It has now been four days since Alton Towers reopened following the dreadful incident on The Smiler, yet the frenzy surrounding the park is seemingly not going away with most major UK media outlets still reporting on stories relating to it.
As regular visitors to theme parks will know, downtime on rides is an unfortunate but regular occurrence. Usually the cause of the downtime is fairly trivial, and within 5 or 10 minutes the ride is back on its way again. Sometimes larger problems occur leaving rides closed for hours or even days whilst things are fixed and checked. The important thing to remember about all downtime though is that safety is at the heart of it. The rides don’t stop or close because they are dangerous; they close because they are safe.
Unfortunately the hype surrounding Alton Towers at the moment has caused minor incidents of downtime within the park to become major news stories which are generating hundreds of likes and shares on Facebook and Twitter, when they would normally be something not deemed anywhere near worthy of reporting on. We’ve taken a look at the headlines to see what the press in Britain are making of the park today:
This afternoon The Mirror lead with “Alton Towers accident: Two more rides shut after ‘large metal clip’ found lying on ground” whilst ITV News have also followed this story with “Two more rides shut at Alton Towers after Smiler crash.” In reality, these articles don’t actually have much substance to them (presumably because said incidents of downtime were extremely minor) and by taking a look at RideTimes.co.uk during the day, it is clear that both Air and Runaway Mine Train have been operational today (we won’t even touch on the ITV suggestion that Merlin is capable of mass telephone number detection and identification…. maybe they are subcontracting for GCHQ).
The other large story in the media today is surrounding a routine evacuation of the new Octonauts Rollercoaster Adventure in CBeebies Land. The ride appears to have briefly stopped yesterday which caused distress to a rider. Because of this a ride evacuation took place in order to calm down the guest and safely get visitors off the ride. What would again been a minor incident and inconvenience to guests has become something much more sinister in the eyes of the media. The Guardian lead with “Alton Towers ride evacuated because technical delay panicked customer,” The Daily Mail headlined “Panic at Alton Towers as rollercoaster carrying young children is evacuated – a week after Smiler ride crash” whilst The Mirror proclaimed there was “Panic at Alton Towers after ride is evacuated one week after Smiler accident.” The ride remains closed today whilst checks are carried out.
IMAGE: Loaded question featured in The Mirror article on Octonauts downtime.
What is particular interesting about the articles is that the content of them very rarely matches the tone and severity of the headlines. This causes them to be shared and discussed vociferously on social media without a true understanding of what a routine and ordinary situation the rides were probably in. The issue is compounded further with leading questions posed within the articles themselves. The Mirror’s article about the Octonauts ride contained a promotional video for CBeebies Land but was displayed as an image asking “Is Alton Towers Octonauts Ride Safe?”
Moving away from rides themselves, the coverage of The Smiler crash has also found its way into the news. The Guardian have reported that the Sky News interview between newsreader Kay Burley and Merlin Entertainments CEO Nick Varney has now received over 1,100 complaints – more than were received for the recent Britain’s Got Talent TV final. Complaints stemmed from the interviewing style of Burley, who probed Varney to disclose the current state of the victims’ health – an issue which the CEO decided to avoid answering, rightly citing their privacy.
Is the way in which the media have been reporting the Alton Towers incident affecting your opinions of the park or of the UK industry in general? Why not let us know in the comments below or join in the discussions on our forums. Also, for the latest impartial news on Alton Towers don’t forget to follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
