Thursday, September 06, 2007

Goodbye Diana?

Whenever any big royal event occurs, I always try to collect the newspapers reporting on them. With the 10th anniversary of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, there was no doubt in my mind that it would be a cover story, maybe a special insert included. So when I bought the newspapers for August 31st, I was truly surprised to see the event barely covered. One of the newspapers had a small article on the inside cover, another an editorial cartoon, but that's about it. Maybe, I thought, there will be something in the next day's papers. But, scanning the covers, there was nothing there either.

I'll be honest, this kind of bothered me. While recent royal events like Charles and Camilla's wedding or the Queen's 80th birthday, haven't necessarily dominated newspapers, this was Diana we were dealing with. Diana, the one whose face has sold a million covers. Diana, the subject of countless tell-alls and television specials of varying degrees of quality. What happened?

Maybe the constant email news alerts, where every second word seemed to be about Diana, had lulled me into a false sense that this would be a major story to everyone else. How could it not be? 10 years ago Diana's death had brought the world to a virtual stand-still. The coverage was unavoidable. If you'd claimed to have missed it all, you were either deaf, blind, or lying. It seemed as though it would never end. And until I read the papers on August 31st, 2007, it had never occurred to me that it would.

While coverage seems to have waned, I don't believe it will ever end. We will still see tell-alls, and when Prince William or Prince Harry marry, she will no doubt be discussed. But what do we do until then? Or what do I do until then? I like reading about her, even if I don't learn anything new. Even if she hasn't been up anything these days. For some reason I want to know, even if I don't necessarily understand why.

Has major coverage of Diana reached the end of the road? Or is this just the case with newspapers outside of the UK? Will I have to look at back-issues of People and Hello magazine to remember the glory days? Probably. I won't learn anything new either way, and it doesn't add to my collection, but it's better than nothing.

© Marilyn Braun 2007

This article was inspired by this post on the World of Royalty Blog.

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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

No Marilyn, I don't think that the coverage on Diana has died down but at this time, there seem to be nothing new to say about Diana. I have watched little documentaries about the special 10th anniversary but they all seem to tell the same story. The failure of her marriage and how she died. To tell you the truth I get so tired listening to the same old thing. No one really want to write and talk about the happier days that Diana & Charles had or the funny stories about her. Which really bothers me. I think people now are waiting to write and talk about William & Kate's relationship. Of course the name "Diana" will pop up somewhere in there.

Marilyn Braun said...

That's a good point. There really isn't anything new to say about Diana is there? These shows just try to say things in a different way, but ultimately in the end it's the same story. Yes, people do focus on the controversial and negative in her life. That's one of the reasons why I liked the Concert for Diana, it was about celebrating her life, and it was very refreshing.