Saritha S Nair undoubtedly remains the hottest newsmaker for the Kerala media, both print and television. But when it comes to the web, Shalu Menon, beats her hollow, with MLA Jose Thettayil fetching up a distant second. Saritha is nowhere in the picture as far as ether space is concerned. Shalu has emerged a clear winner in terms of popularity even on ‘Google’ in the past two months, coming out ahead of Nazriya, Mollywood’s Facebook queen.
The top five videos of Shalu on YouTube, the video warehouse of the world, have clocked an aggregate 30 lakh viewers. The leaked videos of Thettayil have garnered over 16 lakh viewers. Shedding light on what captures the attention of a typical Netizen, Saritha, pales in comparison, as the only visual images available on the lady who continues to rock the UDF government are limited to her arrest and her periodic visits to various courts across the state.
It seems to matter not a whit that she is by far the biggest crowd puller of the three, whenever she makes a public appearance. Ironically, Biju Radhakrishnan, the first accused in the solar scam, is nowhere in the running - not for the net gazers, the media or even the general public, perhaps a reflection on the low profile he arguably kept even while allegedly pulling the strings in the solar scam.
Psychiatrist C J John says, “Keralites keep their personal sexual habits under the carpet as they are not open to discuss them in public. However, they have a voyeuristic tendency to know about others. So when any news has a scent of sex or women, they try to follow it in order to get more visuals or news. Fortunately or unfortunately, we are more techno literate than the rest of the nation. And this provides opportunities to search anything privately from their rooms, in a secret manner”.
Key words like “Shalu Menon hot videos” and “Jose Thettayil sex scandal” are dominating search engines, a clear reflection of the voyeuristic tendencies of those searching the net. Even “Saritha Nair hot pics” is a regular fixture though virtually nothing along these lines are available on her.
V K Adarsh, an IT professional and social media analyst, explains the trend, saying, “We have high political awareness, an equally high literacy and are more tech savvy perhaps than any other state in India. However, the number of females in the cyber world is comparatively less. So there will be a predominantly male gaze over the news”.
Apart from the tech savvy cities of the state, known Malayali pockets like Bangalore, Chennai and the Middle East are significant sources of traffic to these websites. These NRKs are making sure they are in touch with what is going on back home - the news, as well as the sleaze that surrounds it.