In Memory of the Three Times World Winner Ayrton Sena

Diego Congrains

New York, Jul 19, 2010

The world of Formula 1 was ready to begin an excited car race. The camera attention was on a particular conductor, the favorite to cross the finish line first, the great Ayrton Sena Da Silva, who crossed the line of death before the race finished. Sadly fans never forgot May 1, 1994, when Sena competed for the last time.

Sixteen years later. The fatalistic event remained in the pupils of my eyes, his car crashing against a concrete wall. The happiness to watch my favorite motorist winning is gone. Sundays Racing F1 afternoon never will be the same without the celebration of Ayrton at the champion’s podium.

In 1991, when I was a ten-year-old boy, I stayed up watching *la tele after a boring soccer game. The next show was Formula 1, which I had never felt interested before. After watching ten minutes I got drawn into the race. I was so excited that I felt I wanted to keep enjoying it to the end. After two hours of emotions the name of the winner was announced Ayrton Sena, a humble man from Sao Paulo, Brazil, who won his third Grand Prix. Since then, every time a competition was on I tuned to follow my idol.

For nearly three years I followed the competitions, every F1 events through newspapers and sport TV shows. Internet did not exist at that time. Pictures of my favorite pilot were pasted on my binder as an amulet to start another school season, and F1 stickers in my text book were the look for me back them.

On May 1, the last Sunday for my vacation from school, the anxiety for the *boom was over. The *runs of engines tuned up like lions in the jungle. I was alone watching it. Sena had a bad start in the last two previous competition. He swore to obtain the first place on the podium. In Imola Italy, in the independent State of San Marino, in a downbeat curve, his car slipped to the left to the barrier. The automobile was out of control, ending in two pieces. I could not believe what I saw.

The “good race” did not finish for Sena, who was a devoted man. Families, friends, colleagues and fanatics filled the street in his native Brazil to say good bye to the best F1 pilot of all time. Thousands of people felt his loss. In the local media the image of the car crashing played over and over. The world was in mourning.

A day before of Sena death another pilot loosed his life on the track Roland Ratzenberger, who inspire Sena to promote a conscious about safety in F1 events that protect pilots life. In Brazil and the rest of the world both death became a message for a campaign focussing in young people who love speed, to be aware of the speed is dangerous, two professional pilots are gone in an extremely care details supervision as F1 is.

Honestly I did not follow any car competition again. I did not blame the media in showing the tragic death of a pilot, but my favorite one was gone. After Sena’s death, other pilots, such as Michael Schumacher and Pablo Montoya, became popular. However, they could not achieve the talent of Sena.

In reference to the textbook Mass Communication: Living in a Media World, Ralph Hanson mentions, “We (people) all are part of media” That quote means we are the consumer and we are the protagonist of the news. Technology allows us to interact with a news writer through a commentary box. This method of communication was completely different back then in 1994. If the technology did exist then, however, an event such as Sena’s death could have immediately resulted in the response of different people. Even texting could have helped to spread the news faster.

After the accident, the cameras just kept recording the race. They could been more sympathetic at that moment with somebody’s tragedy. It was not until afterwards when the race was done and the commentators announced who the winner was that TV reporters prepared a synopsis about the emergency and extreme care to save the life of Sena.

An ethical issue appeared in a question that one of the commentator raised. The question was whether it was appropriate to have the audience guess how Sena’s condition was while the race was still on. The commentators wanted to wait for more medical reports before giving out more information. They avoided negative commentaries, such as saying it was a fatal accident. The commentators, however, wondering if they should have stopped narrative the race to give a moment of importance to the accident.

Hanson presents those ethnical issues in the textbook on pages 13-14 under the title “When Media Coverage Is a Life or Death Issue.” A journalist, Jon Krakauer, was assigned to climb Mount Everest. In this experience, as a climber, a tragedy happened. A snowstorm killed approximately ten people. After the event, Krakauer wrote his bestseller Into Thin Air, a personal account of the Mount Everest Disaster in which he wrote his horrific experience that made him face his death. He also wrote about how the people died and how he survived. The matter at hand was how news should respect the privacy of the victim’s family and the victim himself. If someone dies, what role does the media play in showing consideration for the dead?

What has more value as newsworthy: the San Marino Grand Prix, the accident of the car-racer, or the fact somebody has just died in front of the cameras? Those questions still remain in the ethics of a reporter and a news editor. Until they have the answer, the audience will watch more cruel media everyday.

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Credits to http://www.ddavid.com/formula1/sen.htm

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• tele Spanish short version for television.
• boom The sound produced by a gun to initiate a race.
• runs The noise made by a car engine.