British National Identity Through the Lens of British Media Essay

Within a few minutes after the ambulance had pulled up to the scene, the paparazzi photographers descended and began to shoot pictures for so-called exclusives to be published in the following day's edition of their respective tabloids. One way or another, other journalists and their cameramen found their ways to the tunnel underpass in Paris on August 31, 1997, and the UK as well as the rest of the world received the breaking news that Diana, Princess of Wales, had died that night in a car crash. What was astonishing was not the rapidity of the news- that is, after all, the beauty of modern broadcasting technology- but the effect that the news had on the public. In the following weeks and months, story after story demonstrated the extent of the late Princess' popularity as the pictures and video clips showed the gates in front of Buckingham Palace disappearing under the oceans of flowers and memorials devoted to Princess Diana. While some Britons were skeptical of such an outpouring of grief, the majority of Britons shared their collective mourning as well as anger when it was reported that the flag had not been lowered to half-mast at Diana's funeral as the Queen was not in residence at Buckingham Palace at the time. Thanks to the news media, people all over Britain could keep abreast of all these small details regarding the news event of the late Diana and share their feelings together, creating a sense of national identity in the wake of a tragedy. But what exactly is national identity? The British don't seem to know anymore than anyone else does; they are currently wondering where they fit into the grand picture of a global community. As Roberto Foa from Europa Magazine puts it, "On the one hand, she [Britain] has her... ...umption that others share the same associations with elements particular to British culture (ranging from Coldplay to pubs to the Queen). The identities that join nationalism are fluid and changing; they are determined by the stories that are remembered (Princess Diana's death) and others which are forgotten (the Falklands War, perhaps). What is important to realize is the longstanding role that the media- and television in particular, as a visual and audio medium- have in contributing to this sense of national identity because they are the storytellers of our times. As Joel Montague describes nationality, it "is not so much the result of the existence of such cultural elements as it is dependent upon the existence of sufficient communication between members of the community." (Montague, 44) How else to describe media but as communication between members in a society?