5 Television and How British People Know Their Royals

Royal Great Britain and Media

As a special existence, the British royal family has always attracted the attention of the world with its mystery and long history. In the past two decades, the British royal family has experienced a series of tragedies and scandals, and its status and dignity have been seriously threatened. The royal family has been making unremitting efforts to reshape the image of it for a long time. Among them, the use of television media has played a role that cannot be ignored. Media-event marketing refers to organizations including countries, governments, enterprises, schools, and various social institutions, etc. with the help of the mass media to promote their positive images and shape their brands by paying attention to news events, public relations and communication activities that convey values. This essay argues that television has exerted a big influence on how the British monarchy presents in British people’s minds when some royal rituals, and royal speeches were reported and spread through TV and became media events.

Royal Great Britain, Britain is the earliest constitutional monarchy in the world. In the history of the past thousand years, the British royal power has undergone many changes. The king has changed from a hierarchical monarch in the Middle Ages to an autocratic monarch in the early modern period, and then from an autocratic monarch to a constitutional monarch. Now, they are only seen as symbols that have a limited impact on the people’s psychology and play a limited role in the continuation of traditions. In The English Constitution, the constitutional monarch has three rights, and the British system of government—crown, Lords, and Commons operated together (Bagehot 67). Legally speaking, the monarch is the head of state, a component of the legislature, the head of justice, the commander-in-chief of the national armed forces, and the supreme leader of the Anglican Church. The monarch has the power to appoint and remove the prime minister, ministers, etc., and has the power to convene, suspend and dissolve parliaments, approve laws, declare war, and make peace, but these powers have no substantive significance. The king or queen is the nominal ruler and is born hereditary. After more than ten centuries of history, the British royal family has become a symbol of the country and the nation, and traditional culture. It also continues to work as the symbol of the national spirit, the strength of the national spirit. It seems that many members of the royal family have been treated with grand ceremonies—their coronation ceremonies, weddings, and commemorative ceremonies have repeatedly attracted the attention of the people. The various grand and complicated rituals of the royal family are often regarded as inherited historical traditions. Ceremonies nowadays and traditional are related to the emergence of the concept of nation. Moreover, the construction of Western nation-states promotes the promotion of traditional monarchs to the national leaders of nation-states, and rituals play a very important role (Nadeau “The Old Story: Sovereign Nation-States and Myths of National Identity”). But when it comes to the view of the general people, they will find that those ceremonies have been ridiculed by individuals. In 1820, The Black Book made a strong criticism of the corruption and power of the English Establishment, and royal ritual (Cannadine “The Invention of Tradition”). In the 1870s, the British generally adopted a negative attitude towards the rituals of the British monarchy, thinking that the rituals of the royal family were deceptive. At that time, the ritual of the royal family was not popular.However, things seem to have change with the appearance of TV as a mass media and its integration with the royal family latter.

What had Television bring about to Royal Great Britain

“The United Kingdom, and possibly say the world, should be grateful to Lord Reith, the first Dire of the British Broadcasting Corporation, for including in the B.B.C. the words “information, education, and entertainment” his prescription of the purposes of broadcasting.” (Shields, 2) The British royal family organizes viewing activities through the television media, with the purpose of integrating social order and consolidating established social norms. They started their interaction with media technology since King George V gave the Royal Christmas Message on BBC Radio in 1934. As a specific concept, media events were first proposed by Daniel Dayan and Elihu Katz in their book “Media Events: The Live Broadcasting of History”. They define media events as rituals, “have, first and foremost, an integrative function. In television, such media events have the potential to gather the whole nation, or even a worldwide viewing public” (Cinalli et al 158). It is pointed out that television, as a ritual, constructs family life, and the state has become a perceivable object at this time. With the help of technological progress, the royal ceremonies finally entered the television of the United Kingdom and the world, and they have become media events that attract global attention time and time again. The events of the British Monarchy were planned, announced, and advertised in advance.  The audience was invited to participate in a ceremony and witness a series of cultural performances. On June 2, 1953, the coronation ceremony of Queen Elizabeth II was held in Westminster Abbey. The coronation ceremony lasted from 10 in the morning to 11:30 in the evening, and the BBC broadcasted the entire process. At that time, 56% of the British population, namely 20.4 million watched the event (Adams 267). The mysterious, solemn, and serious ceremony of the royal family wasdisplayed on the TV screen, which was extremely shocking. Thousands of Europeans also watched the live broadcast, and TV footage was quickly sent to Canada, the United States, and other places. The coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. The ceremony has therefore become one of the most influential media events in Britain after the end of World War II. As the evolution of history, the important ceremonial celebrations of the British royal family rely on the power of the television media to become an important way to spread, build and consolidate British social order, norms, values, and national spirit. By Simultaneous TV viewing, had brought about ordinary people with a subtle feeling of “I am important” and “I am a member of the country.” The creation of the concept in the TV media provided an important way for the imagination of a nation-state, which continues to create a certain synchronicity. At this time, the queen seemed to be the symbol of the British mother; the audience of thousands of households, the royal family, and the whole country was like a big family. It has promoted a shared national experience among family members, and the harmonious and warm family atmosphere has also been elevated to the unity of the entire country.  The idea of the royal family is embedded in people’s life experience, emotions and daily life. It has also become one of the reasons for the existence of the ancient Windsor dynasty in modern society.

In addition, the “royal weddings” that have been reported and spread through the television media also became a means of promoting the unity and cohesion. Shaping the image of the British royal family in the minds of the people, as supportive rate of British people before and after having media evolved. The relationship between royal ceremonies and media mainly television after the 1950s became closer, which was shown by the wedding of Princess Margaret in 1960, and especially the fairytale wedding of Charles and Diana in 1981. In the 1970s and 1980s, the economy of the entire country was in dire straits (Crafts 1). The British economy was at a tough time with severe inflation, stagnant economic development, rising prices, rising unemployment, and worker strikes. On July 29, 1981, the British government and the royal family held a world-renowned wedding for Prince Charles and Diana. The wedding attracted 750 million TV viewers to watch the wedding (Lawless “Royalty TV”). The BBC broadcast the wedding to the world in different languages. People are deeply moved by this romantic and beautiful love fairy tale after they watch the TV program. This wedding reported through TV attracted viewers from all over the world, which brought the general public closer to the true face of the British monarchy. The marriage of Charles and Diana also brought new vitality to the ancient British royal family. Before Princess Diana, the impression of the general public towards British royal family has always been aloof, giving the people a sense of mystery and awe. Diana, being kind and easy-going, full of love and sympathy, successfully shaped the image of a princess close to the people, which invisibly aroused the goodwill of the British people towards the royal monarchy. Media reports have won widespread praise from the royal family and greatly enhanced the reputation of the royal family worldwide. The British royal family used this wedding to create a new image, this new-generation royal family who understands the needs of the media. The century wedding ceremony also shows that the British royal family is meticulously making its own future. Royal weddings have been, are and will continue to play a pivotal role in shaping the image of the royal family. Following this, the funeral of Diana in 1997, the wedding of Prince William in 2011, and the celebration of the Queen’s 60th anniversary in 2012 are all displayed on the media. The grand wedding of Prince William and Princess Kate in 2011 is still vivid to many people: 2 billion viewers, which account for nearly one-third of the world’s population, watched the wedding live broadcast, and live fans set up camp several days in advance to get the best view (Oprah. com “Inside William and Kate’s Royal Wedding”). This event in London was covered by a large number of reporters from hundreds of media outlets throughout the world. The live broadcast of the media gave the royal family a favorable opportunity to create a united and powerful image of the royal family by showing the crowd surrounded by people and the whole country jubilantly. At the same time, those heterogeneous voices are excluded: the attacks on weddings and multiple protests by some nationalist groups in Ireland and Northern Ireland have been ignored. It can be said that the royal wedding was actually a planned performance, and the media event was created through negotiation between the royal family and the media. This pre-planned and publicized ceremony attracts the attention of the British people and even the whole world through live TV, making people forget the divisions and conflicts in society for the time being. It urges everyone by breaking the daily routine in the harmonious scene created by the media.

The royal family expects to reinforce their legitimacy by increasing their profile in the public through the television media. Those years, the approval rate of the British royal family has been on a downward trend in recent decades: The UK conducts regular polls on the royal system every year. There is a poll conducted by Ipsos MORI on the Polling Club of King’s College London on whether Britain should continue to have a King or Queen as head of state or an elected President, and it demonstrates the supporting rate of populations from 1993 through 2016. The results in 2016 show that 76% of British people want to retain the monarchy; this figure was 76% in 2016 and 99% in 1983 (Ipsos MORI survey “Attitudes towards the Monarchy”). The proportion of people who support Prince Charles would be a good king when he comes to the throne in the future had decreased trend. 5%of the citizens support Prince Charles will make a bad king in 1991, while 22 % support Prince Charles will make a bad king (Ipsos MORI survey “Attitudes towards the Monarchy”). The royal family is not without understanding of this. Today, when their legitimacy is in crisis, they have spared no effort to manage their good image in the hearts of the people through a series of public performances and ceremonies, and they are also trying their best to reshape the glory of the British Empire. Against this background, must rely television media to be connected with the public. During the epidemic, Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom made a televised speech (CNN “Queen Elizabeth delivers address to nation amid pandemic”).  She was calling on the British people to unite in the fight against the epidemic and to pass the difficult times together. In the speech, she said that this challenging period has brought tremendous changes to the lives of many people. She also expressed her thanks for hard work of front-line medical staff, workers in important positions, and all those who insist on staying at home, hoping that the British people will work together to achieve success in the fight against the epidemic. This is the fifth time that Elizabeth II has given a televised speech outside of Christmas time since she became king. The first 4 times were during the first Gulf War in 1991, Diana’s death in 1997, the death of the Queen’s mother in 2002, and the 60th anniversary of the Queen’s accession to the throne in 2012. The royal family emphasizes that the aristocratic spirit and long tradition carried by itself represent an uninterrupted history and the glory of the entire nation-state. It also embeds the existence of the royal family into the life perception of every British person through various daily rituals and mysterious rituals in the television. The monarchy is shaped as the embodiment of stability and community, and the royal family has also established itself as the spokesperson of the British Empire to gain the legitimacy of its continued existence.

Influences that had made from television

The royal family maintains their good impression among the people through continuous appearances in key activities on the television and consolidates the important position of the royal family in the country and daily life. Every year around December 25th, Queen Elizabeth’s Christmas speech at her home will arrive as scheduled. This tradition did not originate from the queen, but from his father George V’s first speech in the palace through the BBC in 1932 (Royal. UK “History of the Christmas Broadcast”). Since it was established in 1922, the royal family soon realized the unique advantages of the new medium in spreading ceremonies and creating a sense of participation. After this, the royal family worked hard for many years and finally keep the tradition to speak to the audience in the British Commonwealth in their own home at Christmas. On December 25, 2020, Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom delivered her annual Christmas speech. She said that “Remarkably, a year that has necessarily kept people apart has, in many ways, brought us closer” (Royal. UK “The Christmas Broadcast 2020”). The annual Christmas speech provides a scarce sense of community for listeners who are increasingly surrounded by personalized information and isolated from each other. At this special point in time, the royal speech cleverly created the concept of reunion which has gradually become a new folk custom of the British people. The expression of the speech is intended to convey those positive messages. In addition, the Queen did not mention the historic Brexit referendum that year. Instead, it focused on Britain’s outstanding performance and used some consecutive positive words such as“inspired. “Love and kindness” and “home”, which have appeared as the key words of the Queen’s Christmas speech (Royal. UK “The Christmas Broadcast 2020”). Family affection has become the glue that smooths out the social hierarchy. Through clever agenda setting, the British royal family hopes to condense the increasingly divided values, life beliefs and identity of Britain. All these efforts are precisely the secret of the preservation of the royal power. If it does not evolve in time and follow the trend of the times, then the British royal power will be eliminated long ago, just like the monarchies of other countries. Although some people don’t really like it, they still notice them when they appear on the television. The various actions of the British royal family created a harmonious landscape of being together with the people. They created a collective spiritual feast of happiness and the illusion of utopia. These ritual representations are used to arouse the British love and pride in historical and cultural memory and their thirst for the glory of the empire, so as to alleviate the pain of losing the status of a world power over the past century, and to gather the people together. British people are willing to have the royal family when they could identify with the British Monarchy through the television media during the critical period of history.

“The coronation, then, can be usefully theorised as an early example of ‘mediated intimacies’ due to the novelty of live television and the proximity between viewer and event that this facilitated.” (Clancy, (Royal) television ‘publics’ and mediated intimacies)

People know the royal family through the TV media, and whether they like it or not, the television media did influence them invisible from the past till nowadays, despite that it is exposing some negative news related to the royal family. Since the rise of mass media such as television in the 20th century, British and other European royal families have always been media reports, and the words and deeds of royal family members have been put under the spotlight. However, Paparazzi lead to Lady Diana’s death. Paparazzi still changing people’s thought as 1991 Lady Diana shaking hand with people with AIDS without wearing gloves. Meghan has been questioned and ridiculed by the British people since he made his love affair public. It is difficult for all members to accept Megan even if it is placed in ordinary people’s homes, let alone the royal family with a special status. In addition, the social atmosphere created by TV media makes the privacy of the family that is Easy to be exposed in full view. Although there has never been a lack of personal criticism and even sarcasm against members of the royal family, and the modern media will certainly become a tool to criticize the royal family, as long as the royal family carefully plans and carefully deploys it, modern media can immediately become a weapon for the royal family to shape its own image, thus further narrowing the distance with ordinary people. Also, the history of the 20th and the 21st century proves that the British royal family did exactly that, and it was quite successful. Secondly, despite all kinds of negative news, the core figure of the royal family, Queen Elizabeth II, is still deeply loved in the hearts of the people. 61% of British people want to retain the queen as their monarchy in 2016 although the queen is 90 years old in that year (Ipsos MORI survey “Attitudes towards the Monarchy”). Her ruling career is a perfect interpretation of the modern monarchy and has also restored the royal family at many critical junctures through TV media.

Looking back on British history, when the British economy was in trouble and its international status was in a downturn, the Queen of England and the royal family members could have the link to the Commonwealth countries and the general public through their appearance in the TV media. In a series of media events, the royal family not only strengthened the existing etiquette and customs, but also successfully promoted the British national image. Thus, for the British royal family, media was a good way to soothe the people’s emotions and invigorate the spirit. Thus, British people still support monarchy largely because of the efficient and skilled use of media.

Works cited

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Bagehot, Walter. The English Constitution (2nd edition) (London: Oxford University Press,1963), e-book, 67.

Cannadine, D. . “The Invention of Tradition: The Context, Performance and Meaning of Ritual: The British Monarchy and the ‘Invention of Tradition’, c. 1820–1977.” (2012).

Clancy, Laura. (2019). ‘Queen’s Day – TV’s Day’: The British monarchy and the media industries. Contemporary British History, 33(3), 427-450.

CNN. “Queen Elizabeth delivers address to nation amid pandemic”. (2020). https://edition.cnn.com/videos/world/2020/04/05/queen-elizabeth-coronavirus-address-to-nation-full-speech-vpx.cnn

Crafts, Nfr . “The British Economy: Missing Out or Catching Up?” in European Economies Since the Second World War. (1998).pp.1-24. Palgrave Macmillan UK

Cinalli, M. , et al. “Solidarity contestation in the UK” in Solidarity in the Media and Public Contention over Refugees in Europe. pp.158-164 (2021) DOI:10.4324/9780367817169-151a.

Ipsos MORI survey.“Attitudes towards the Monarchy” ,2016 , Cited May 30, 2021 from https://www.ipsos.com/sites/default/files/migrations/en-uk/files/Assets/Docs/Polls/monarchy-kings-polling-club-2016-topline.pdf

Lawless, Jill. “Royalty TV: UK monarchy and television have complex”, AP news. March 5, 2021 ties, https://apnews.com/article/uk-monarchy-tv-complex-ties-7a0403bce5f1c94f2dd1990938988d6d

Oprah.com. “Inside William and Kate’s Royal Wedding”. (2011). cited May 30, 2021 from https://www.oprah.com/oprahshow/inside-william-and-kates-royal-wedding/all

Shields, John S. (1964). The influence of broadcasting. International Review of Education, 10(4), 441-447.

“The Christmas Broadcast 2020”. The Royal Family. Cited May 26, 2021 from https://www.royal.uk/christmas-broadcast-2020z

Nadeau, Robert. “The Old Story: Sovereign Nation-States and Myths of National Identity” in  Rebirth of the Sacred. DOI:10.1093/oso/9780199942367.003.0008. (2013). cited May 28, 2021 from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/346816591_The_Old_Story_Sovereign_Nation-States_and_Myths_of_National_Identity

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