Date:16/04/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/04/16/stories/2008041652910300.htm

Andhra Pradesh

YSR most photographed person

S. Harpal Singh

Hogging the limelight: A battery of press photographers and videographers busy capturing the image of Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy during his Praja Patham visit to Kagaznagar town on Sunday.

ADILABAD: A study on the amount of publicity that Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy enjoys can be very revealing.

Take for instance the coverage and footage in daily newspapers and TV news channels given to Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy during his three-hour visit to Kagaznagar town in Adilabad district on April 13 for Praja Patham.

All major newspapers carried on an average 15 photographs each of the Chief Minister in their State and district editions on the following day.

Popular TV channels devoted over 5 minutes to Praja Patham with the visuals of Mr. Rajasekhara Reddy being shown in each of the bulletin for a better part of the day.

It will be interesting to note the number of press photographers and videographers who covered the event and the number of photos that were clicked and the length of footage shot on that day.

Thanks to digital technology, each of the 30 to 35 press cameramen shot about 150 pictures on an average without worrying over exhausting the ‘film’ and more than 15 videographers recorded the event for about 2 hours and 30 minutes.

About 5,000 still pictures and nearly 40 hours on tape, all in a day’s work. Considering the fact that the mass contact programme will continue across the State until May 6, the cumulative visibility will work out to be phenomenal.

Against this background, it will be quite interesting to compare which other personality in the world gets so much of media attention in terms of being ‘seen’ and who holds the world record for the most photographed person.

Compared to the Chief Ministers of other States, those from Andhra Pradesh have been more visible since the advent of N.T. Rama Rao.

Mr. Chandrababu Naidu followed by Mr. Rajasekhara Reddy got more publicity for the simple reason that the media became strong numerically.

Moreover, because of technological developments over the last few years even the regional channels can be accessed by a worldwide audience.