The news media minimizes the excellent safety records of American airlines by only publishiing negative stories about the industry. Afterall, publishing a story about a plane crash, etc. is more important and perhaps more fascinating. The media could achieve a more accurate representation of aviation hazard by mentioning the possiblilites of something like that happening. Many people do not know that the chances of you dying on a plane crash are very small.

I agree with nancy, most of the time the media only writes about the bizarre things that happen, and in reality there is very little chance of these things actually happening to you. The media writes about them though, because they are so crazy and extravagant.

Hi;

The author lists the primary effects of exagerrating the aviation hazards in the media as the economic deterioration of the airlines and the effects of that on the employees; which all result from the effects of the news on the people. The media uses the "catastrophic side" of the air flights, as expectd, to increase the ratings. This makes sense when you think about the title of "Another Plane has landed safely" and its attractiveness on readers as a text talking about how safe the flights are. Besides focusing on the negative sides, the media again, mispresents the data which leads to totally different and wrong conclusions as it is explained in the book. Generally speaking, the media likes to ignore the data that does't work for them. This is one of the rare chapters that I agree with Glassner.

c'ya tomorrow...
Halil

I agree that the news media defiantly minimizes the safety records of the U.S. Airlines, because the media is trying to sell their product. The more attractive a story the more it will sell, and we all know that negative effects like plane malfunctions and crashes seem to be popular with the public. The media doesn't really talk about the slim chances of airline malfunctions etc., because the story wont sell. Glassner seems to hit the hammer right on the nail in this chapter.

The author suggest that it is an ongoing cycle. When the media blows airplane crashes out of proportion, that causes people to avoid that airline. Thus, causing financial problems and unemployment, which the media also expands on. The media has a huge effect on the economic downfall of an airline. If the media produces a story which states that their planes aren't safe, then the public will avoid that airline and cause its downfall. I might add that this has domino effect. One mislead by the media causes another and so on. The media could avoid this by not making it seem to the public that it is very likely that you will die from a fallen airplane.