The Digital Jubilee
So the Diamond Jubilee celebrations have now passed and life has returned to something resembling normal. Now I’m a bit of a royalist I’ll happily admit, so I truly enjoyed the pomp and pageantry that we saw all around the UK. It was great to see that the events of the past 4 days not only catered for those who were around at the time of the coronation 60 years ago but also took the younger generation into consideration. Bear in mind that it’s this generation with which the Royal Family may struggle to garner support from in the future.
The Jubilee celebrations were not only celebrated offline in the form of street parties, parades and flotilla’s, but also online with coverage from not only traditional forms of media such as TV and radio, to modern communication channels such as forums, blogs, Twitter, Facebook and video footage.
During Monday’s Jubilee Concert, the top 5 trending topics were about the musicians (in particular, Sir Cliff Richard), which just goes to show that the oldies can still sometimes be goodies! However, other performances which weren’t as popular were widely criticised online.
It was also great to see the new app which the Scottish government launched at the beginning of the weekend, to mark the anniversary. Its purpose is to provide videos and rare photos of the Queen during her visits to Scotland over the years. There is also the opportunity for the public to suggest their favourite Scottish memories of the Queen for future inclusion within the app.
As of this afternoon, there were over 37.5 million views of the official Royal Channel on YouTube. Could this mean that the younger generation may be embracing the monarchy and all it stands for?
Of course, over the past few years, the British monarchy has used social media channels for announcements. From the Queen joining YouTube in 2007 to the Royals breaking protocol and releasing details of William and Kate’s wedding last year, there seems to be genuine desire to connect with different generations.
Togetherness, sharing and community were the key highlights of this weekend. If the British public can come together to celebrate our Monarch’s grand anniversary as a nation – well, that can only be a good thing. There has been much negativity in the news altogether too much recently. With the riots last year, increasing violence on the streets and crimes against each other galore, let’s hope that the feeling of goodwill amongst all men (and women) lasts.
