政治與媒體息息相關，很多爭議話題由不同渠道散播，大眾通過傳媒如電視，網絡，了解政治人物比如皇室成員，媒體的力量覆蓋了全球。由媒體產生的影響力可以影響企業的發展，對此隨著媒體大佬的聯姻，大家由電視和世界的聯系，到手機和各種傳媒與信息接觸，媒體改變著我們的認知。

1.0 Introduction
 

The essay will give an analysis on the role of Power, Spectacle and Memory in the royal wedding, supported.by the references and sources cited. Based on the theoretical framework of communication and mass media, dealing with this issue is through different dimensions to analyze it. As we all know, the Kate Middleton’ question is an eye- catching issue because of it belonging to royal family’s affairs, so it has become controversial issue in the discussion of all the questions. Although we do not know the real incident, the information we get from different transmission channel. Therefore, it is worthy of making a research of how media have a great effect on communication by the factor- power, spectacle and memory. The first part will present the introduction about the source and significance of the topic as well as the structure of the paper. The second part mainly discusses the theories about communication and culture, and theoretical basis of related theories about power, memory and spectacle. The third part is to analyse the example above to implement the theories into the case, and explain how different factors to apply into the example and how it is informed by different dimensions. The last part is to draw a conclusion of the whole paper and some suggestion in the future. This paper involves in different domain including psychology, media, culture, linguistics and society. So the topic is more complex in analysing the reasons and approaches to reach the same effects and has become the most controversial topic in people’s eyes. So this topic is much worthy.

                                     

2.0 Theories about communication and culture, power, memory and spectacle

"Culture" stands for a complicated system of folklore, language, knowledge, rituals and living habits, religions that provides the common identity for people at a specific place and at a specific time. When talking about communication and culture, the total spectrum of communication should be paid attention to, which include language, non-verbal communication, customs and perceived values, concepts of time as well as space. Even though two people share the same language might have very different values and customs. Communication and culture have complex and close relationship with each other, most important of all, culture are made from communications, which means that communication is the method of human interaction by which cultural characteristics are shared. The saying that individuals started out to create a culture when interacting with each other is not comprehensive, however, cultures are by-products of communication in society. As a result, without the help of communication and the media of communication, there would be little chance that people can preserve culture and pass them on from one generation to another. To be exact, culture is made possible through communication. And communication has been influenced a lot by cultural characteristics. No matter with what culture, the common truth is that communication reshapes culture and culture also reshapes communication. One defined theory of communication theory is communication accommodation theory. Communication Accommodation Theory has been defined as the theoretical view of examining the underlying motivations and results of what occurs when two people are changing their styles of communication. Theorists of communication accommodation are for the point that through communication, people are able to find ways of accommodating or adjusting to completely new lifestyles.#p#分頁標題#e#

Spectacle is what is exhibited to display, which could be any of unusual and worthy of particular notice, a distinguished scenery and alike. Spectacle is much more than a collection of different images, instead, images mediated the social relationship between people. Something that can be seen especially a piece of impressive natural scenery, a performance or exhibition on a large scale and a some sorts of very bad behaviours. The word of spectacle conjures images of luxury exhibition and performance as well as images of negativeness such as violence and atrocity.

Next, power means the ability or capacity to act, which is considered to be potential and eternal, meanwhile, power may refer to the faculty of executing something. The power of influence by the media can affect the development of new stories. For example, the British expects Taylor Documentary was influenced by press media on the British team's fortunes at the cost of 17 billion francs. The face of being remembered or remembrance which are dedicated to the parents' memories.

 

Third, memory is the people who keep the knowledge of thoughts in the previous period, and memory helps increase the positiveness with which one person is able to remember and the confidence to recall the past things. Besides, memory includes social memory, collective memory and external memory. The face of being remembered or remembrance which are dedicated to the parents' memories.
 

3.0 Analysis of the controversial problems
 

3.1 The controversial issues about the wedding

Countries which have the Queen to be the leader of nation seem to be paying less attention than the United States did, which had a long and difficult time in fighting against the monarchy. It is believed by some observers that the main difference lies in the different meaning of the royal wedding to different people, for common wealth people, the royal wedding is no more than a offshoot of politics, while for the British, it means tax money at their work, for other countries such as the U.S., it is equal to an entertainment spectacle for the whole country at ease with celebrities and unearned wealth.

The issue of protocol in the wedding is caused by the controversy concerning about inviting royals from remote and poor democratic countries in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. The issue created just expected controversy that it should have. According to the protocol, they are supposed to be invited, however, there will be a lot of controversy following inviting those people, which might be not worth. According to Peter Carty, the problem is just an issue of protocol. And the organizers of the wedding is in a dilemma, if the organizers of the royal wedding didn't invite leaders of state from not democratic countries, there would be rarely any leaders at the wedding.

The tainting of the royal family, the scandals, corruptions which have influenced the system for many years. According to some people, the royal family don't always keep their good name, their members are not too smart and Duke of York has caused controversy that he is not a very intelligent individual who was attached to the scandals was in his poor choice of his business. Greed is also noticed, they are somehow with the best education possible persons while they are not bright individuals.  #p#分頁標題#e#

As is known, Kate comes from a normal middle class and working class family, who have buried their life in living for their own money, building up their own business. However, Kate Middleton is not the only person to be upward social mobility, and survey shows every seven in ten Brits are identified as middle class. Royal wedding did cause some controversy over the background and upbringing of Kate. However, Kate's parents are multi-millionaires, who set up their company and provided mail-order services. However, it is still under debate that wedding between royal family and middle class family brings more advantages or disadvantages. And because of the special royal family, Kate is supposed to breed, and this is her obligation.
 

3.2 The effects of Power, Spectacle and memory

Power

Power means the ability or capacity to act, which is considered to be potential and eternal, meanwhile, power may refer to the faculty of executing something. The power of influence by the media can affect the development of new stories. For example, the British expects Taylor Documentary was influenced by press media on the British team's fortunes at the cost of 17 billion francs. The face of being remembered or remembrance which are dedicated to the parents' memories. Media power is basically symbolic and persuading, in a way, media power has the potential of having a control over the minds viewers or readers to some extent. However, the influence is not direct to people's action, the ultimate purpose of the practicing of power. In following aspects such as knowledge, intentions, beliefs and plans are influenced, besides, under the condition of other sources of information, mind control through media could not be complete. Oppositely, some psychological and sociological evidences have suggested that in spite of commonly-found media power, the viewers and readers will usually keep a minimum degree of independence in the process of the practice of power. Audiences accept the news reports as true opinions, and the journalistic opinions are thought to be legitimate and absolutely correct, as a result, the media to a large degree lead the direction of common perspectives. In many circumstances, the media power, together with social power, is claimed to be an abuse of power, since there exist various forms and types of the illegitimate and some irrational practice of power. Wrong standards and values or norms are supposed to be set up, while the audience are changed to become what might not be their best interest. (Altschull, J.H. ,1984)

According guardian news, (Plunkett, 2011) on April 29th, it was too early for official TV while early statics showed that the audience might exceed twenty-eight million tuning in for the Diana royal wedding in 1981. It has been reported that in a period of twenty-four hours, in social media there were 2.7 million mentions of the wedding of the royal family, the vast majority of 97.2 percent on Twitter. Just reflecting upon what the situation will turn to be without the existence of the power of media. People have been debating on the design of Kate's dress, the dress-up of the prince or the royal people invited, which is a result of the power of social media, and through which people can fine more comprehensive videos of the wedding ceremony.#p#分頁標題#e#

Spectacle

Generally, spectacle means an event which is marvelous for its appearance, which stems from Rome. Dramatically, spectacle involves both high culture and low culture. The high culture, like drama or movies, are performances of visual accomplishment, which low cultural refers to performances in relatively folk environment. (Golding, P., and G. Murdock. ,1979)

As human adventure develops into a completely new millennium, culture of media still acts as a central organizing force in all aspects such as economy, politics, culture and daily life of people. And as technology is being developed, media giants are growing, competition is becoming more fierce and media is generating spectacles to draw audiences' attention to their programs and also advertisements which make for the appropriate functioning of the industry. In the last few decades, spectacle culture has developed significantly. All types of culture and an increasing number of spheres of social life are filled up with the spectacle's logic.

The marriage of Price William and Kate Middleton was celebrated with a lot of people watching on TV all over the world. Most people were paying close attention to the wedding which is said to be a fairy tale since Kate isn't from any royal background.

Memory

Memory is what people who keep the knowledge of thoughts in the previous period, and memory helps increase the positiveness with which one person is able to remember and the confidence to recall the past things. Besides, memory includes social memory, collective memory and external memory. The face of being remembered or remembrance which are dedicated to the parents' memories. Memory coordinates the effects of mass media on the individual. The natural process of memory is involved with encoding, storage, and retrieval of episodes. And the formed memory of royal family will also have an effect on the perspectives of audiences toward William Prince and Kate Middleton, prejudices and stereotypes were formed so that very different opinions exist.

 

3.3 Review of bibliography regarding these effects

As Curran, James and Seaton, Jean (2003),put it in the book Power Without Responsibility: The Press, Broadcasting, and New Media in Britain, since the media has an massive effect on the audiences, no doubt the overhaul is needed in the organization. In the early 1980s a British Steel manager was invited to talk to the BBC, and he said that he was convinced that some areas needed changes, that the Corporation was too bureaucratic, too large and cumbersome. In the post-war period of the Second World War, the BBC's response to the problems of production and staff shortage increased. Anyways, for the media industry, the most important political strategy for survival is being popular and being valued.

And the opinion is more evidently pointed out by Jeffery Klaehn (2010) in The Political Economy of Media and Power, Much of the influence that media have on audiences' opinions of the world and of their roles in the entire globe is determined by the people who have social power, that is to say, by people in the way of the ability of convincing people to believe what otherwise whey would not. By and large, the mainstream of the world's commercial media have occupied too little on unveiling and demystifying power. And too often the major media fail to inform the public what the people with power would rather keep behind the veil.#p#分頁標題#e#

As far as Robert Stein (2005) is concerned, in little more than a generation, the situation has been changed dramatically by technology, for the possibility of making the media give us a lot of pictures, words and videos ever before to people. Beyond our limited daily experiences, it is newspapers, magazines, televisions and radios that keep us informed of what's happening in the world and refresh our consciousness of the world, and we consider the news to be reality, however, the media can only give us words and pictures.

According to John Anthony Maltese (2003), the book Media power, media politics, the presidency and the news media is presented. One of the changes of the modern presidency is to what degree presidents are engaged in ongoing attempts to direct the public's perceptions. And the concept of "going public" has institutionalized in the number of staff of White House created to carry out the tactic. The congress media is also referred to in the book, since people learn about our national institutions and leaders by means of news media. And the public also learn from the Congress and the media. Thus, media is an important medium between politics and the public. However, intense interests for scandals, rivalry and conflict always exist, partially, the explanation for this is the appearance of a more scandal-conscious as well as aggressive news media after water gate. What's more, the journalists are much too conscious that the scandals appeal the public the most.

3.4 Personal opinions based on the bibliography

Regarding to the bibliography, many authors and scholar shed light on the massive advantages media has brought to us, and at the same time, media often cause troubles and conflicts. The royal wedding of William Prince and Kate Middleton attracts the attention of various media from all over the globe. And the wedding ceremony is watched and appreciated by audiences from all over the world, which should be contributed to media. That is to say, media make it possible for people at every corner of the world get updated of the latest news and informed of what's happening in their country in their country and even in the entire globe and the countries that are opposite to theirs. Media make the world connected more close than ever before. However, in their royal wedding, controversial issues and negative problems also exist, which seem to be unavoidable. From my perspective, the media has a responsibility of having an positive influence on the public's perceptions about the world and publish more rational and reasonable news.
 

4.0 Conclusion

As is related in the essay, As we all know, the Kate Middleton’ question is an eye- catching issue because of it belonging to royal family’s affairs, so it has become controversial issue in the discussion of all the questions. Although we do not know the real incident, the information we get from different transmission channel. The controversial issues are, the issue of protocol in the wedding caused by the controversy concerning about inviting royals from remote and poor democratic countries in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain; the taint of the royal family, the scandals, corruptions which have influenced the system for many years; Kate's comes from a normal middle class and working class family and Kate has the responsibility to breed for the royal family. The power of influence by the media can affect the development of new stories. The spectacle, The marriage of Price William and Kate Middleton was celebrated with a lot of people watching on TV all over the world. Most people were paying close attention to the wedding which is said to be a fairy tale since Kate isn't from any royal background. And the formed memory of royal family will also have an effect on the perspectives of audiences toward William Prince and Kate Middleton, prejudices and stereotypes were formed so that very different opinions exist.#p#分頁標題#e#

 

References

Altschull, J.H. 1984. Agents of Power: The Role of the News Media in Human Affairs, New York: Longman.

Cardhu, 2011, British indifference to royal wedding, Free Republic, April 27th , accessed from [http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2711380/posts]

Golding, P., and G. Murdock. 1979. Ideology and the Mass Media: The Question of

Determination. In Ideology and Cultural Production, eds. M. Barrett, P. Corrigan, A. Kuhn, and J.Wolff. London: Croom Helm.

John Ashcroft: the Controversial Issues, abcNews/polotics, January 6, 2006. Accessed from on 16th, May, 2011.

John Plunkett (2011), Power surge points to huge royal wedding ratings, guardian.co.uk, Friday 29 April 2011 16.02 BST.

 

Bibligraphy

Curran, James and Seaton, Jean (2003) Power Without Responsibility: The Press, Broadcasting, and New Media in Britain (6th ed.) London: Routledge.

Jeffery Klaehn (2010) The Political economy of Media and Power, Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., NYC.

Robert Stein (2005), Who is Shaping Your Picture of the World? Authors Choice Press.

Mark J. Rozell, (2003), Media power, media politics, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.