Chapter 8

The title of Chapter 8 in the Culture of Fear is, "Plane Wrecks: Small Danger, Big Scare"(Glassner 182). The chapter focuses on the time period between 1994 and 1996 along with some general information about why airlines are picked on by the media and how scares like this are so easily believed by the public.

To begin Glassner tells the reader about a rare occurrence in the media, they actually state a statistic properly. The statistic mentioned is the fact that you are safer flying in an airplane than driving to work or school. Glassner states that "By the large the news media, the Post and U.S News included, make sure their readers know that, overall, the safety statistics for America's airlines are impressive," he goes on to say on the same page that "Yet amazingly enough, the media promote fears of flying nonetheless"(Glassner 184). I find it ironic and impressive that the media is able to accomplish such an illogical feat, but respectively speaking it's not that impressive when we have already covered topics like road rage and multiple chemical sensitivity. The first date, 1994 is about the coverage of USAir and small planes. The subsection centers on the media's idea that "particular categories of airlines, or individual carries, are hazardous to your health. Unfortunately, that message casts doubt overall air travel."(Glassner 184). This is false however according to an MIT study done by Arnold Barnett who compared differences in safety records between airlines. A group called the International Airline Passengers Association or IAPA was at the center of the problem being favored by the news when it issued alerts about air travel hazards. The IAPA also sells flight insurance which is ironic how they seem to promote that traveling by plane is extremely risky. In 1995 it's a different more depressing story. In this instance, the media goes after the FAA for its "tombstone mentality"(Glassner 187) The FAA conducts a cost-benefit analysis to determine if a safety regulation is necessary. In the latter half of 1995 to 1996. This scare again was aimed at the FAA in the fact that plane parts were not being built to certified standards and that it was causing numerous plane crashes. The reality was that only one major crash could be attributed to counterfeit parts. In 1996 the airline problem that the media came up with was a disparity between low-cost flights and major airlines. There is no such disparity as the study done by Barnett already proved. When reporters have no scientific back up for a claim they rely on their own fear mongering and that of officials along with quotes from people that have zero technical expertise. This normally involves lots of pathos. The way that news medias are able to oppose American airlines safety records boils down to saying something enough; which causes other problems of higher importance to get neglected.

Article of Relation:

The article I picked was the New York Times news article covering Flight 800 and the problems it had before the crash in 1996. The article was written July 19th of the same year by Adam Bryant. Bryant told of Flight 800s long history of minor problems which were common to the model of plane a Boeing 747 jet. "The airline filed 68 "service difficulty reports" on the plane, according to an F.A.A. database."(Bryant). A link is not provided due to the year it was written but I wish they had covered more of the problems that the jet had. It is important to note that all 68 of the problems reported were extremely minor. Another problem that the plane had was "many signs of metal fatigue, cracking and corrosion,"(Bryant). All of the problems associated with theses comes from the age of the aircraft, which was 25 years old a whole 10 years older than most planes of the same model. Aviation experts say that age of the aircraft makes it no less safe as long as it is properly maintained. Other problems that were reported in the FAA records were landing gear failures to retract after take-off and low oil levels mid flight most likely due to leaks. Something that FAA records did not record were terrorist attacks involved with the airline itself. In the book, Glassner states that this is one of the possibilities that the media jumped on for why the plane crashed. One of the terror incidents involved a seat bomb that killed four passengers while another killed 88. According to Bryant, there were "several other attacks and hijackings."  Another point brought up is counterfeit parts which were common in Boeing jets due to their age. Glassner uses a subsection talking about this and makes a reference to the media blaming it for the crash without any evidence.  The article as a whole focused on logical appeals and ethical appeals rather than pathetic ones. The logical appeals come from the faces and statistics while the ethical appeals come from Bryant bringing in the airline as a whole and the jet model itself.