Understanding the Echo Chambers We Live In
Although we all know there are two sides (or more!) to every story, it is easy to forget this, especially when what we read becomes a bit of an echo chamber. In honour of Issue 07, our print magazine issue on media transparency, we decided to show readers how different outlooks can produce completely different coverage. So we commissioned two renown writers with radically different opinions to answer the same question. Here’s what it was:
‘His Majesty King Charles III’s Coronation will take place Saturday 6th of May, 2023. Will this new era of monarchy define us, and what role do you think it will play in contemporary British life?’
ANSWER 1:
The 6th of May will mark the coronation of King Charles at Westminster Abbey in London. He’ll be crowned alongside his long-time wife Camilla, the Queen consort. Those are the simple facts of the story. The rest is infinitely more complicated.
Naturally a coronation will dredge up conversations about the efficacy of a monarchy and it is important to start with a few key facts. According to Statista in 2022, 62% of people polled supported the monarchy over an elected head of state. The royal weddings of Will and Kate and Harry and Meghan were watched by millions of people worldwide and when the Queen died last year, people from all over the country queued for days to pay their respects. All of this is to say, the royal family are unbelievably popular.
The prevailing opinion in leftist republican circles is that they are an anti-democratic racist institution. It’s the view I personally hold, but it is a fringe opinion. If we had a democratic referendum on whether to keep the Royal Family in Britain, they would likely prevail.
The prevailing opinion in leftist republican circles is that they are an anti-democratic racist institution.
The closest thing to an “interest” I have in the coronation is what it tells us about the body politic of Britain. Earlier this year hundreds of thousands of protestors took to the streets of Paris to vehemently oppose President Macron’s pension reform plans which would see French people work an additional two years before being eligible for pensions. Political commentators and social media users alike highlighted the comparative docility of British people in the wake of our government treating us far worse.
The genesis of a nation dictates the nation’s relationship with power. France was born out of revolution and dispatching their monarchy in 1789. As such, a precedent was set that the powerful are at the behest of the people. In 2022 the British public actively celebrated being reigned over by a billionaire in a golden hat for 70 years, despite struggling to be able to heat their homes and eat sufficiently.
This inherently British willingness to self-flagellate in the name of patriotism explains why we are in the position we are in. Record profits, falling living standards and crumbling infrastructure. These things are made possible by the sort of subjects who will line the streets to celebrate King Charles’ coronation. Make no mistake, to support the monarchy is to actively celebrate being lauded over. God save the public.
By Martyn Ewoma
Martyn Ewoma is a creative director, photographer, stylist, writer and the founder of Sludge Magazine; a passion project with the objective of spreading information in a way that’s palatable to younger audiences.
ANSWER 2:
The Coronation will be a remarkable event for Britain because one has to be about 75 or over to have even the slightest memory of the last one. For the vast majority of the British people, this will be their first experience of one. It is becoming routine to be cynical about the monarchy since the death of the late Queen – whose behaviour was so impeccable that she became untouchable – but I think there three reasons why this event will break through any such sentiment.
the King himself – and indeed the Queen – have made an exceptionally positive impact on the country since his accession.
The first is that the King himself – and indeed the Queen – have made an exceptionally positive impact on the country since his accession last September. People had low expectations of him because they had never had to think about him as Sovereign, and he was still harmed by the circumstances surrounding the break-up of his first marriage, which for reasons of sentiment had clung in the minds of some of the public.
But once he began to do the job of King he did it impeccably: so much so that even the sniping of his disaffected son from California served only to improve the King’s standing. The Coronation will be a moment for a generally supportive public to show that support.
That leads on to my second point: that the public loved the late Queen so much because she was an antidote to the increasingly repellent behaviour of her ministers and of the political class in general. The King carries on providing that sense of unity for the country that politicians, in this age even more divisive than ever, cannot hope to offer.
Many people who will be watching the ceremony on 6 May will be conscious of their good fortune that the figurehead of the nation is not a figure from politics, and will be conscious of the allure that monarchy brings a country that otherwise feels rather down on its luck.
And that, in turn, leads on to my final point: that Britain as a nation does these events spectacularly well. The late Queen’s funeral was a masterpiece of organisation, tradition and ceremony, right from the second her coffin left Balmoral to the awesome moment when the Lord Chamberlain broke his wand of office over her coffin in St George’s Chapel. The Coronation will be such an event and will attract the eyes of the world; but for the British themselves, it will be a moment to capture an idea of themselves and, in many ways beyond the obvious, to have a fresh start.
Simon Heffer is a historian, journalist, author, and political commentator. In a thirty-year career in Fleet Street he has held senior editorial positions on The Daily Telegraph and The Spectator, to name a few.
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