Airplane Crashes in Czechoslovak Press During the Period of Normalization
| Pages | 59-66 |
|---|---|
| Keywords | aircraft accidents, Czechoslovakia, disasters, normalisation, media coverage, comparative analysis |
| Citation | ŠÍROVÁ, Tereza . Airplane Crashes in Czechoslovak Press During the Period of Normalization. Acta Musei Nationalis Pragae – Historia litterarum. Prague: National Museum, 2012, 57(4), 59-66. ISSN 0036-5351. Also available from: https://publikace.nm.cz/en/periodicals/amnphl/57-4/airplane-crashes-in-czechoslovak-press-during-the-period-of-normalization |
The negativity usually considered as one of news values. In my diploma thesis, I compared the media coverage of 10 railway or aircraft accidents which happened in Czechoslovakia or in the Czech republic between 1960–2008. The result was, that during the
Communistic regime, the negative news had less space than after the Velvet Revolution. But there still was a difference in the way of reporting about some accidents. The difference was influenced especially by current political situation. But also other factors were very important – in the case of aircraft accidents, it was the „nationality“ of the aircraft and the cause of the accident. In this article, I compare two accidents which happened in 1972 and 1973. The first happened near Ceska Kamenice when a Yugoslav plane crashed after a bomb attack. One person of 27 onboard survived. The daily papers informed about the crash – there were 18 published articles in two analysed papers. One year later, a Soviet plane crashed at the Ruzyne airport. 66 of 100 people onbord perished. The cause was a pilot’s mistake caused by wrong ergonomics in new aircraft type. Analysed papers published only 4 articles. There was no important change of political situation between 1972 and 1973. In my opinion, the difference in the media coverage was given by the fact that it was a new Soviet aircraft which crashed at Ruzyne, the mistake of Soviet engineers, constructers and pilots.
Rozumím