ARE YOU EXCITED for the royal wedding between the UK's Prince William and Kate Middleton?BBC America is planning 184 hours of related programming prior to the actual wedding. TLC has 89 hours of content ready to air. All of the US network news operations are planning to send their crews to to London and run special programming, in addition to the non-stop, live coverage of the nuptials.
An estimated two billion people are expected to watch some or all of the actual wedding and reception (the rumor is that the reception will have disco and 80s music).
CNN will have 50 journalists and staff on scene for the wedding day on April 29. CNN currently has 50 people covering the tsunami/ earthquake/ nuclear meltdown in Japan.
Is the royal wedding that big of a story?
(FYI: On Thursday, Ros Coward, a British journalist and educator will speak to the class about coverage of the Royals in the British press).
8 comments:
When I read this, I was stunned. I have already seen some talk about the event, but was unaware that there would be 184 HOURS of programming involving the two. I can understand that some people would want to see the wedding reception itself, but no one needs that many hours of coverage for an event that has no direct effect on any of us. No better way to show the true feeling of "royalty," than to know that CNN's network had 50 crew members covering the Tsunami disaster in Japan, but already have PLANNED to send 50 crew members to London to cover the wedding.
I don't understand how this is front page news, especially at a time like this. I understand that this is OK magazine and it's supposed to be about celebrities and what not, but come on! There are much bigger stories that should be covered.
Alright, so I understand people are excited for this event. It's a wedding. A freaking wedding. This isn't someone getting sworn in for president. I had no idea that there was going to be SO much coverage over something like this, let alone take up that much time on a television channel. This is the type of thing that makes me cringe. I want to know about Japan. I want to know about Libya. Not this.
184 hours of someone's wedding? Give me a break! I cant imagine being that involved in someone's life. I definitely do not think that this is as big of a story as everyone is making it out to be. I understand the meaning and importance of the wedding, but the media and the people are taking this wedding to the extreme. Should I really be that surprised that the media is over doing...no. They always go over board.
Okay, I do admit that 184 hrs. of programming is a lot, but this is pretty exciting. This girl who was a commoner is going to be marrying the future king of England, something like this doesn't happen everyday.
I can see both sides to this story, I guess.
Certainly, it is a big deal that the prince of England is getting married, especially to a commoner. The Royals are spokespeople, icons for England, and so any news with them will be desired by the people. Also, as we say in class, journalism is a business, and this certainly will draw crowds, and high ratings. It's really insane that 2 billion people, more than 25% of the world will be watching. I can't even fathom that number of people watching the same event at once. It's kind of cool at the same time.
But on the other end, it's not something that affects this many people. It's great that so many people are interested in it, and people are allowed to be curious about others; we're all human after all. But what does bother me is that the same coverage is being sent by CNN to this wedding, as is in Japan. What happened in Japan affected millions of people in the world, where this wedding, not so much. That's what I have a problem with.
I'm glad that the news and journalists cover such a range of issues and topics in the world (not everything covered should be depressing), but maybe now we need to think about how much coverage one event deserves; and if the royal wedding truly needs 50 CNN reporters, then Japan needs ten times that.
I think this is absolutely ridiculous, no questions asked. Its understandable that Europeans would be excited/interested in this, but personally I was annoyed with the topic after the second article in People magazine. I understand that its a once in a generation story, and that its super unusual for a regular citizen to marry a royal, but after I've heard the story once I don't need to hear it again...especially for 184 hours. I honestly have no idea what they could even talk about for 184 hours. I'd rather see those hours spent covering Japan or Libya, something that will effect my life.
There is no way a disco-themed wedding should be considered as equally important as the devastation of an entire country. Marriages in a royal family are obviously important. But a line has to be drawn about how important and how much coverage it should be given, considering all the other things going on in the world. There are revolutions and wars, not to mention nuclear meltdowns!
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