Thread: Is the Press Positive or Negative About Cruising?

Generally the media has done it's best to find anything and everything negative to push to the public. Occassionally a reporter will try to be fair but like most have already said, tragedy and bad news sells.

Since the question was "Is the press positive or negative about cruising", I took it to be about cruising in general. When a new ship comes out, normally the coverage is very positive. When any sort of bad thing happens on a cruise, it's always quite negative.

It was interesting to be on a cruise when the Costa Concordia incident happened. We were sometimes in a lounge with CNN International was on and where some cruise staff (purser office, shore excursions, gift shops, etc.) & Jr. Officers would stop by during their breaks. When the first news of the Concordia Captain leaving the ship, several said that it had to be a rumor because "a Captain would never abandon his ship".

Passengers were sad about this ... but it really seemed to bother the cruise staff more. They were concerned that some did not go to their assigned (or alternate) stations in the event or an emergency to help passengers, crew, and staff to evacuate without mass chaos AND really discusted the Captain left his ship.

Yes, the poll is about the press coverage of cruising in general.

I do agree with what you say about when something is good they cover it as well. But my opinion is that when it's good, it's gets a 30 second spot on the news or write a small paragraph in the back pages of the paper. But when it's bad, they'll spend several minutes talking about it on the news over several days or dedicate several front pages about it. They just don't want to promote the good things when they happen as it doesn't sell papers, so they overdo it when it comes to negative things because that's what everybody wants to read.

Of course, that last statement can be said about the press in general - not just about their coverage concerning cruising.

I think that the press (non-cruise focused press) loves a sensational story, and negative things about the cruise lines are way more interesting than positive ones. There have been some truly negative things to report about this recent disaster, but I wish there was a louder voice talking about how safe cruising really is.

I found the 20/20 show to be particularly upsetting to me. After advertising the show as information on the Concordia mishap they only spent about 10 minutes on the subject. The rest of the hour was rehashing old negative stories about cruising. And they did even mentioned the Spam.

Originally Posted by Cruise Princess

20/20 was negative the other night.

I turned on 20/20 near the end of the part about the Concordia (I'm guessing) after seeing a post on Facebook and thinking, oh, right that's on now, I should see that. Then I saw the next segment which was totally anti-cruising and without any balance. So I turned back to the E! Channel to continue watching the Fashion Police (that's the show with Joan Rivers and a panel discussing celebrities and what they're wearing to special events). I truly believe the FP show trumped the 20/20's sad excuse for a show. I agree that the promos for the show had been misleading.

As someone else who has a degree in journalism (but went into advertising instead after getting my masters), it drives me crazy to see bias reporting. That's especially a problem here in the LA market as there's quite a bit of sensational to get ratings. "If it bleeds, it leads" kind of attitude, thus the heavy duty reporting of any norovirus that is known onboard (of course, most of the time, it's not noted that passengers probably caught it on a flight and brought it onboard).

At Missouri, we had many classes and seminars about ethics and legal issues, as well as hands on experience in reporting stories (and getting critiqued). There was a midwestern bent certainly.

Originally Posted by LuLu

Since the question was "Is the press positive or negative about cruising", I took it to be about cruising in general. When a new ship comes out, normally the coverage is very positive. When any sort of bad thing happens on a cruise, it's always quite negative.

It was interesting to be on a cruise when the Costa Concordia incident happened. We were sometimes in a lounge with CNN International was on and where some cruise staff (purser office, shore excursions, gift shops, etc.) & Jr. Officers would stop by during their breaks. When the first news of the Concordia Captain leaving the ship, several said that it had to be a rumor because "a Captain would never abandon his ship".

Passengers were sad about this ... but it really seemed to bother the cruise staff more. They were concerned that some did not go to their assigned (or alternate) stations in the event or an emergency to help passengers, crew, and staff to evacuate without mass chaos AND really discusted the Captain left his ship.

It's always interesting to me hearing about travelers finding out about important news stories while on a cruise or visiting another land. I imagine many in the cruising industry were probably anger about what the captain did because of the possible harm to the industry. So this is interesting to know.

Originally Posted by LuLu

Since the question was "Is the press positive or negative about cruising", I took it to be about cruising in general. When a new ship comes out, normally the coverage is very positive. When any sort of bad thing happens on a cruise, it's always quite negative.

It was interesting to be on a cruise when the Costa Concordia incident happened. We were sometimes in a lounge with CNN International was on and where some cruise staff (purser office, shore excursions, gift shops, etc.) & Jr. Officers would stop by during their breaks. When the first news of the Concordia Captain leaving the ship, several said that it had to be a rumor because "a Captain would never abandon his ship".

Passengers were sad about this ... but it really seemed to bother the cruise staff more. They were concerned that some did not go to their assigned (or alternate) stations in the event or an emergency to help passengers, crew, and staff to evacuate without mass chaos AND really discusted the Captain left his ship.

To the crew, the captain is a father figure. To not have him do what is right is a betrayal at the basest level. I can see why so many of them refused to believe it and why they were so angry when they found out what actually happened.

I voted for negative because we keep reading about bad events: severe norovirus outbreaks caused by food poisoning, a limping ship that lost power, a movie being made about the Titanic, etc. I also read about a passenger being killed during a land tour on a Caribbean island. The closest thing to good news was a birth on the Paradise, and even that gives Carnival a black eye because, lacking an obstetrician onboard, it has a policy restricting certain pregnant women. Once my dad read people gain a pound a day on cruises, which also is bad because it ignores the fact there is an exercise facility on most ships. Are there any good stories on cruising? In other words, I had this opinion long before the Costa Concordia tragedy, which only made cruise reporting worse.

About the Concordia specifically: I hated reading the story about honeymooners. "I thought I was going to die!" instead of "I am so thankful I am alive!" makes a big difference to readers. The facts that they were honeymooners and one had to rescue the other in the water did not need to be reported. The only relevant info was they were not two of the 14 people who died.

Generally Negative.
Usually written by someone that has never even been on a cruise and has no idea what it is like.

Most cruise coverage is done by reporters that have not even been on a cruise. They have no first hand knowledge and will probably never go on a cruise. Some of the coverage even by press in Florida is so anti-cruise it hurts Florida's economy. It is the third or fourth largest portion of the local economy depending on who you read. They are just looking for sensational headlines.