TAKEAWAY: We take a look at coverage of the death of Argentina’s ex president, Néstor Kirchner (1950-2010) as seen through the front pages of Argentine newspapers.
Néstor Kirchner, the former president of Argentina who was succeeded by his wife, current president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, died unexpectedly early Wednesday,of a heart attack, after complaining the night before of flu symptoms.
Kirchner passed away around 9 am, Argentina time, and the breaking news was immeidately reported, creating an 18-hour gap between the time of his death and when the first “printed” editions reporting it appeared. For me, it is fascinating to see how the printed platform covers such breaking news. Having lost the time advantage completely to digital and broadcast platforms, the printed newspaper faces the challenge of how it does it all——from the tone and verb tense used in the headline to how it navigates the dangerous swamp of too many referrals in print to its digital offerings.
So it was within this framework that I have been reading the online editions of Argentine newspapers, and taking a look at their printed front pages, some of which I show here.
Online coverage: Both national dailies, La Nacion (www.lanacion.com.ar) and Clarin (www.clarin.com.ar) provided excellent, constantly updated coverage of Kirchner’s death and funeral, with ample offerings of photo galleries and videos.
The national dailies
Clarin, a tabloid format national newspaper and archrival of Kirchner and his wife Cristina, presented a simple, but clean and classic, layout for its front page coverage of the ex president; the headline reads “Kirchner marked an era”, and it is followed by a summary that basically recalls how Kirchner led the country out of an economic crisis of major proportions, adding that he imposed human rights as well as his wife as successor. It adds that Kirchner also led the charge against an independent media
La Nacion, perhaps the dean of Argentina’s newspapers, a broadsheet, carried a headline that surprised me for its old fashioned flair: Nestor Kirchner dies reads the main headline, as if the readers did not know it already, the old notion that it is not news until it appears in the printed newspaper; secondary head reads—Shock and sadness nationally. Text does appear for all related stories. A sidebar on the right hand side refers to the Argentine president, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, with a headline: Cristina sought support only from those close to her; a centerpiece two-photo combination presents Kirchner as a man of the people
The regional newspapers
El Territorio, a tabloid format daily published in Posadas, in the northeast region of Argentina, offers a poster front page, with photo of messages on a makeshift tribute wall for the ex president.
A man and child read the messages. Headline reads: Surprise and sadness with Kirchner’s death
Misiones, also a tabloid format daily, leads with a photo of the Kirchners appearing together—-the only one of the newspapers here that put the couple together in a photo—-with a headline that reads: Sadness and pain for the death of Néstor Kirchner
La Gaceta of Tucuman, a broadsheet format daily in the north of Argentina——and a newspaper with which Garcia Media has had a long time association—-devotes most of its front page to the death of the ex president. Headline reads: Popular fervor in Kircher’s farewell. The lead photo shows Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, Argentina’s president, next to her husband’s casket. Type is accommodated to move around the oval shape photo
Other regional dailies
TheMarioBlog post #667
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