Oh Look, They're Crying - Cute

Perhaps it's just me, but I don't understand why, when a tragedy affects a small group of people, and those people grieve and share a funeral, the media enjoys broadcasting the anguished words of the youngest and most innocent person present to the whole of Australia.

It first happened with Michael Jackson's death, when the words of his sobbing daughter were repeated on Channel 7 within half an hour (on this particular occassion, I was waiting in a dentist's surgery waiting room, and unable to adjust station, volume or power). And each time the clip appeared, the same girl said how she missed her father, exactly the same way. It was usually broadcast in their news updates during ad breaks of whatever it is they show on Channel 7 in the afternoon. And in the waiting room, a woman watching would nudge her partner next to her with her elbow and go "look, aww, that's really sad, hey, look," before flipping through to the back of New Idea to find out exactly how Magda Szubanski became a new woman. And more recently, a speech given by a 15 year old girl on her family has been making headlines.

Why is it that we find other peoples' grief, especially that of children, so newsworthy? Why does the media love beaming footage of grieving kids to everyone? I suppose the answer is really basic and I should just be quiet and stop making a fuss - it makes people watch. What isn't gripping about a young person coming to teary terms with the loss of a loved one? A hook like that should get everyone tuning in, perhaps enough to watch the rest of what the station has to offer.

But every time I see it, I don't think "aww" or "goodness, isn't that tragic". I just feel uncomfortable, because it seems to me like I'm trespassing on the private grief of an individual which someone is trying to sell to me as news. The automatic responses that other people offer also seem to be just that: automatic. It's easy for us to look, point, go 'sad' then turn away. And since it fails to add anything to our lives, surely we can do without this emotional voyeurism? Would peoples' lives really be impaired if they were deprived of the chance to be the fly on the coffin watching emotional heartbreaks of strangers?

I don't think so.