Are airplane crashes becoming more common or just better reported in the news?

It's the latter. Whenever a plane crash happens, news outlets become super focused on reporting aviation incidents. In reality, commercial aviation incidents are extremely rare. Even when we have high profile ones, like the DCA collision or the Air India crash, these are by far the exception, not the rule. Thousands of flights take off and land every single day without incident, commercial aviation crashes are usually in the single digits *per year*. On the other hand, general aviation crashes, like the private jet crashes you keep seeing in the news lately, are more common, but still relatively rare. It's often said that you're more likely to die on the way to the airport than in a crash, and that is true regardless of if it's commercial or general aviation.