Royal Baby Galore - Woman Has Baby!
Some of us were very relieved to hear yesterday that the Duchess of Cambridge has finally given birth to the future king of the UK etc.
After months of media coverage of the pregnancy, speculations about the baby’s sex, and a long siege of the hospital this climax was much anticipated. Even social media fans and bloggers were becoming concerned about all those poor reporters camping outside of the hospital in the rough just to be the first to bring us the groundbreaking news. And then camping some more while waiting for the royal baby to make its first appearance. Obviously, the media were raising the temperature with hopes of some great news - eventually.
The Telegraph, like many papers (including The Independent and The Guardian) were doing a live-blogging the coverage of Kate’s admittance to hospital. The top quarter of the broadsheet’s website was dedicated to royal speculation, including a piece from Telegraph property on what the royal baby’s nursery may look like.
The Guardian had embedded a button on its website so readers could hide the royal baby news coverage altogether.
According to the Telegraph’s consumer affairs editor Steve Hawkes, Superdrug has decided to celebrate the royal birth by cutting 10p off cotton wool.
The Sun has plumped for the headline HEIR IT COMES, screamed across the top of their site, with an accompanying live blog and pictures. They had embedded in their article a ‘royal baby monitor’, which was essentially a live feed of the hospital doors.
TV reporters had the hardest job because of the demands placed on them to fill endless hours of airtime with no information whatsoever, and pure speculation on whatever.
The newborn’s name still hadn’t been released so by this week everybody started referring to him as “Baby Cambridge”, which, as Parliamentary Sketchwriter, Micheal Deacon, commented “sounds like the name of a wayward socialite in F. Scott Fitzgerald or Truman Capote.
There was and continues to be seemingly no end to absurd media speculation in this case.
Paul Harrison (Sky News) was looking into his crystal ball all day long sharing insights and making fantastic pronouncements for lack of anything to say: “The Duke and Duchess will have had lists of girls’ names and boys’ names, so they’ll have dispensed with the girls’ names quite quickly.”
“Part of me believes… Purely a gut instinct, but… I’ve got an outside feeling the Queen won’t visit today… The Duke may say something. He may not…”
“Word is the Duchess’s hairdresser has arrived. Quite a clear indication something is afoot. First and foremost, a bit of a hairdo.”
The Telegraph happily declared "It's a boy!" on the front page. Inside, chief reporter Gordon Rayner gleefully detailed the day that lead up to the announcement of the birth, including how most of the world's media missed the arrival of the Duke and Duchess at St Mary's hospital in spite of the weeks of vigil and great resources invested in the royal baby project.
Social media went mad at the news – there were 25,300 tweets a minute about the birth. On Twitter thousands of people shared the cover of the new Private Eye (headline: “WOMAN HAS BABY”) , while, on the other hand, all the official Twitter accounts churned out the politically correct: “Congratulations to the Duchess of Cambridge and the Prince of Wales on the birth of their baby.”
Tributes flooded in from around the world as royal fans gave their best wishes to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their baby boy. President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle sent the royal couple a message “on the joyous occasion of the birth of their first child” while every other head of state and government spokesperson tried to beat them to it with similar platitudes. Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd managed to be a bit more original when he said everyone Down Under wished “the Royal bub all the best”.
Media outlets worldwide were gripped by news of the royal birth. ABC News featured an enormous picture of the Duke and the Duchess, with the words: “William and Kate welcome the royal baby”. Vanity Fair tweeted: “Sorry, girl hopefuls, it’s le petit prince: Duchess Kate has an eight-pound boy”.
Global companies from Air New Zealand to Coca-Cola announced royal-related special offers and promotions within just minutes of the news from London last night. It would be difficult to find any media and PR agencies that would not attempt to jump on that particular band-wagon.
Now that the sex of the royal baby is no longer a mystery, reporters and the public can focus properly on pondering names. Kay Burley (Sky News), tried to give a controversial spin on the biblical theme by stating that “King David doesn’t have a ring to it”. After offering the best odds to Alexandra, Charlotte and Diana last week, the bookies are now cashing in and making good turnovers on James, George, Arthur and Louis.
Many people from all over the world have spent days and nights waiting in several parts of London to hear the news of the royal baby. Cheers of “hip-hip hooray” rang out as the good news spread. Many of those who had endured hours in scorching temperatures danced in the street singing Happy Birthday and Congratulations.
Terry Hutt, 78, who had spent 12 days camped outside the hospital said he was delighted that he had been there when the news was delivered. He said: “I am absolutely over the moon. I was preparing for another night on my bench but I could not be more thrilled that it has happened and the baby is safe.” A town crier also appeared on the steps of the Lindo wing to formally congratulate the royal couple, and added traditional flavour to the show to the great appreciation of both tourists and locals.
It has been, in short, quite few days of passionate 24/7 media broadcasting which bears a testament to the power of the imagination and elaboration of today’s media and their potential for staging a great reality shows show about the most mundane human affairs for their less discerning viewers. On the practical side, one does cannot subsist on air, and experts claim the Royal BabyGalore could trigger more than £240 million of extra saleson the high street, from souvenirsto toys, books and DVDs. More importantly, the Royals will share in the latest multi-media baby bonanza as Her Majesty’s palace shops will sell baby clothes and souvenirs celebrating the latest arrival in the Windsor family. It seems, that even some companies in the translation and localisation industry finally felt compelled to react to this phenomenon J.
Now that the royal show is nearly over and the media magic is all but gone, the workaholics and cynics among us can go back to reading newspapers, watching news on the telly, surfing the net, and going about our everyday business.
More:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/theroyalfamily/10197944/Royal-baby-sketch-Lost-outside-the-Lindo.html
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/royal-baby-watch-how-the-media-coverage-stacks-up-so-far-8726024.html
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4971380/william-kate-baby-souvenirs.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/kate-middleton/10197062/Playsets-tea-and-coins-the-Royal-baby-souvenir-rush-begins.html
