They would try and say things and then would say we
don’t have that much information, but they would give their sense. The news also talked about
how there were 13 different nationalities on board and they were still seeing if any Americans
were on board.
When the Malaysian Airline flight 17 was shot down the news reporters seemed a little
surprised that this happened again. Fox News blamed the pilots for not knowing how low they
were and said it could be prevented. Robert Mark an commercial pilot told Fox News that he
“didn’t think Malaysian Airlines was gonna survive after the first incident. Another statement he
made is “that  the issue is who sent the aircraft that route and why would the captain take that
route”. In CNN News reporter said “obviously people think of the Malaysian airplane that went
down in the Pacific”. The reporter said this as breaking news about the new Malaysian airline
flight 17 was shot down.
Conclusion

    Malaysia Airline flights M370 and M17 have been internationally discussed, and were a
national sensation on the internet and news during their initial broadcasts. The media studies
group analysis has seen the change across different media channels, from newspapers, to
celebrity Twitter posts, to national television newscasters. It has become apparent that the
sensationalism of broadcasting and internet networking increased with the second incident, the
shooting down of the M17, as opposed to the attempt at formality with the M370.
    The first M370 incident brought about relevant debate and discussion in the newscasting
world, criticizing the Malaysia Airline company and the integrity of those involved. However,
when the second incident occurred, the mediasphere exploded with even more intricate
conspiracies further influenced broadcast. What is interesting is that the first M370 incident
created the most turmoil on the internet and social networks, so when professional broadcasters
presented the M17 incident, that demand for sensationalism and debate leaked into the
newspapers and television.
    The second M17 incident had such a greater scope in the media world, with the involvement
of not only the Malaysia Airline company, but the involvement of political leaders and even war.
With the greater scope came the greater demand for news coverage that would appeal to the
national agenda. The “breaking news” came much later than before, with more descriptive and
non-direct information to reel in audiences into the cultural and political scope of the United
States, Russia, and Ukraine.
    As much as the social reaction to M370 influenced the media on how they reported M17, the
presentation of the incidents reveal the intent to influence the audience to follow certain political
and sensational stories.

   Project Summary

The media studies group is focused on understanding how different modes mass
communications can have an effect on the reception of the stories; and on the other hand, to
realize how the stories will change how various media react. In an introduction to
communications course, it is essential to understand the relationships between the media, the
audience, and the subjects of the media.
The Malaysia Airline incidents - both the disappearance of flight M370 and the attack on
M17 - were sufficient topics to study differences in media phenomena. These incidents were
internationally discussed, and therefore could be analyzed over a broad scope of sources, from
BBC to Fox news, even Twitter and Facebook. Interestingly enough, all these different sources
have become relevant and reliable in scholarly research. For instance, even though Facebook
may not be the most reliable source for factual information, it has become one of the most
accessible pools to research how the mass public reacts to what is being discussed and promoted
in the media.
Most people will look at both situations from Malaysia grouped into one phenomena, but
our group felt it was important to analyze a distinction between the two in terms of portrayal in
the media. So our question focused on comparing the two - what changed in the media with each
incident, why, and how did the audience react to each of the reporting news stories? The
decisions to chose some sources over others was relatively easy, in that our sources had to be
consistent. Similar news stations, comparing the same newspaper article from one breaking news
story to the other; ensuring that there was enough similarities between who controlled the
broadcasting of the two Malaysia Airline incidents, that the differences of how they handled the
stories would then be even more apparent.
Credible sources were those that are heavily relied on in the mediasphere, such as FOX
news and CNN, who may have their own bias and agendas, but they are trusted by the mass
audience as credible reporters. Media studies analyze these broadcasters who are seen as reliable,
in order to seek out the differences and anomalies between the two stories. Credibility, for the
sake of analysis in our case, had to be based in the perceptions of the mass audience.
Works Cited

Literary Review:

Andrews, Kate. "Airline Disaster Highlights Need For Ethical Coverage." Journalism
Educator 44.2 (1989): 50-76.Communication & Mass Media Complete. Web. 18 Nov. 2014.

"Check and Double Check." Broadcasting & Cable 29 July 2013: 54. Communication &
Mass Media Complete. Web. 3 Nov. 2014.
http://web.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=aaa6323c-96fb-4b46-916e-a962cdf7
3829%40sessionmgr112&vid=1&hid=118

Wigley, Shelley. "Relationship Maintenance In A Time Of Crisis: The 2001 Oklahoma

State University Plane Crash." Public Relations Quarterly 48.2 (2003): 39-42. Business Source
Premier. Web. 18 Nov 2014.

Data Analysis:

Anonymous, (@C0d3fr0sty). “We lost your family, we don’t know what happened, here’s
5000.00 have a good day! - Malaysian Airlines”.  March 25, 2014.  November 18, 2014. Tweet.

Bech Sillesen, Lene. "Bad Taste, Poor Judgment." Columbia Journalism Review 53.3
(2014): 13. Communication & Mass Media Complete. Web. 3 Nov 2014
http://web.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=a67dfb74-87f1-4eae-9c43-0a60ec00
8fc0%40sessionmgr111&vid=1&hid=118

Brown, Al (@AlexxBrown08).  “I still cant get over the fact that malaysian airlines just
texted the families the news #MH370”.  March 24, 2014.  November 18, 2014.  Tweet.  
 CCTVNEWS, (@cctvnews).  “Chinese Family Committee condemns Malaysian gov’t
and Malaysian Airlines for making unsupported conclusion”.  March 24, 2014.  November 18,
2014. Tweet.
Connolly, Paul (@paulconndc). “If we took the Twitter energy focused on the Kardashian
bum right now, we could probably use it to find #MH370 in about 10 minutes”. November 12,
2014. November 18, 2014. Tweet.

"Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 Found by Courtney Love? Singer Thinks She's
Located Plane's Wreckage in Satellite Image." National Post Arts Malaysian Airlines Flight
MH370 Found by Courtney Love Singer Thinks Shes Located Planes Wreckage in Satellite
Image Comments. Web. 18 Nov. 2014.
<http://arts.nationalpost.com/2014/03/17/courtney-love-thinks-shes-found-missing-malaysian-air
lines-flight-mh370/#__federated=1>.

“Malaysia Airlines MH370: What we know about the missing plane.” ABC News.
www.abc.net.au. 28 April 2014. Web.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-03-10/malaysia-airlines-flight-mh370-what-we-know/5309688

Menk, Mufti Ismail (@muftimenk).  “Before talking about the missing Malaysian
Airlines #MH370 bear in mind these ten points”. March 20, 2014. November 18, 2014. Tweet.

Niamatullah, Abu Eesa (@Niamatullah). “I know there’s grief/anger and I’m not
belittling it, but sorry all this hate against Malaysia and Malaysian Airlines is ridiculous
#MH370”.  March 25, 2014. November 18, 2014. Tweet.

    Quinn, Ben and Branigan, Tania. “Malaysia Airlines loses contact with plane carrying 293
people.” The Guardian. theguardian.com. 7 March 2014. Web.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/08/malaysia-airlines-loses-contact-plane   
 Rod, Reservoir (@KingRodric). “cant wait for all the MH370 passengers to reveal
themselves in a giant flash mob for Malaysian Airlines new viral ad campaign #aprilfools”. April
1, 2014. November 18, 2014. Tweet.

Shoichet, Catherine and Fantz, Ashley. “U.S. official: Missile shot down Malaysia
Airlines plane.” CNN World. cnnworld.com. 18 July 2014. Web.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/07/17/world/europe/ukraine-malaysia-airlines-crash/

Walker, Shaun and Salem, Harriet and Luhn, Alec and Branigan, Tania. “Malaysia
Airlines flight MH17 crashes in east Ukraine.” The Guardian. theguardian.com. 17 July 2014.
Web. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/17/malaysia-airlines-plane-crash-east-ukraine

Malaysian Plane Shot Down over Ukraine Sky - 295 Dead, Jul 17, 2014. Youtube. Web.
November 18,2014
http://youtu.be/vWUXdJuI1fk

Malaysia Plane crashes in Ukraine, Jul 17,2014. Youtube. Web. November 18,2014
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyuzFok_40k
Reflection Papers

Alexandra Varoutsos

My contribution to this project was to do the introduction and the data analysis television. I
didn’t have all that much work but most of my time was looking up videos. I liked working with
my group they were prepared and easy to get along with. This project was very time consuming
and I feel as if I had not that much time to work on it due to my other classes having assignments
or projects. I realized after working on this project that communications is not for me. I think its
really interesting but i felt a little loss with this project. Jessica Polny and Trina Scuderi were
great group members. Jessica really took a stand and basically was the captain she made sure
everything was going to get done and made sure we weren’t overwhelmed with work. She did
the most work out of us all. She was always prepared to meet and usually made the times to
meet. Trina did more work also she helped Jessica with the project summary and other things.
She was also prepared when we met for our group meetings and would let us know what she felt
with any thing we said.
    Two things I really liked about this project was meeting new people in the class and the other
getting to know more about the flights and how the news reacted toward the airline company.
Two things I really didn’t like about this project was the time consuming. I felt like I had no time
to research because I had other assignments and even though the group met up a good amount I
think we should’ve met a little bit more. Another thing I didn’t like about this project was how
much there was to do.

Trina Scuderi
For this project, I was in charge of searching social media sites: Facebook, and Twitter.  Trying
to find information about Flights MH370 and MH17 wasn’t hard, but it was time consuming and
annoying.  I wanted to find messages from when the incidents first happened, which meant I had
to scroll through hundreds of other posts.  I wanted to find the public’s view of what was
happening. But, a lot of the tweets and statuses I saw sent links to online news articles.  
My group members were great, and Jessica really had everything together way before either
Alex or myself did.  I had done a lot of research beforehand, and just had to type everything up,
which didn’t take very long.  As a group we had a fair amount of meetings, though we mostly
had individual work.  I liked that we had a set topic for this project.  We didn't need to worry
about choosing one ourselves, and making sure the group was in agreement.  We could just split
up the parts and get to work.  

Jessica Polny

    For the media studies group, my main focus was on the analysis of newspapers and published
articles. I enjoy comparatively looking at various texts, and for me, noticing slight differences in
tone, language, and contextual intent is an easier task, rather than staring at a television screen or
scrolling through a newsfeed.  My data analysis then focused on how the published articles on
M370 and M17 differed in terms of their intent to the audience. I also wrote the conclusion for
our project, synthesizing all of our analyses and relating our findings back to our original
question, which was how the reporting between the two stories changed across different media
platforms.
    Communication with our group was well executed. Facebook chat made it easy to plan
meetings and delegate tasks without having to meet in person too frequently. Google Drive also
provided an easy platform for collaborating on the paper and presentation elements, since Drive
allows multiple users to edit a document at the same time with internet connection. While I have
done textual and data analysis over many years in primary schooling and in college, I do not
want to continue with Media Studies as a career. While I am good at writing, synthesizing, and
articulating my thoughts, I would prefer a profession with more creative and interpersonal
elements.
    Two things for this project went really well; firstly, the effectiveness of communication, and
secondly, the willingness to delegate tasks equally. All of my co-members were willing to talk
about our plan, ask questions, and re-evaluate their tasks as well as proof my own. However,
there was a lack of motivation in the overall group. The paper initially seemed disjointed,
redundant, and research was not a preferred task over something more free and creative. It
became really frustrating when it came to managing time, as I began working on my individual
tasks, but then when we met as a group for a final time, I had to assist my group members with
their individual tasks before being able to bring everything together in a coherent, fluid
presentation.
    Overall, it was a solid group project. I have been in groups were people would argue or try and
take over tasks, but everyone in the Media Studies group got along well and delegated tasks
appropriately.