Media 'Vultures': Covering Life and Death

We examine the global media's swing from impending death in South Africa to anticipated birth in the UK.

It was what the industry calls an “eight-step event” because that is how high a photographer has to climb to get a decent shot. For weeks, reporters camped outside a closed door and speculated on the name of a yet-to-be-born prince. Coverage of the royal birth was so exhausting for some that the UK’s Guardian website offered a “republican” button to turn off all news of the arrival of the newborn prince. But just days before, the media horde had encircled another hospital thousands of miles away in Pretoria, South Africa. There, reporters, TV crews and paparazzi awaited the end of a life that represented another kind of nobility – that of Nelson Mandela. His family complained of media “vultures” but for the global press, it was anticipation with no payoff and the news cycle turned to another stage in the circle of life.