"A perfect recipe for rumor and conspiracy theories." (@MH370, Creative Commons)

However about 40 minutes into the flight the plane unexpectedly diverted it's course, making a sharp turn west toward the Strait of Malacca and then another turn south into the airspace over the vast Indian Ocean. It is there that the plane is presumed to have crashed into the water, killing the 12 crew members and 227 passengers. The plane was officially declared missing several hours later and has remained that way for more than a month.

SEE ALSO: Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 Lost In Southern Ocean

These are some of the only concrete facts we know about the missing plane. But that hasn't stopped many news outlets from reporting on anything they could get their hands on, and more. They reported on any possible scenarios that might make sense of the mystery, including terrorist hijacking, the mental instability of the pilots and possible plane malfunctions.

Craig Silverman, a professor at the Poynter Institute of Media Studies, details the situation perfectly: “The insatiable desire for information is partly because the situation is so mysterious. Couple that with the fact that the flow of new, credible details comes in the form of a drip rather than a fire hose. Now mix it all together with fears of terrorism and airplane crashes and you have a perfect recipe for rumor and conspiracy theories.”

While the public is understandably hungry for information in the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines Flight 370, many news outlets have released stories surrounding the incident that are speculative, irrelevant or promoting a false hope. This lack of sound news judgment contributes to a growing lack of public trust in the media and is negatively impacting the integrity of journalism today.

This is compounded by the rise of citizen journalists, who publish articles and reports on personal blogs or social media platforms. These writers often lack professional journalism education and may not be a part of a verified news source. The lack of publishing barriers has led to more news reporting than ever before, however not all of it is accurate or accountable. According to USC professor of journalism Erna Smith:

“There is a lot more pressure today to post something every second whether you have the information or not. You have to update the page constantly in order to draw more traffic to your site. I think that this is having a bad effect because journalists today are just putting up anything, even if they have nothing. They aren’t fact checking as much as they used to because they don't have the patience."

SEE ALSO: USC Grad Student On Board Malaysian Airlines Flight 370

Much of the news coverage on MH370 exemplifies Smith’s point: the media is trying to fill in the gaps in what happened because of the public expectation for information, even when none may exist.

Take, for example, the initial reports on MH370. Numerous sources first pointed their fingers at two Iranian men who boarded the plane on stolen passports. The reports about them were largely accusatory and quickly gave way to the conclusion that they were terrorists who had orchestrated an attack on the plane.

It was later revealed, however, that although travelling on stolen passports, the two men had no terrorist links and were fleeing from Iran on their way to seek asylum in Europe. Since this discovery, media outlets that reported on this theory have altered their stories or retracted their initial statements.

Unconfirmed reports were also published about the possible mental instability of Capt. Zaharie Ahmed Shah, suggesting that the flight was his suicide mission. Both the Daily Mail and the Mirror, two British outlets, claimed that Capt. Shah was “lost and disturbed,” and that he was on the brink of divorcing his wife of 30 years, shunning his loved ones and spending hours alone on his flight simulator - facts supposedly revealed in remarks by Shah's daughter.

These reports were later disproved when Aishah Zaharie herself took to Facebook, saying “Dear Daily Mail, you should consider making movies since you are so good at making up stories and scripts out of thin air.” Shah’s son also posted angrily online that the reports were “utter rubbish” and that he was disgusted with the reporting.

Many of these articles are based on speculation but several are also based on conspiracies. Several of the more ridiculous reports detail that the plane was hijacked and is being hidden in the mountains of Pakistan for ransom by al-Qaeda, that the plane fell into some sort of black hole or Bermuda triangle-like area or even that the plane crash-landed on a remote island in the Indian Ocean.

While some of these reports may be more probable than others, the underlying issue is that they have been reported without solidified facts. For the informed citizen, these articles come across as outrageous and a complete abuse of publishing power. But such slipshod reporting also the potential to negatively influence people’s lives, both through the defamation of individuals and the manipulation of public opinion.

For example, several stories published about the two Iranian men went as far as blaming Iran for hijacking the aircraft.

The Times of Israel quoted Isaac Yeffet, the former security chief of El Al Airlines saying that, “My guess is based upon the stolen passports, I believe Iran was involved. They hijacked the aircraft and they landed it in a place that nobody can see or find it.” Such unfounded and careless speculation casts these men, Iran and the Middle East in general in a negative light.

But why would the media want to report on speculation? The answer is obvious: to be the first ones to break the story and to generate the most viewership from it.

“I would say that they (media) have no choice. Take CNN for example, the ratings of the series reporting on MH370 are almost 3 times higher than any other news they are reporting,” says Leo Wu, an editor at the U.S.-China Today Magazine.

SEE ALSO: CNN And The Commercialization Of Tragedy

The MH370 disappearance remains an unsolved mystery with too many variables and too few known facts. All outlets haver to go on are speculation and information from unverified sources. To report the unbiased truth based on verified and accountable sources, or to report on speculation knowing that it will gain fast publicity and fame? This is a question that surely many journalists faced in covering the MH370 story thus far.

For journalists and social media aficionados alike, the main point that needs to be reiterated is accountability. The need for accountability also extends to the public and their responsibility to deem what is and what is not credible. There is no class to teach this idea and it really comes down to if the public can distinguish between the quality reporting of a trusted newspaper or a news station, versus that of tabloids or stories made up for fun.

The MH370 case remains unsolved and it may stay this way for years to come. Air France Flight 447 was the last plane to go missing and it took nearly two years to determine where and why it crashed. In the mystery surrounding MH370, the public is understandably eager to learn more about the reason the plane is missing and the causes behind it, but this cannot come in the form of speculated news. It only contributes to a growing public lack of trust in the media and threatens the integrity of journalism.

Reach Contributor Joseph Krassenstein here.