Goodnight Ma’am The Queen’s death as a media event and the contestation of legacies in live participation

Abstract

On the 8th of September, 2022, the world paused as the BBC announced the death of Queen Elizabeth II. After 70 years on the throne, the longest-reigning British monarch had died aged 96. The Queen’s death immediately became a global media event that would eventually culminate in the state funeral broadcasted live and followed online worldwide. While many legacy media maintained the classical ceremonial mode of reporting the media event, the narratives and visuals on social media instantaneously challenged and re-narrated the ‘official’ media event dramaturgy. Through digital media ethnography of the media event, unfolding live in both legacy media and on social media platforms, this article demonstrates how diverse social media publics reacted to the legacy media narratives. Special emphasis is placed on the coverage of and the reactions to three parts of the event on BBC and on Twitter: (1) breaking news of the Queen’s death, (2) the Lying-in-State and (3) the State Funeral. The article concludes with a reflection of how the performances of live participation on social media created diverse dramaturgies and how those dramaturgies spoke to very different publics and consequently created a variety of possibilities to interpret the event and its meaning in history.