Rishabh Pant, Lata Mangeshkar and the wink frenzy

On 30 December, India’s star wicketkeeper and batsman Rishabh Pant had a narrow escape in a car accident. Visuals of an injured Pant started being shared on social media after the early morning accident. Even a picture of his X-ray had gone viral. Soon, pictures of the injured Pant were being broadcast by TV channels as well.

India’s most famous playback singer Lata Mangeshkar passed away in early February last year. Before his death, videos and pictures of his struggle at the hospital had gone viral.

Of course, we humans have always been kind of onlookers, but before we used to sit and talk about other people’s lives. Now just gossip is not enough. We also need pictures and video clips to satisfy our need to know.

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Therefore, the examples of Pant and Mangeshkar raise several important points.

Firstly, Pant and Mangeshkar were apparently in no position to decide whether they wanted their photographs and video clips to be placed there. Consent was completely taken out of the equation.

Second, the photographs and video clips first went viral on different social media, leading to pressure on the mainstream media (websites, TV channels and newspapers). Something similar was seen when veteran actress Shabana Azmi met with a car accident in January 2020. There is nothing wrong with publishing a picture of the condition of a vehicle in the event of an accident, but there is nothing wrong with publishing a picture of an injured celebrity. There is no tribulation.

Third, this trend of publishing videos and clips of celebrities in distress is part of a wider phenomenon of a population with millions of smartphones with cameras trying to document everything around them. Annie Arnoux summarizes this situation in her book year: “What mattered most was taking photographs, capturing and replicating existence, recorded as we were living it – the cherry trees in bloom … minutes after birth, places, events, Full preservation of scenes, objects, life. With digital technology, we have drained reality.”

It’s almost as if instead of experiencing the experience, we want to continuously record it and show the world that we were recording by posting pictures and video clips. Cheap internet, cheap smartphones and free social media, where one doesn’t have to pay to publish, have fueled this phenomenon.

A good recent example is Virat Kohli hitting Pakistani bowler Haris Rauf for two consecutive sixes in a T20 Cricket World Cup match. There were many people in the stadium who instead of watching Kohli hitting sixes in front of their eyes were busy recording it on their mobile phones. Also, it is worth remembering that the match was broadcast live. Therefore, anyone’s mobile phone recording could not possibly be any better than the recording that was broadcast and available to posterity.

On a more general note, many middle-class weddings have now turned into social media events, even creating a hashtag named after the couple getting married.

Fourth, this trend has also put an end to the tyranny of the editor. Until about a decade and a half ago, any content, to be able to be published, had to go through a gatekeeper (editor) who decided whether the proposed content was good enough to be published. Also, considerations such as consent, ethics of the situation involved, etc. were also taken into account (not always, but at least more often than not). Now it’s practically free for everyone.

Fifth, with the tyranny of the editor gone and the business model of the media in crisis, the content already available on social media provides mainstream media with free content. Of course, the breadth of this content can vary from Pant’s accident to newly-married celebrity couples holidaying in Maldives and posting pictures on Instagram, which get splashed all over the media. This is something the media doesn’t have to pay for.

Now, while a couple puts up their honeymoon pictures for everyone’s consumption, be it their choice, pictures of celebrity accidents going viral or celebrities being treated for illness in hospital, it’s something that which goes against the idea of ​​consent and violates the privacy of an individual.

Sixth, the trend shows us an age-old lesson that any market moves, regardless of whether the right choices are being made or not. Social media and mainstream media will push the limits to grab people’s attention.

Seventh, while I’m no technology expert, there should be a way for social media companies to be able to filter such content. As Jonathan Taplin writes move fast and break things: “YouTube has very sophisticated Content ID tools that screen for porn before it’s ever posted.” If possible, similar tools can be used in cases like Pant’s and Mangeshkar’s. Also, some well made educational videos can be of help.

Eighth, finally, it may be worth remembering what Maggie Nelson wrote argonauts: “How to explain, in a culture obsessed with resolution, that sometimes dirty stays dirty?” What needs to be sorted out cannot always be sorted out.

Vivek Kaul is the author of ‘Bad Money’.

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