multiplatform news analysis

The breaking news piece of the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 left the world holding their breath. The story broke via BBC Breaking News’ twitter account on the 8th of March 2014. It seemed like a routine flight from Kuala Lumpa, Malaysia to Beijing in China. The Boeing 777-200ER was carrying12 crew and 227 passengers, 6 of which were Australian. The four news pieces chosen to analyse vary in proximity and format, including internet articles from news businesses The Wall Street Journal and the Sydney Morning Herald as well as newspaper reports from The Canberra Times and, lastly, an online news report via the ABC’s program Lateline. As this investigation is still pending and is so vast I have chosen to focus on one day’s worth of news and the subsequent newspaper articles (stories covered from the previous day). The main findings of Thursday 13th March 2014 were that China released satellite photos of the possible debris of Flight MH370 and theories that the aircraft may have continued flying for up to four hours.

Embed Tweet. The tweet informs us of what happened, the airline involved, the flight number, where the plane was travelling to and from and how many were on board. BBC Breaking News also included a link to Malaysia Airline’s Facebook page that informed the public of exactly what was going on.

The Wall Street Journal has been one of the central sources keeping the public up to date with the current disappearance of Flight MH370. The latest breaking news headline for Thursday 13th March 2014 read ‘Possible Crash Site’ of Malaysian Jet, According to China’ with the lead ‘China has released satellite images it of what it says could be the crash site of missing Malaysian Airlines Flight 370, though it’s not clear how strong the lead is.’ The angle of the lead suggests that the story will shed some light on a mysterious topic but may be skeptical. It focused, firstly, on the sizing of the ‘debris’ spotted off the Southern tip of