The news is full of “top stories” about the missing Titanic sub. It’s five people. A rich tourism excursion. It isn’t a cutting edge representation of society (as, say, with Apollo 13). It’s just a few folks with a technological accident.
We don’t headline every person who, sadly, dies on Everest. Or dies skydiving. Or even, a minivan of five children in a crash with a drunk driver.
I suppose the issue is the suspense, the search, which doesn’t apply to the examples I mentioned.
But the news doesn’t say anything interesting about that aspect. We don’t get details about the technology and adventure and challenges of the search. And in any case, I’d rather see that as a documentary in the future, not news stories in real-time.
I am not finger-wagging at intrigue in harrowing stories or empathy for those at risk. It’s ok if that’s what folks want. I just don’t know why they want it. I don’t understand why it actually matters to folks if there isn’t anything inherently information-oriented about it, or especially relatable about the people.
And if people DO care about such things, why don’t we run stories about people hiding in the basement in Ukraine? Or emergency room physicians with a challenging case that develops over a couple days?
How do we decided that, of all things, we care about Richie Rich getting stuck in a sub toy because their comms went down? It doesn’t really matter for anything to anyone, at least compared with the alternative human interest opportunities.