There is some quite easy to understand reasoning of why journalists promote with sensationalism. A journalist earns money through being popular, that is, a news group will contract or hire them based on how popular a story could be. Popularity, as in readership or views, translates directly into subscriptions and advertising revenue, these are companies after all. When a news story breaks unless you have an exclusive interview, you are just covering something that almost anyone can get access to, therefore to make some difference to just reading off the news in boring monotonous fashion you have to jazz it up to sell it for you or your company to stand out. Emotive and persuasive writing are part of English 101. Now apart from us being mystical, magical beings that glitter in sunlight and bath naked by moon beams, pilots are perceived by the press as a closed shop, and a sort of elite white collar mob as well as generally trustworthy and upstanding citizens. The headlines are not an opportunity to drag the profession down, its quite simply twanging on the community heart strings of 'how could this be' and leaving more questions as to 'why'. The 'why' question will leave readership hanging for more information and more sales.
I don't think anyone will climb on a J* flight and sweat in fear that if they go to the loo a criminally insane Captain is waiting there to shiv them, or worse. At best the oldies who comment on why there is a 'woman' at the controls or a high school student might be comforted its not a 50+ year old male psychopath.
Things that drag a profession down, watching scruffy, unkempt, out of uniform employees walking around like they are kids in a schoolyard. Throwing a craft around like a war hero evading zeros with passengers on board doesn't impress them either. The public want a clean well edumacated smooth flying fit looking professional up front and don't want to remember the flight for anything other than a good latte or sparkling beverage they drank. The odd criminal in the job doesn't drag us all down.
Last edited by 43Inches; 26th Nov 2021 at 21:07.