Membership Benefits

I've spent the last week in Ireland and have been intrigued by the media coverage of the death and funeral of broadcaster, Gerry Ryan. So soon after the Smolensk tragedy it is interesting to look at the issue. Though never a big fan of Gerry Ryan I knew his radio show and he was a familiar face to me. However I was taken aback by the sheer scale and intensity of the coverage. 2FM went into official mourning schedule (though no Chopin Nocturnes were aired), Radio 1 led almost every broadcast with details of the bereavement and his funeral was broadcast live to the nation. One commentator, Diarmuid Doyle, in The Sunday Tribune, mused on the issue of whether this phenomenon of public bereavement is one that is media driven or whether there is a genuine outpouring of grief. Certainly in RTE there seemed to be an element of navel gazing going on but the public reaction was also genuine outpouring of not perhaps grief but reminiscences, anecdotes and gossip. We also have the phenomenon of Talk Radio in Ireland -'The Ryan Line' was one of the leaders of this- thus it was the main topic of the many phone-in shows on air; it seemed to become a virtual wake. Such was the reaction, or perhaps overreaction, to the death of a popular though not pioneering presenter, many wondered at what would be reaction on the death of Gay Byrne for example. Others began to suggest that if in 1987 Gay Byrne, when he was the same age as Gerry Ryan was when he died, had also passed away suddenly would Ireland have experienced a similar spectacle as now. Live broadcasts of funerals by national broadcasters have traditionally been reserved for state occasions and perhaps Nobel prizewinners; RTE seems to have blurred the distinction between what is popular and what is deserving. The media's coverage of the Smolensk tragedy in Poland was not without criticism. The 24 hour coverage, the broadcasters in tears on screen, the failure to distinguish between the roles of officials and their private attributes, and the lack of a balanced analysis of the presidency of Lech Kaczynski were all comments levelled. Perhaps such public expressions of mourning tell us more about ourselves than the deceased. TM