On March 8, 2014, the Malaysia Airlines international passenger flight 370, flying from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing, China, suddenly went off radar and has been missing ever since. Consequently, all 239 passengers and crew aboard have been presumed dead. Nearly two million square miles of ocean have been scoured in the search-and-rescue effort for the remnants of the plane or any survivors, but to no avail. The mystery of the disappearance of the flight has made its way into popular culture and has been dubbed “one of the greatest aviation mysteries of all time,” as it has yet to be solved after several years of searching. A variety of news articles and reports surrounding Malaysia Airlines flight 370 use various techniques and numerous rhetorical questions, as well as present many theories and conspiracies on the disappearance of the plane, creating and perpetuating the mystery of the accident. First off, by simply looking at some of the titles of the articles, we can see that the mystery of the missing flight is amplified by hooking the reader in, making them want to know the answers to questions that cannot yet be answered. The Week starts off one of its …show more content…
articles by titling it “MH370 conspiracy theories: The truth behind aviation's greatest mystery.” With the words “the truth behind aviation’s greatest mystery,” readers are led to believe that the truth of the accident has been revealed, and they are hooked into the article. In reality, the article presents no actual ‘truth,’ only theories as to what could have happened to the plane. This technique gets readers hooked onto the topic without giving any actual solution to the mystery, making them seek more information and answers, effectively perpetuating the mystery. In a similar way, an article from BBC News titled “Flight MH370: Could it have been suicide?” not only hooks readers in, but gives them a different viewpoint of the whole mystery by presenting a new theory. The question “could it have been suicide?” is not intended to be given a definitive answer, but is rather there to present the new theory. This intensifies the mystery by giving readers multiple indefinite solutions to a problem that most likely has a single, simple answer. Not only does these articles hook the reader into the mystery, but they also use rhetorical questions to bring up parts of the mystery that have yet to be solved, intensifying the mysteriousness of the accident. Lastly, in addition to hooking the reader into the mystery and using numerous rhetorical questions, these articles further develop the mystery of the flight by presenting theories as to where the plane might have gone and what caused it to crash.
In “MH370 conspiracy theories: The truth behind aviation's greatest mystery,” many conspiracy theories are presented as possible answers. The article proposes that perhaps the flight went down due to a “remote cyber hijacking,” maybe it was a “mystery passenger” that took over the plane, or possibly “the pilot wanted to create the world's greatest mystery.” These claims have no proven truth to them, so instead of making the mystery more clear they instead intensify the mysteriousness of the disappearance. Likewise, in a CNN news report covering the
disappearance, In conclusion, various news articles and reports covering the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight 370 use a three step process to both intensify and perpetuate the mystery of the accident. First, the articles use techniques in their titles to hook readers into the story and make the topic well-known. Secondly, they use rhetorical questions to bring up parts of the mystery that have yet to be solved, amplifying the mysteriousness of the accident. Lastly, the articles present theories as to what might have happened, developing the mystery even more. This process is what brought what was originally just a crashed plane to what is now a well-known mystery in popular culture. This mystery has eluded us for almost four years now, and the media will continue to expand on the topic until the plane is found. Until that unforeseen day, we cannot help but wonder: Will the flight be found, or will it go down in history as a mystery forever unsolved?
Conspiracy theories are entertaining for many to speculate and demand a great deal of thought to constitute. A conspiracy theory is defined as the idea that many important political, economic, and social trends are the products of secret plots that are largely unknown to the general public (“The Definition of Conspiracy Theory”). Many conspiracy theories are thought up around children’s shows, which offers a feeling of nostalgia and pleasure. A few children’s show conspiracies that need a deeper light shone on them are from Max & Ruby (2002-2013), Winnie the Pooh (1977), Rugrats (1990-2004), and All Grown Up (2003-2008).
Conspiracy theories accuse others of a cover up by secret planning. They may be based on a hunch or even backed by evidence. To the curious mind, they bring about unanswered questions that have attracted the attention of many people throughout history. Among some of the more popular theories are the assassination of President John F. Kennedy; the death of Princess Diana; alien encounters in Roswell, New Mexico; and the idea that Elvis may still be alive. Perhaps the most intriguing theory, because of our neighboring location, is the underground bunker and seemingly strange characteristics at the Denver airport.
One day, in the early 60s the US Government discovered that the Soviet Union had a nuclear missile on the island of Cuba. So, the US government asked the Soviets to get rid of them. It was a bold thing to do because anything could have happened. Things between the US and the Soviets were already tense because of the cold war. For fourteen days, tension grew between the nations. Not knowing if this missile aimed and ready to fire at the US. Kennedy decided to give this speech the “Cuban Missile Crisis Address”. The address was used was to announce there will be a naval blockade on Cuba until the crisis is solved. This address was very effective because Kennedy did not say he was going to start
so. Many people believe other theories which is fine but there is no doubt that this is a conspiracy
The day was September 11th, 2001, a moment in history that will never be forgotten by any American living at the time. It was in the early morning hours on this day that our nation experienced the single most devastating terrorist attack ever carried out on American soil. Images of planes crashing into the World Trade Center, news coverage of buildings on fire, and images of building rubble will forever be imprinted into the history of this great nation. However, it was on one of the darkest days for America that one of the most impassioned speeches ever given by a United States president was spoken. President George W. Bush’s speech addressing the nation after the “9/11” attacks was infused with pathos through his imagery of destruction and
The disappearance of Flight 19 has been the longest standing mystery in aviation due to the fact that no sign
When it comes to conspiracy theories there is a wide variety of them, but few people try to explain their appeal as thoroughly as the author Maggie Koerth-Baker through her article “Why Rational People Buy into Conspiracy Theories.” The author’s paper starts by talking about the incident at the Boston Marathon and how, even though one of the brothers had been arrested, there were still theories being created in order to explain the possible events and motives behind the attack. It is explained that the best way to determine someone’s belief in a theory is if they believe in other theories due to the fact that a conspiracy theory isn’t so much a response to a single event as it is an expression of an overarching worldview (Koerth-Baker 343).
Conspiracy is a business that many people thrive on daily for their career. The number of theories associated with the John F. Kennedy assassination should show people that conspirators do not know the truth themselves. If there was one conspiracy that was proven a fact, there would be no need to continue making up others. The conspiracy theories of the assassination of John F. Kennedy do not show enough evidence to be considered fact.
Such as, did inside traders know about attacks before the event even occurred, Why did the world's most powerful air force fail to intercept any of the four hijacked planes, Why did the Twin Towers collapse so quickly and a good question is why was the crash site at Shanksville, Pennsylvania so small and why was the aircraft debris not visible. Many of these conspiracies got most of the world thinking about the tragic event that occurred on september 11, 2001 and if it was an event that was made up by the government to set up the terrorist and their
Conspiracy theorists, calling themselves Truthers, have provided evidence to support their claims numerous times in attempts to convince the general population. Truthers start by pointing out the FBI Crime They demand the government to explain what really happened and that justice be fairly served. They have not had an open playing field, however, they received opposition at every move they make with explanations, counterarguments, and information from the government, police forces, first responders, and the residents of Newtown.
In researching this and many other conspiracy theories, one can see many uses of sensationalism, mainly by the media. This media- the news (local and national), magazines, tabloids, television shows, movies, and so on- has a huge e...
Finally, in 1997, the US military admitted to lying about the object being a weather balloon. Instead they claim that the wreckage was part of a “top-secret experiment”(Mitton 11) involving some sort of balloon. Steve MacKenzie’s response, “if the object he tracked had been a weather balloon, secret or not, his superiors would have ordered him to ignore it.”(Dudley 35)
It was the afternoon of July 25, 2000. One hundred passengers, most of them German, boarded the Concorde Air France Flight 4590. This was a trip of a lifetime for many people, as Concorde was restricted to the wealthy class of people. The excitement in people was cut short by the unfortunate delay in flight, because of maintenance in one of its engines. The passengers boarded the plane a couple of hours after the scheduled time. Finally, it was cleared for taxi on runway 26-Right. The pilots lined the aircraft parallel to the runway. A tragic accident, however, was about to befall.
Since the beginning of settled civilizations, people have had more mutual sharings than ever before. By the same token, there have been some conspiracy theories that are usually against the culturally accepted beliefs of religions, science and society. A conspiracy theory can be described so differently. However, as in his text, Marshall Brain explicates, a conspiracy is generally defined as a theory seeking to explain a disputed case or matter as a plot by a secret group or alliance rather than an individual or isolated act (Brain). Especially, after the new media has become quite popular, more and more conspiracies are theorized every single day, which aim to catch society’s attention via such media tools as the internet, journals and newspapers. Thus, people who theorize those conspiracies tend to use such objects as spiritual and mysterious ones in order to interest people. To illustrate, many examples can be given. For instance, many people have claimed that they were abducted by aliens, although they could show no evidences. Here, a citation from Blackmore could facilitate to understand the circumstance better. She states that people occasionally claim that they have been abducted from public places by aliens, in this case that may provide them with witnesses and affirmations but no evidence could be shown so far (Blackmore). As it is well known, only a small number of people believe such alien abductions, however, rating of this kind of news is quite high on media, because humankind has been wondering if there are extraterrestrial creatures out of the earth. Another example can be conspiracy theories which are about the origins of religions such as the rejection of Jesus Christ. There are some people who pay attention to...
Such as, the lost city of Atlantis was supposedly an extremely advanced civilization that mysteriously disappeared thousands of years ago. Some speculate that the unknown location of the mythical ancient city is actually in the center of what is now known as the Bermuda Triangle. Atlantis was far more advanced than our society even is today, so the claim is that when the city sank into the ocean the technology sank with it and is now resting on the ocean floor buried under layers and layers of sand. The technology is what is causing all the mysterious disappearances, likely by disrupting instruments such as compasses and radios leaving ships and planes unsure of where they are and without a way to contact help. Atlantis is definitely one of the most unrealistic of all the possible theories; after all, there is a reason that people continue to explore other explanations for the Bermuda Triangle, and that reason is that Atlantis is probably not, nor has it ever been, real. Alien abductions is an equally illogical theory. It has been long believed that Aliens possess far more advanced technology than our own. Allowing them to swoop in undetected and abduct whole crews from ships. This is a probable explanation for ghost ships, ships that drift aimlessly with no crew on board. Aliens have had a fascination with humans for a very long time and the Bermuda Triangle is, supposedly, their favorite location for abductions do to it's higher than average navigation. Planes and ships have also been known to vanish without a trace, this could mean that the aliens decided to take the entire ship or they simply used their advanced technology and teleported it somewhere else. Either way aliens seem to some the obvious answer, to these basement dwelling bloggers anyway. Others, however, prefer to look at the more scientific side of things. For example, let’s assume aliens are real and for some reason have an