JAKARTA - There is almost always a message behind a big celebration of a big country like England. Both express and implied. One of the great celebrations of the British Empire is the wedding moment of Prince William and Catherine Elizabeth "Kate" Middletone which was held today, April 29, nine years ago.
The wedding, which was held at Westminster Abbey, London, was attended by around 1,900 invited guests. Meanwhile, about a million other spectators lined the streets of London. It is estimated that two billion people around the world watched William and Kate's wedding on television.
At that time, the bride was 29 years old. Meanwhile, the groom is 28 years old. They met in 2001, when both were still students at the University of St. Andrews in Fife, Scotland.
Royal modernization agenda
Prince Willaim and Kate Middleton's wedding has been said to be the most high-profile royal wedding since 1981, when the Prince of Wales married Lady Diana Spencer. This monumental grand celebration has become an opportunity for the British Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) to carry out a big agenda, namely to modernize the image of the kingdom.
As James Pamment wrote in the International Journal of Strategic Communication (2015), the Kingdom is said to have formulated the premise that the wedding was an unprecedented performance. They are targeting 2.4 billion television viewers within a week.
In addition, the Kingdom is also targeting about five thousand journalists from the United States to fly to London. In addition, on Twitter, the wedding is expected to be the most tweeted of the major events to have happened.
One of the main messages of this agenda is to campaign for the UK as an open, connected, creative and dynamic country that has successfully combined history and tradition with modernity and innovation. This strategy is also seen as an opportunity to complement the existing public diplomacy agenda surrounding the 2012 Olympics.
The image of the wedding mat must be seen as a celebration of the future, not as a mere structural tradition from generation to generation. To create this, the main approach taken is to make framing through international media.
There are no specific target countries which are focused on delivering the Kingdom message. There are two target audiences. First in general, through media coverage. Second, through influencers who will be entertained at British embassies when the wedding takes place.
Meanwhile, all the main messages to be conveyed were prepared centrally. Prince William's notes made during his speech also matched the main message.
This is done to maximize the delivery of the main agenda in media coverage. In addition, some of the Kingdom's campaign materials are included in the video clips of See Britain, Visit Britain, and other digital content, including pictures and guidelines for using social media.
A guideline or some sort of routine is summarized in 34 lines of text which are provided to support the work of messengers, such as ambassadors. The manuscript contains the background of the wedding, facts about traditional and modern aspects of marriage, as well as a list of supporting arguments for the four core values.
To promote a modern image, some of these procedures emphasize inviting selected guests. Then, the script also stipulates that the royal party only accepts charitable donations instead of accepting gifts.
Finally, what is equally important is the use of a web-based platform which is estimated to be accessed by around 400 million people. All of these procedures are established to reformulate traditional work marriages into digital age marriages.
One of the advantages of celebrating celebrations held by famous kingdoms like this is that they can hold the event at a low cost, even at no cost. The reason is, many also want to take advantage of the event itself. Meanwhile, the kingdom is very likely to take advantage of the devices they have.
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