Story: Guadalupe Mata and Rebecca Beach
As part of Alan Abitbol’s Online & Digital PR class
April 24, 2014
For weeks, one single story dominated almost all international headlines. On March 8, an airliner carrying 239 people departed from Kuala Lumpur International Airport to Beijing. Unfortunately, Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 never reached its destination. Instead it disappeared into the night sky and set off a frenzied international search.
From the initial break of the news, people have been captivated worldwide as it leaked through all platforms of social media. An odd occurrence such as this is hard to go unnoticed, giving way to various people posting, tweeting, or uploading videos to share condolences, theories about what happened, and useful information for those affected by the tragedy. With each passing day, relatives of the passengers, and people around the world, waited for any information that would lead to finding the aircraft. However, as days turned into weeks, not much hope was given in finding the aircraft or the people on board.
Many took to online media in order to express their grief or feelings. A story on CNN featured the daughter of the chief steward who tweeted emotional and haunting messages addressed to her father calling him back home. She maintained hope throughout the ordeal that her father would come back, inspiring people and organizations worldwide. Even an English soccer team, Liverpool FC, reached out to the girl and tweeted her back, offering its support and words of encouragement.
Running HootSuite analytics proved that 45 percent of sentiment of the hashtag #flight370 on Twitter was of “sadness/grief.” This resonates with sentiment worldwide. The report also shows a fluctuation in the volume of tweets with the hashtag #flight370. This can be mainly attributed to the fact that as information about flight was released, the volume of tweets grew. When hours or days passed without new information, the amount of tweets naturally decreased.
With people around the world watching the situation unfold, the search efforts and Malaysia Airlines itself underwent great scrutiny. Soon enough, a global effort involving people online emerged in order to find the plane. More than 3 million people have joined the search for the missing plane, doing whatever they can to find the answers the entire world is looking for.
The use of media, however, made this incident even more controversial than it already was. The seemingly lack of competence by the Malaysian investigation team, and Malaysia Airlines itself, was evident in press releases and other information handed out by them. Families of the victims began criticizing the investigational efforts due to this lack of, or misleading, information. This misleading information came from sources on social media who were sometimes unrelated to the investigation. Also, it seemed that officials were quick to release information in order to appease the public, without regard to the credibility of their findings.
The unique aspect about social media that has made it so successful is that everyone has the chance to have a voice, but in this case it has turned this unfortunate event into more of a crisis. While many people online are doing as much as they can to help in the search efforts, there are many people who are posting news online that is not true. Rumors have begun spreading like wildfire on social media, and it has proven that keeping the rumors under control is not an easy task for Malaysia Airlines.
Most people have given up hope on finding the passengers of Flight 370 alive, but the search efforts persist. Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak made a statement promising the families of the passengers that they will not give up until the plane is found. As the search efforts continue, the rest of the world will watch the events unfold from their social media accounts, as updates regarding the flight are posted.
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