Salford media expert features in new book on relationship between Royal Family and British media
A Salford expert in media studies is featured in a new book on the turbulent relationship between the British media and the Royal Family.
Dr Carole O’Reilly, Senior Lecturer in Media & Cultural Studies at the University of Salford, has written a chapter for Reporting Royalty: Analysing the Media and the Monarchy.
The book, which is now available to buy, features a number of prestigious journalists and political authors, including Sir Anthony Seldon, Martin Bell OBE, Liz Gerard and Professor Sir John Curtice as they examine systematically how the Royal Family has been treated by the British media over the last few generations.
Dr O’Reilly’s chapter ‘Hello Big Ears’ examines the importance that photography plays in the media’s reporting on the Royals and how since the death of Princess Diana, the focus of most reporting has shifted to covering the female Royals at the expense of the men.
The chapter concludes that ‘Patterns of coverage vary according to contemporary attitudes but with a tacit acknowledgement of the continuing commercial appeal of some Royal Family members in a local context. Future trends in the wake of the death of Queen Elizabeth will be interesting to observe for a more sceptical public and a provincial press that is progressively less focused on the local.’
The title of the chapter refers to an infamous protest placard which greeted now King Charles III and Princess Diana on a visit to Sunderland in 1985.
Against the backdrop of the first coronation in 70 years, polls reflecting a changing public mood against the Royal Family and historic courtroom battles with the media, the book’s 25 chapters seeks to examine the intriguing and explosive relationship between monarchy and media, past, present and future.
Reporting Royalty is edited by John Mair, Andrew Beck and Richard Lance Keeble and has been published by MGM Books.
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