Another MRT Death…. notice the media treatment
choongyong.koh August 8th, 2007
ZaoBao today (8 Aug 2007) run a small article about the size of two credit cards about a man who fell into the MRT track and was killed by the MRT train. (see my clipping for an archive of the article).
It is another MRT death, one too many again. Last year, there was a high profile MRT death which even attracted the attention of an MP who jumped into the scene to ‘rescue’ the family in distress.
(Cannot find the official Zaobao archive, but managed to find the copied article at http://www.wretch.cc/blog/queerdust&article_id=2926015, clipped it in my clipping.
The media had a field day, with the Chinese evening dailies running multiple day features, from the background of the family, to the help poured in by everyone, to even how the spouse was going to spend the donations from people.(TV News: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DG8hVx-bc40 )(http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/236288/1/.html)
In contrast, this time round, the death is almost unheard of, unless you are a reader of ZaoBao. The evening TV news last night did not cover the news (ok, I watched only the TCS8 and the ChannelU news) and the Straits Times today did not cover the news too (searched twice through it).
The first incident obviously was a seriously played up scenario by the media.
The latest accident is probably less newsworthy. The scary thing is that does this mean that MRT deaths now are common occurrences that don’t deserve even a mention?
What caused the accident? Is SMRT doing enough to ensure accidents are minimised?
Is this another suicide case? (See the last sentence in the ZaoBao article today) If it is, what drove the man to suicide this time?
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I know I’ll be blasted for saying this, but one of the reasons not to overplay this is because some of the people only want sympathy from the public to donate to their families. By playing it up in the media, more people might be encouraged to commit such acts.
And why do they deserve a big article on their suicide? Suicide is a cowardly act which causes distress to the living relatives, and a whole big mess if not done properly.
On a side note: I think we should have MRT platforms like the Hongkong MTR, where the platforms (for above ground stations) are separated from the tracks by a ~1.8m high barrier. Will cost some, but SMRT can then decently apply for another price hike. I’ll gladly pay for that upgrade to prevent stupid people from falling onto the tracks, and stupider people from committing suicide.
I too agree that too much media play-ups are not the right way…simply encourages people to take the wrong paths…
However, I do think that the media should be fair about what it reports. If there was an MRT accident/death, just report it. No need to fan up sympathy, but at least remind people that MRT accident/deaths still happens.