By Shailesh Kapoor
It’s been another busy week for the news industry. The demise of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa earlier in the week was news big enough to dwarf everything else that was happening around us, including the hot topic for November – demonetisation.
The Chief Minister has been maintaining ill-health for a while now, but it all began late night on Sunday, when she apparently suffered a cardiac arrest at the Apollo Hospital, where she was being treated. She passed away Monday late night.
In that relatively short period of less than 24 hours, we saw frenzied news activity. That included an evening rumour that she was no more. Some Tamil news channels flashed the news, and sections of the media picked it up. This included Jaya TV, a network owned by the Chief Minister herself! It required a hurried press release from the hospital to set the record straight.
That drama was only a precursor to what was to follow. By 10pm, it seemed apparent that the official announcement of the Chief Minister’s demise is not far away. The story was given a distinctive thriller feel. ‘What will happen now’ was the operating question.
When the AIIMS doctors team left the venue and vehicle movement between the hospital and the Chief Minister’s residence started, a young India Today (channel) journalist, reporting from outside the hospital, said: “It seems something much bigger, much better is going to be announced soon.â€
Now that may have been just a slip of tongue. Most field journalists have poor English (wrong choice of words is not uncommon in routine stories). But there’s a meaning to the “bigger and better†here. It meant bigger news, better news.
Channels, especially their field staff in Chennai, had been reporting on the events of the day for almost 20 hours without a break. They were starting to suffer from news fatigue. The viewer may have only tuned in an hour ago, but for the channels, what happened earlier in the day was already stale news. Their patience was being tested. They wanted to move on. Report the inevitable death, secretly hoping it gets announced in the prime time and not late night.
But there was no waiting beyond a point anyway. Obituaries had started during the day itself. Jayalalithaa was being referred to in the past tense. The succession plan of AIADMK was being discussed. Life had moved on, even as death waited.
The next morning, though, was even more striking. By 7am, channels were in official “obituary†mode. Except that the meaning of the word has changed significantly, one realised. The new definition may as well be: “Hurriedly-put together footage with Wikipedia information to go with itâ€.
The mood of the morning was not somber, by any stretch of imagination. In the age of T20 news, there is no time to take an introspective position on a story today, it seems. The obituary is dead. It’s made way for news drama. Long live the obituary.
One wondered if the lack of poise and grace in the coverage was a function of the person in question. The more one thought of it, one concluded that even if the most revered politician passed away today, the discourse will be very similar in tone and tenor. A combination of the news paradigm of the day and lack of respect for the political class as a whole will ensure this.
At the end of it all, if you wanted to know more about Jayalalithaa, you had a destination that would beat all news channels hollow. It’s called the internet.