Sri Lanka's traditional media risks being jettisoned with its old political guard

"LISTEN TO THE SONG," was my mother's advice on how to figure out who had won an election in Sri Lanka. This was way before the internet, back when Sri Lanka only had state-controlled television, radio and print outlets as news sources. The power any ruling party had over them was absolute. A seasoned election-watcher, she knew through experience that radio producers had an ingenious method to side-step party messaging. They had certain song sets for each political party, and the songs aired as election results trickled in indicating who the forerunners were.