Shipping Crises in the Media

The purpose of this study is to examine the general media’s portrayal of important maritime accidents which in the maritime media receive widespread publicity and are likely to have an impact on the shipping community’s social image. To this purpose, news framing theories were researched and used in a content analysis of print media articles on six important maritime accidents and incidents during the period 2008 to 2012. The study examines related articles published in the UK newspapers with the largest circulation to review how the general media portrayed important accidents and incidents within the shipping world and community and to analyze how the Media had reported the six events that were finally chosen. The content analysis focused on the crisis classification of the disaster, the importance and length of coverage and the attitude of the media towards the specific companies, as well as the shipping industry as a whole.