Sensationalism in the media: A challenge for the travel security risk management sector

An article appeared in Reuters Alertnet earlier today that highlights the essential problem with trusting the world media to report on a consistent basis. The news story covered a suicide bombing that left one dead and six injured in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad. Although the incident is significant to those affected it did not reflect something new or newsworthy in relation to past levels of story on these types of security incidents in the media. There have been numerous and more signficant attacks than these in the recent past that have not received similar coverage (just do a quick search for Iraq factbox on the same alertnet site). We can but conclude that it is a slow news day and that stories on Blair being pelted by eggs had finally become boring to the press core. The challenge for the travel security risk management sector is therefore to explain these incidents within the larger context to its client base and not succumb to the sensationalism of the world media.