Media Coverage of Titanic Submersible Tragedy Criticized as Migrant Shipwreck Overshadowed: ‘Ridiculously Wealthy More Valued?’

Many social media users are critical of mainstream news’ more substantial reporting on one tragedy over the other

Shipwreck survivors are transferred to a refugee camp near Athens on June 16, 2023 in Kalamata, Greece (Credit: Byron Smith/Getty Images)

As news came in this week of the missing OceanGate submersive — a tragedy that led to its five passengers’ presumed death Thursday, per an official statement from the Coast Guard — many online became critical of mainstream media’s emphasis on the tourist attraction’s fatalities in comparison to another tragedy at sea that unfolded just days before: the migrant shipwreck in the Mediterranean that led to hundreds of lives lost.

Many took to social media and accused the 24/7 news cycle of catering more airtime to the Titanic submersible than they were to the hundreds of shipwrecked Egyptian, Pakistani, Syrian and Palestinian migrants off the coast of Greece while en route to Italy. Only 104 passengers survived the June 14 wreckage and over 500 remain missing.

“The role PR and journalism are playing in multiple countries deciding to come together to save billionaires on #OceanGate, while hundreds of migrants drowned, is sickening,” one Twitter user wrote on Thursday, just hours before the U.S. Coast Guard announced it believed the vessel’s passengers died following an implosion and confirmed sub debris.

Reports of the migrant shipwreck began June 15, and the submersive was declared missing on June 18. While both events mark historic tragedies, many online raised concern that they were not given comparable news coverage in the following days. The debate picked up speed and was trending on Wednesday and Thursday.

“Although I am also guilty of paying close attention to the #OceanGate tragedy, I think it’s important to recognize the bias in our media,” said one Twitter user. Another pointed out the apparent imbalance of resources given to the group of men on the submersive compared to the hundreds of migrants.

“Why did this Titanic OceanGate receive this much media coverage and global aid? Are the lives of the ridiculously wealthy more valued?,” they questioned.

The victims on the OceanGate submarine included British businessman Hamish Harding; Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his teenage son, Suleman; French explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet; and Stockton Rush, CEO of OceanGate.

Read on to see more of the online debate, where Twitter users are taking today’s media to task.

I don’t see anything funny about the Titanic sub story. OceanGate/the passengers’ negligence, or migrant ship disasters not getting as much media coverage are not reasons to joke about people slowly losing their lives in excruciating pain.

— Manzi (@reflexafrika) June 22, 2023

Are the media giving more importance to the Oceangate story than migrants capsizing? Or is it the general public that does and the media only reflect this? Chicken and egg?

— Aurélien Ammeloot (@aammeloot) June 22, 2023

4 to 1: That’s about the ratio at which digital and print media stories on the five tourists trapped in the OceanGate submersible have been covered compared to those about the hundreds of migrants who drowned in the Mediterranean. 4 to 1. This does not even include TV or radio. pic.twitter.com/9maR7FbTyw

— Jeff Migliozzi (@jmigs95) June 22, 2023

There should be a movie that parallels the sinking of the migrants boat and the #OceanGate, happening almost simultaneously. The difference in rescue efforts, of media coverage, of social media attention. I think it would make the world realize how unfair this all is. pic.twitter.com/cXxboBu137

— Cocovan (@iamCocovan) June 21, 2023

The media attention of more than 300 people dying from a capsized migrant boat in Greece pales in comparison to 5 missing rich people on a submarine. Such is life. But both unfortunate events. #OceanGate

— Asiwaju (@LambriniPapi) June 20, 2023

heres my oceangate take: it is truly a horrific way to die and i absolutely feel for the families of these people, but i think its important to realize just how much media coverage/rescue efforts are being put out to find 5 billionaires when so many migrants die at sea everyday

— erin (@tea__enjoyer) June 22, 2023