News Framing in Air Disaster Reporting: A Case Study of Korean Air 801
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INTRODUCTION
Air disaster reporting is compelling and dramatic. Visual images of death and destruction
delivered from the crash site almost always captivate television audiences all over the world. In the
print medium, the stories and pictures of the tragedy draw readers. Air disasters typically unravel
horrific descriptions of crashes, heroic actions, the stories of victims and their fateful decisions
boarding the ill-fated flight, the grief of families, and analyses of how and why the tragedy occurred.
As noted by Vincent, Crow and Davis (1989), air disasters allow TV news to do what it does best:
tell a compelling story making full use of dramatic visual and narrative devices.
Almost all air crashes involve complicated causes that are investigated and verified by the
appropriate official bodies. Some air crashes are attributed to simple causes detailed in conclusive
reports. Others, such as the TWA Flight 800 crash over Long Island, New York (1996) and the
EgyptAir Flight 990 crash over the Atlantic Ocean (1999), pose lingering questions about what
caused the tragedies. Despite official investigations and findings, there have been continued
challenges and refutation both from individuals and the news media. For instance, the official
investigation of TWA 800 (NTSB, 2000a) concluded that the center wing fuel tank exploded, but a
theory that a Navy missile shot down the plane also gained significant weight. Similarly, the
American investigators of EgyptAir 990 (NTSB, 2002) point to sabotage by the co-pilot but the
Egyptian press rejected this view, focusing on the possibility of a bomb planted by Israeli
intelligence in an alleged plot to kill Egyptian military generals on board.
This case study of Korean Air Flight 801 traces the framing of the cause of the crash. It
analyzes and compares news coverage by the media from two different countries, South Korea
and the United States. The importance of the findings about air disaster causes cannot be
discounted; there is a heuristic value as investigators, airline officials and plane manufacturers
focus on the prevention of future tragedies. Media coverage of crash causes shape opinions and
Convention