The Royal Wedding and the Media's Responsibility

The Royal Wedding of Kate and William, one of the biggest tabloid events in history, is about to happen. Of course without a doubt the tabloid magazines and the media in general around the globe are buzzing with excitement and the action has already begun. Of course any wedding is a cause for celebration and a time for happiness but it is also a time for a little stress, especially for the bride and groom. Let’s take a little time to look at the issues at play here and how the situation should be approached.

Kate Middleton the now fiancé of Prince William went from leading a rather normal life to one under the spotlight of the global media, obviously due to her relationship with Prince William. Here you have two young people in love who are making one of the biggest decisions of their life. Now that this decision has been made, Kate has no choice but to become a public figure. This is a kind of stress that anyone else would not have to deal with when getting married. Images of Kate and William are spread right across the media and it is just accepted that Kate has now become public property and we can do with her what we like. Not only her present day behaviour is scrutinised but her entire past is dragged out in front of the public. This would be a very stressful situation to deal with for her and the enormity of that would probably in fact overshadow the wedding for her and William.  Kate and William's smiling faces are almost daily in the media right now and my only hope is that the media storm around their wedding is not enough to cause any problems for the two.

Williams past experiences with the media especially surrounding the death of his mother would have galvanised him from its effects. His whole life in fact has been played out in front of the public; after all he does have royal blood. This kind of exposure to the media would have to have some kind of effect on a person and it cannot be disregarded. The media by its very nature has to bring stories to the public. Media agencies have to compete with other media agencies so they have to make their stories the best available. This means squeezing the subject of their story for every last drop that they can get then making up the rest of the information. Once they have everything that they want the subject is dropped for the next big thing. The public has had their fill of information on this topic so they are able to move on also. However this leaves the subject of the story to deal with the aftermath of all this attention. It is this aftermath that can cause serious problems for people. I hope Kate Middleton is not one of them as she seems like a nice person.

People should be allowed their privacy, even if they are public figures. Public figures are also human and need to be treated as such. If I was a public figure such as the likes of Prince William then I would like some privacy too. Ofcourse he has a duty to the people but there has to be a line. The death of Williams mother very much highlighted this issue so lets not let the same happen to this young loving couple.

The media usually does not care for the effect that it is having on any given sutuation. Merely by being present and breaking a story the media can have an effect that can influence a situation. This will then just feed more stories to the media outlets that have created them out of thin air in the first place. The media needs to take more responsibility for the effects that it is responsible for and start caring more for the people that make them their money.

Thank you Kate and William and good luck.