Northern Beaches WebMan

Well since my blog several days ago regarding the shark attack at Avalon Beach in Northern Beaches Sydney, WebMan has taken the time to examine how the media has reported the story in Australia and overseas media.

However, firstly I should mentioned this…

Andrew Lindop survived

The survivor, Andrew Lindop has had surgery on his leg and making a great recovery. Andrew is apparently eager to get back into the water to go surfing… why?

• Because he wants to get eaten by another shark?
• Because he wants to show how brave he is amongst all the teenage girls?
• Because he wants to get surf stoked?

Well, perhaps he knows about the reality of shark attacks and how rare indeed they are in populated beaches in Sydney. If anyone is in the front line of shark attacks it has to be surfers. Due to numbers and conditions that surfers enjoy, they are the main ones that put themselves in front of these majestic kings of the ocean. Andrew like many other surfing shark victims must know just how unlucky he was on the day he got attacked.

Bethany Hamilton

My memory is cast back to a young Hawaiian surfer called Bethany Hamilton who was attacked by a shark back on October 31, 2003. The shark bit off her arm… but was she going to give up surfing? … ‘no way dude!’ In fact she has competed in various professional surfing competions all over the world. Go Beth, way to go girl. Check out the vid.

The Avalon Shark and the Media

Helicopter circling Avalon Beach on the day of the Shark Attack

Whenever there is a shark attack, especially in Australia the media goes wild…  “what a big story” big $$$$$. The media typically emphasise the hysteria of the situation, the blood, the vicious nature of the beasts. The media typically leave out facts, figures, surf conditions and the real nature of sharks. They very rarely mention that the shark ‘made a mistake’. What residence of Avalon and near by beach suburbs have witnessed is constant media attention, helicopters and journalists exploiting the situation. So how did they report it?

The Nine news

Avalon Shark Attack and the Nine News Media

What pictures did they display? Lots of hospital shots of Andrew in a stretcher.  Interviews with frightend kids after the event. Did they interview middle age surfers with many years of surfing experience in the area? No they didn’t.

The Daily Telegraph

Avalon Shark Attack and the Daily Telegraph

Headline and story… “Trouble in Paradise” geez…  Very little factual details about the shark attacks. But they certainly tried to make the most of Avalon Shark attack by ‘trying’ to relate to a story to a neighbouring suburb of Palm Beach. huh? what the? $$$$ for media.

FairFax Digital

Avalon Shark Attack and FairFax Media

To their credit, their stories were not as sensationalised as the others, instead they wrote various stories and make sure it was kept in the top section of their website. Fairfax Online is the most popular in Australia, no doubt their various stories are etched into many readers minds.

Express.de

Avalon Shark Attack and the German Media

This is a popular online website in Germany. They decided to put a picture of a shark being fed from a boat, jaws wide open so people can see the sharp gnarly teeth of the Shark! The picture is probably a picture from shark feeding in South Africa. Isn’t it amazing what digital media organisation will do in order to ‘entertain’ their readers. So this is the image that German’s have of Australia and our beaches? Cool, great, fantastic… just what we need to boost tourism in our desperate economic climate. What is most interesting is that there is paid advertising next to it from guess who? Can you see it? ‘QANTAS’ – Australia’s national airline company. I bet Qantas have waisted their money here, what German person wants to buy a plane ticket now to Australia, only to get eaten by a massive shark with massive sharp teeth?

Media Shark Stories are damaging Australian Tourism

WebMan has spent many years in Europe, experiencing their chilling winters. WebMan knows that European tourst love Australia and our beautiful warm beach culture. But with all this media hype? Ask yourself, what sort of image of Australia is being painted for overseas tourists? 

Bondi Chamber of Commerce vice-president Max Siano believes the recent shark attacks will hurt tourism. Sure will Max, especially if the media keep sensationalising shark attacks.

If the ’sharks were such a problem’ in Sydney, why were people surfing Avalon Beach today?

However, sharks attacks do create problems, they injure people but rarely kill people. They are not the most important stories that the media can report on. Perhaps they should focus their attention on other more important world issues such as: Affiganistan/Pakistan, genocide in mid north Africa and Cholera in Zimbawe.

WebMan.