Without a doubt, the missing Malaysian Airline was (and still is) one of the most iconic media stories of the year (thus far).
As I was logging into Facebook, I was drawn to the ‘trending’ feature, which displayed:
This simple hash tag was the first piece of information I received about what was, the beginning of a tragic story. After looking through this particular hash tag archive, I quickly came to learn the story of the Malaysian Airline, which at this stage, was still missing.
I suddenly realised, the unusual way in which I came to find out about this tragic story. I was on Facebook, a social media website, with absolutely no intention of searching for information about MH370, or any Breaking News for that matter.
If I had not logged into Facebook, on this particular morning, I would not have known about the MH370 scenario. I would have probably only been made aware of the breaking story many hours later, on the evening primetime TV News possibly.
On March 24, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said the plane’s flight had “ended” in the southern Indian Ocean. Shortly after, Malaysia Airlines had issued a text message that was sent to some relatives, telling them that “beyond any reasonable doubt … none of those on board survived.”
Text messaging is a popular form of communication in today’s society. However, I feel that this was an inappropriate way to communicate to the family and friends of the unfortunate outcome of the passengers of MH370. Though it is assumed that Malaysian Airlines were acting in a professional matter, it is fair to say that it was unreasonable and careless. There is a way in which certain things can and can not be said through digital media, Malaysian Airlines did not handle this situation appropriately at all.
RIP passengers of flight MH370
#Trending 