Shailesh Kapoor: Notes & Votes: When News Becomes Too Hot To Handle

By Shailesh Kapoor

Two big news events, separated by less than 24 hours, marked an exciting week. The Prime Minister’s address on Tuesday night, to announce the demonetisation of old, high-denomination currency notes caught the media off-guard. Not surprising, given that subsequent reports suggest that even Cabinet members, barring a couple, were not aware of the decision.

What followed was coverage on the go. Between making sense of what has happened, trying to give more information and getting a sense from the ground, Indian news channels and online sites had their task cut out. The sentiment nationwide was extremely positive and pro-Modi, with polls suggesting more than 80% believing it was a positive step.

Now, an average Indian, or even a well-informed one, such as a reader of this column, will know little about the technicalities of the move and the impact it could have on curbing black money circulation in India, in the short run and the long run. Public opinion was driven, hence, not by facts and analysis, but by a feeling of “Wow! How cool is that!”. That it could be done in a “surgical” (can we retire that word, please?) manner with no media leaks, a near impossible task in today’s day and age, made the move come across as a masterstroke.

Subsequent expert opinions have suggested that the move may be limiting in its impact, especially in the long run. Yet, there is not much to fault per se, as it does not have any major pitfalls, except a couple of days of inconvenience, which has not snowballed into anything significant as I write this on Friday morning.

But on Tuesday night, news media was not bothered about financial technicalities anyway. They wanted to play on the sentiment, and build a sense of euphoria. It was as if India had won something major, like a Cricket World Cup or something. The sentiment was infectious. Nowadays, you can use Whatsapp jokes to gauge that. Jokes are jokes, but if you read between the lines, the sentiment – positive (optimistic) or negative (cynical) – is apparent from their sub-text. In this case, it was clearly the former. A few politicians who criticised the move just came across as having a bad sense of timing.

This Tuesday night story stole the thunder from the US Presidential Elections, which had happened the previous day, and whose results were going to come out Wednesday morning India time. An average Indian could not care less about who becomes the US President, if they are worrying about having enough hundred rupee notes to survive the next three days, or about how and when they will exchange their high-denomination currency.

But a substantial section of India is not the “average Indian”. There has been considerable interest in India in the US elections this time, with Donald Trump ensuring that dull moments are far and few in between.

All opinion polls in the US, barring just one, projected that Hillary Clinton will be the next US President. The US media, centered in big cities where Clinton won handsomely, started their coverage assuming she will win. Around 8:30 AM IST, they were sensing they could be wrong. Within an hour of that, they knew it was going to be one Mr Trump, and not one Ms Clinton. After weeks of lead-up analysis on why Clinton will win, they found themselves analysing why Trump won. As seasoned journalist Shekhar Gupta tweeted: “Lessons for US journalists is the oldest one in our biz: Never let your voting preferences color your professional judgment.”

Journalism can be dizzy and exciting on days like these. As can be news consumption. Bring some more!