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NATIONAL SCHOOL OF POLITICAL AND

ADMINISTRATIVE STUDIES

Master in Communication and Advertising







Culture and Communication

Royal Nudity: Kate Middleton Case


Students:
Diana Cojocar
Ana Maria Gaspar
Ioana Maria Ilie
Roxana Iulia Toea
Ana Maria Popa

2nd Year


Bucharest, January 2014
1

I. Introduction

The theme of the paper is Private affairs gone public. According to this theme, we are
interested in the reconfiguration of the boundary between public and private spaces in the XXI
century. The case chosen for the issue proposed is the publishing of the naked photos of Kate
Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge, while on honeymoon with her husband, Prince William,
at a private Chateau in France, at the beginning of September 2012. The event started first as a
rumor but quickly proved to be true by the issuance in the French publication Closer of the
controversial photos of Kate being topless.
The ones who read about the event or heard about it may have asked themselves: why do
the private lives of public figures is thought to be of public interest? Why does the public ask for
the sensational? These questions, given the fact that they represent the theoretical dimension of
the paper, will anticipate part of the concepts which constitute the foundation of our theoretical
framework.
We consider the case relevant for an in-depth understanding of the theme, given the fact
that the protagonists of the event are public figures, members of the British Royal House, and
have been in the attention of the media for a few years. Events like their royal wedding or the
birth of their son have been highly publicized. Taking into consideration the exhibited context,
their actions/reactions have benefited of a maximum visibility and have been highly debated.
A consequence of the fact that we are speaking about public figures, is the fact that we
have to give utmost importance to the boundary between public and private, establish if it has
been respected or not. We consider this research paper relevant in terms of analyzing the way in
which the private space was invaded and easily transposed into public space.
We will go on a journey of theoretical framework, commencing with Habermass key
concept of public sphere. Starting from this, we will also include in our research connected
concepts like public space, private sphere or private space. We will also approach the concepts of
visibility according to Thompson and mass media, the definitions and fundamental ideas being
poached from several sources.
We consider the concepts more than relevant in analyzing our case study, given the fact
that the private event analyzed concerns public figures from present times and could be
2
considered iconic for the interests of the Contemporary public body, the actors of the public
sphere on a public space setting.
Having said all of the above, we can safely state that the concepts mentioned earlier are in
connection to one another and with the case study to be analyzed in the following chapters.
Thus, mass media follows not only the public life (appearances in the public space, subjects
discussed in the public sphere), but also the private life of public figures, causing a breakage of
the boundary between the two aspects which should be totally different and not consist a
hybridization of the two oxymoronical concepts of private and public.
The research questions will represent the hard analysis through which we will try to
find out firstly where is considered appropriate to take pictures of public figures, in terms of
public and private boundaries, we will then try to analyze Europes position regarding the
controversial publishing of the pictures and based on what criteria did the mass media decided
to publish the photos. We will analyze the most followed online media channels, BBC, Daily
Mail, The Guardian, Telegraph, Independent and Mirror. We will analyze only official online
websites, in order to have a general coverage of the subject, press from the United Kingdom,
being the most affected by the issue in question.

II. Theoretical concepts

Public and Private sphere

What we will try in this theoretical section, is to comprise in a few pages the essential
ideas concerning the public sphere, starting from early age of existence of the concept until the
moment of speaking, a comparison with the term private, in an attempt to see where the
boundary between the two is nowadays, as opposed to where it was in Habermass bourgeois
public sphere. We will also approach the concepts of visibility according to Thompson and
mass media, the definitions and fundamental ideas being poached from several sources.
According to Habermas, the term public can be associated with any action, event,
manifestation to which access is granted to all citizens, as when we speak of public places or
3
public houses
1
. In his book one can find several associations regarding this term, depending
on the context; and that is where the difficulty in defining it exactly comes from. This being
said, we speak about public property when we refer to something that belongs to the state; on
the other hand, when speaking about public opinion, the reference is made to the opinion of the
majority while when referring to public appearances, it is common knowledge that everyone
has access to them. Another way to define the concept of public is to confront it with its
antonymic pair, the term private, which does not possess as many meanings as the former but
refers to things which on the one hand are not available to everyone and on the other hand
contain personal features which are not relevant to everyone.
2

Some help in better understanding what public refers to comes from Anca G who
approaches the concept of public space, referring to it as a physical space of different types,
used for different reasons, open to everyone who respects the rules of conduct and does not
intrude upon the well-being of others
3

So far, we have discussed the terms public, private and public space. Continuing our
journey through public sphere, going back to Jrgen Habermas, we stumble upon another
interesting idea, that is, the public body, a concept which suggests that citizens behave as a
public body when they confer in an unrestricted fashion- that is, with the guarantee of freedom
to express and publish their opinions- about matters of general interest
4
.
Revising the ideas, we find ourselves in front of a public body with the freedom to
express opinions about matters of general interest, that is, the freedom to have a public opinion,
which may gather in different public spaces, respect the rules of conduct and not intrude upon
the well-being of others. The terms public sphere and public opinion, according to Habermas,
appeared for the first time in the eighteenth century, in the ideal bourgeois public sphere, where
the boundary between the public and the private sphere was well determined. The bourgeois
public sphere arises from the lounges in France, the coffee shops in England and the public

1
Jrgen Habermas, The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere: An Inquiry into a Category of Bourgeois
Society, Cambridge, Massachusetts, The MIT Press, 1991, p. 1.
2
Daniela Landert and Andreas H. Jucker, Private and Public in Mass Media Communication: From Letters to the
Editor to Online Commentaries n Journal of Pragmatics, Vol. 43: 1422-1434, 2011, pp.1423-1424.
3
Anca G , Sur la ncessit dune distinction conceptuelle: sphre publique/espace public n (ed.) Anca G i
Adela Drgan Communication and Argumentation in the Public Sphere, vol. (1)3, Galai: Dunrea de Jos
University, 2007, p. 539
4
Jrgen Habermas, Sara Lennox and Frank Lennox. "The Public Sphere: An Encyclopedia Article." New German
Critique. No. 3 (Autumn, 1974) p. 49.

4
houses in Germany, where the first matter of critical rational debate was literature.
This ideal public sphere collapsed along with the invasion of the private into the
public, causing difficulties for people in engaging in rational critical debates which
eventually suffered an expansion into the fields of economics, politics, mass media. The public
sphere evolved from a legitimate sphere of rational critical debates to a sphere of non-public
opinions formed mainly by the mass media who created a false public interest, a mass rather
than a public. According to Habermas, the public body lost not only its social exclusivity; it
lost in addition the coherence created by bourgeois social institutions and a relatively high
standard of education. Conflicts hitherto restricted to the private sphere now intrude into the
public sphere
5

Today, the public sphere has been reduced to broadcasting information and making
public any type of matter, as well as low participation to authentic debates. Thus, the public
domain has been infected and taken over by television, radio, newspapers and magazines of
wide distribution
6
. Otherwise said, the public sphere of the 20
th
century is based on four
tendencies: vulgarization, commercialization, theatricalization, fragmentation
7
. We consider
these tendencies pliable on the second half of the XXI century as well.
Trivialization (vulgarization), suggests making public those events, subjects
characterized through sensationalism, vulgarity and trivial. What we are talking about is that
scandalous discourse, which is based on and makes use of the emotional, shifting the public
interest on to gossip, towards other peoples lives and towards superficial subjects.
Trivialization or better said the thirst for sensational is directly manifested through mass-media
and it appeared at the same time with modernity
8
. The trivial aspects consist in very important
features of the analyzed case, given the fact that this is exactly the element which allows the
establishment of a linkage between public and private.
Commercialization manifests itself when the stress is put on the quantity rather than on
the quality. They have got the point where they would sell anything, as long as it is bought by
the client, without taking into consideration the consequences. These actions lead to the idea that
the media produces what it is thought that the consumer wants, not what he really wants. Which

5
Jrgen Habermas, Sara Lennox and Frank Lennox, op. cit., p. 55.
6
Anca G, op. cit., p. 540.
7
Claudiu Coman, Sfera public i imaginea politic, Bucureti: C. H. Beck, 2010, p.15
8
Ibidem, pp.16-18.
5
is why the media aims towards the smallest common denominator, it produces garbage, vulgar
material, Americanized, tabloidized.
9

Fragmentation concerns the multitude of sources of information and abundance of TV
channels. Hence the fact that the public cant form an unitary image upon the events, being
overwhelmed by the filtered information which no longer keeps its accuracy.
10

Theatricalization or simply put, drama, suggests reducing public figures life to image,
appearance and stories under the form of entertainment or drama
11
In other words, public
figures play a certain role in front of the public body, trying to draw it on their side, letting it
figure out what it wants or even offering it what it wants or what it would want to hear or see,
approaching different means: symbolic elements, drama elements (acting and dressing), the
illusion of democratic involvement.
12
These being said, every voluntary exhibition is
thoroughly planned so as the image left to be positive. Of course, drama can be very
unforeseeable and undesired events may occur at any moment.
The private sphere in its present form involves removing certain aspects from the
individuals lives
13
, where the control belongs completely to them. Invading the private sphere
is usually followed by an emotional reaction. Psychologically speaking, the main emotions
which shape the private sphere are those of fear, shame and pride
14
, developing as a result of
private sphere invasion or threatening it. The private sphere manifests itself in intimate/limited
circles (family, friends) through conversations, actions, behaviors which are central occurrences
in their private lives. Unlike the public sphere which can only manifest itself in public space, the
private sphere has such a limit.
The private space has a well-established and confined physical space in which access is
limited. Private space usually is associated with private property, since the one who owns it has
the authority to make decisions regarding it, to decide who can invade it, with which one
decides to share it, in what way one chooses to make use of it. Of course, we should be aware of
the fact that all of the above are only theoretical aspects and that in practice, that is, in real life,
private space can be invaded by unauthorized persons which may have different interests.

9
Ibidem.
10
Thompson apud Claudiu Coman, op. cit., p.19.
11
Claudiu Coman, op. cit., pp.35
12
Ibidem, p.36
13
Ibidem, p. 6.
14
Mats G. Hansson, The Private Sphere as an Emotional Territory A Psychological and Evolutionary
Perspective, n The Private Sphere, Vol. 15(2), 2008, p. 34.
6
Given the fact that the two concepts private and public have a very ambiguous
understanding at a common sense level, there is often confusion in what regards the difference
between them, even in scientifically articles. An example of such an article is Truth and Public
Sphere: Setting out Some Signposts (Raf Greens and Ronald Tinnevelt), where it is stated that
public space can be defined as mental space, open to discussions about certain subjects
15
. The
two authors go further and bring about the definition of public space either as a physical space,
either as a mental space fed by the debate of public subjects.
Taking into consideration all of the above, we could say that celebrities or famous public
figures are especially affected by this trespassing from public to private: identity
hybridization while stories about what happens in their lives are being told, the need to adapt
the behavior from private life according to the public one and last, but not least,
requesting/needing the respect of private space.
16


Mass Media

The way people live their own reality influences their next moves. The origin of their
own reactions and initiatives is their way of own-representing, the pseudo-environment, which
modifies their interpretations and their positions. This is why, living in the same world, people
live differently and feel other things in other world-their own.
17

Marshall McLuhan affirms that In a culture like ours, long accustomed to splitting and
dividing all things as a means of control, it is sometimes a bit of a shock to be reminded that, in
operational and practical fact, the medium is the message, which means that the personal and
social consequences of any medium that is, of any extension of ourselves result from the new
scale that is introduced into our affairs by each extension of ourselves,
or by any new technology.
18

James Lull affirms that people live nowadays with much more information than ever
before and what happens today has the name of Information Age, the Digital Age or the

15
Raf Geenens i Ronald Tinnevelt, Truth and Public Sphere: Setting Out Some Signposts, n Does Truth Matter,
Vol. 1(1): 1-12, 2009, p. 2
16
Kim McNamara: Publicising private lives: celebrities, image control and the reconfiguration of public space n
Social & Cultural Geography, Vol. 10(1): 9-23, 2009, pp.19-20.
17
Paul Dobrescu, Ana Bargoanu, Mass media si societatea, www.comunicare.ro, Bucharest, p. 44
18
Meensakshi Gigi Durham, Douglas M. Kellner, Media and Cultural Studies, Key Words, Revised Edition, Oxford,
Blackwell Publishing, 2006, p. 107
7
Internet Age, even the Communication Age which serve as a term that can be used to
describe the exciting new era. Nowadays era does not refer only to the efficient transmission of
digitized bits and but also to the significance that communication processes hold for real people
as they engage the entire range of material and symbolic resources at their disposal. Those
resources include the whole stock of traditional less-mediated cultural influences that make up
the most taken-for-granted aspects of everyday life.
19

The development of the communication media is a reworking if the symbolic character
of social life, a reorganization of the ways in which information and symbolic content are
produced and exchanged in the social world and a restructuring of the ways in which individuals
relate to one another and to themselves.
20

John B. Thompson also says that mediated communication is a contextualized social
phenomenon as it is embedded in social contexts which are structured in various ways and which
have a structuring impact on the communication that occurs.
Sociologically speaking, the "mass " term refers to a specific way of gathering individuals
, different from groups or public. Mass requires a huge number of people who do not know each
other, which do not communicate , do not have the same values and common goals. However,
the only thing they have in common is " the same cultural product consumption widely
distributed through modern technology."
21

Medias origin is Anglo -Saxonian , which consists the English word "mass " , which refers
to the" mass "of the same cultural products consumers and the Latin word "media " which
involves fixing certain media messages. So media of Yves Lavoine has a polysemous sense: "a
technique set of message production and manufacturing handleble supports - which implies a
certain time of transportation; instantaneous transmission of messages through a particular
channel (radio , cable ) to a terminal (receiver monitor); all messages created using this technique
, all organizations that produce or handle these messages."
22
The common element of the
definition above requires the communication process from a primary center to a plurality of
secondary centers .

19
James Lull, Culture in the Communication Age, London, Routledge, 2001, p. 1-2
20
John B. Thompson, The Media and the Modernity; A social thepry of the media, Cambridge, Polity Press, 1995, p.
11
21
John B. Thompson, The Media and the Modernity; A social thepry of the media, Cambridge, Polity Press, 1995,
pp. 17-18.
22
Yves Lavoine apud Mihai Coman, op. cit. , p. 23.
8
As a subdivision of the communication science, mass-communication has some common
characteristics with the interpersonal communication. The mass-communication is a complex
process, a challenge that implies negotiation, interaction and change equal as the conversation
between two people. In the contemporaneous era, the medicalization modifies the traditional
limits of private and public and the content of much interpersonal and inter-group
communication is influenced, even rebuilt of and through the mass-communication.
23

Mass-media, as a set of organizations that produces and handles messages, is characterized
by the following features: "the use of advanced techniques for mass production and distribution
of messages, rigorous organization and social reglementation of activity, sharing messages to
large audiences which are unfamiliar to the communicator and available to take forward the
messages or to deny them
24
. The media products are replaced periodically because they lose
their availability and so they experience a decline in value, therefore these products are replaced
periodically. So the media products are involved in a continuous stream.
According to Thompson, mass communication is "the institutionalized production and
generalized diffusion of symbolic goods by retaining and sending information or symbolic
content."
25

The characteristics of mass communication, they are listed below: "involves certain
technical and institutional means of production and dissemination of information"
26
; depends on
mass communication media industries undeniably; a message must satisfy the curiosity of public
opinion, thus becoming a commodity and obey the supply and demand principle; messages are
transmitted using one-way communication; the selection and editing of information occurs
27
;
where media outlets show their work is the public sphere; media institutions are public because
the problems they bring the question of interest to the public or trying to form a public opinion
28
.
When thinking of communication media there are some tools that provide the spread of
words: books, newspapers, television, radio, films, tapes, CD, TV, and Internet. That means
institutions and products which are commonly subsumed under the label mass communication-

23
Paul Dobrescu, Ana Bargoanu, Mass media si societatea, www.comunicare.ro, Bucharest, p. 111
24
D. McQuail apud Mihai Coman, op. cit. , p. 26.
25
John B. Thompson, Media i modernitatea. O teorie social a mass- media, Filipetii de Trg: Antet, p.30.
26
Paul Dobrescu and Alina Brgoanu, op.cit, pp. 112-113.
27
Paul Dobrescu and Alina Brgoanu, op.cit, pp. 112-113
28
Denis McQuail apud Paul Dobrescu and Alina Brgoanu, op. cit, p. 112.
9
which means a vast audience comprising many thousands and millions of individuals but most
important is that these products are available in principal to a plurality of recipients.
29

The individual members of the audience receive the media messages in socially atomized
setups. This is true of any type of media television, radio, newspapers, etc. Consuming the
media message is essentially a solitary activity. Even when all members of the family are
watching television together, each perceives, interprets and integrates the message in his/her own
unique way, dictated by their intellectual and cultural standpoint
30
.
In contemporary society, the relationship between the external world and the individual is
dictated by the flow of mass communications. Individuals essentially are other-directed,
meaning, their education, leisure and professional ambitions are directed by the society at large,
mainly through the media.
31

Human beings have become atomized and isolated from each other as a result of
urbanization and other modern social structures. Social interactions have significantly
diminished as a consequence. People are deprived basic needs for intimacy. To fill this void,
individuals seek out attributes of media personalities that they can relate and identify with. This
explains why political debates have become an entertainment contest of personalities as opposed
to an analysis of the issues
32
.
Individuals have conversations with their family members, peers, which are usually
related to the top media stories of the day. Hence, the mass media directs individual actions in a
social context. And the dynamic of these interactions have further say in whether opinions are
retained, modified or discarded.
33
When it comes to selection of programming, media executives
simply go by audience preferences, as this is essential for making profits. The basic motto is
whatever sells. This phenomenon is valid across television, radio and print. Even in news
media, newsworthiness is really about catching audiences attention through presentation of

29
John B. Thompson, The Media and the Modernity; A social thepry of the media, Cambridge, Polity Press, 1995, p.
24
30
James H. June Leigh, Information processing differences among broadcast media: review and suggestions for
research. Journal of Advertising, vol.20, no.2, 1991, p. 73
31
D. McQuail, Media Performance, Mass Communication and the Public Interest, Canadian Journal of
Communication, vol.12, no.3, 1993, p. 38
32
Jack M. McLeod, , Scheufele Dietram A., Patricia Moy, Community, Communication, and Participation: The
Role of Mass Media and Interpersonal Discussion in Local Political Participation, Political Communication, Vol.
16, no. 3, 1999, pp. 315-336.
33
Robin Brown, , American influences: the cult of spin. (American political campaigns)., Historical Journal of Film,
Radio and Television, vol.17, no.4, 1997, pp. 481-484.
10
sensational, extra-ordinary and emotionally pitched news stories. The actual relevance of these
stories to the daily lives of the audience is highly questionable.
The information flow in traditional media is generally top-down. For example, the
advertisers, government agencies, etc., push their message across due to their influence over
the corporate media. Whereas in the Internet-based media, the users are free to pull relevant
information, modify or comment on it, endorse or disapprove of it, etc., which gives the
individual more power than was erstwhile possible. This is a shift towards bottom-up and lateral
flow of information and from mass to individual audience.
34


Visibility

One of the most prominent authors who wrote about visibility was John B. Thompson.
According to him, visible means that which can be perceived through the sense of sight
35
.
In John Thompsons chapter The New Visibility in Theory, Culture, and Society, he
notes that the new visibility 'is a space shaped not only by the constantly changing technologies
that enable words and images to be recorded and transmitted, but also by the institutions and
organizations that have an interest in transmitting this content'.
36
Thompson claims that through
the media, previously hidden practices and events had been given an entirely new status as
public; the invisible had been made visible for all to see
37
. The author further questions the traits
of the new type of visibility, specifically in terms of the traits that have become pervasive of the
modern world, how they are different from other types of visibility, and what are the
consequences of the new types of visibility. Thompson draws attention to how different forms of
media have distinctive properties of interactivity with relation to the emerging significance of
individually managed media, such as blogs, has allowed individual managements of one-to-one
and/or many-to-many, synchronous or asynchronous communications, the changed situations

34
Philippe Boutie, Will this kill that? (effects of new digital media). Journal of Consumer Marketing, vol.13, no.4,
1996, pp. 49-58
35
J.B. Thompson, 2005, 35
36
http://epublications.bond.edu.au/hss_pubs/705/ retrieved on 20.01.2014
37
J.B. Thompson, 2005, 31
11
adds more complexities to the new visibility by making it decentralized, multiplied and
dialogical.
38

Thompson explains that the internet and digital technologies changed the purpose of
visibility in a fundamental way. For prominent people, it makes it more difficult to control ones
image, because a much larger group of people can create and distribute content. He shows that
because of the development of mass media, visibility increased radically: Today we live in an
age of high media visibility, and those who hold or aspire to positions of prominence in public
life find themselves acting in an information environment that is very different from that which
existed several centuries (and even several decades) ago
39
. There is no denying that new media
has changed human communication, interaction unlike ever before. New media includes Internet,
mobile devices, electronic games, blogs and podcasting.
Thompson concluded stating that the visibility of actions and events, and the impact of
these words and images on the ways in which ordinary individuals understand what is happening
in distant locales and form opinions and moral judgments about it, have, in this age of mediated
visibility, become an inseparable part of the unfolding of the events themselves
40
.
Another remarkable author who debates de problem of visibility is Andrea Brighenti. He
argues that visibility should be adopted as a social category. The author is able to identify
relational, processual and strategic features and to describe three types of visibility: social type,
media type and control type. Brighenti states that visibility is a real social process in itself
41

and a site of strategy in which we contest our visibility in contexts and where the normal is that
which is unmarked, unnoticed, unthematized, untheorized
42
.
He argues that there is no visible without ways of seeing, which are socially and
interactionally crafted
43
. Therefore, he associates visibility with recognition. The author states
that the very social relationship producing recognition can produce denial of recognition, too.
Distortions in visibility lead to distortions in social representations, distortions through
visibility
44
. It is difficult to manage ones own social visibility on ones own terms because of

38
http://mdharisurrahman.weebly.com/new-media-create-new-visibility-in-the-society.html accessed on 20th
January retrieved on 20.01.2014
39
J.B. Thompson, 2005, 48
40
J.B. Thompson, 2005, 49
41
A. Brighenti, 2007, 325
42
A. Brighenti, 2007, 326
43
A. Brighenti, 2007, 329
44
A. Brighenti, 2007, 330
12
the social contexts that lead to one being misrepresented. Often, the relationship of visibility is
controlled not by the one who looks, but by the one who is looked at.
45

Brighenti suggests that the social effects of invisibility require the reworking of previous
distinctions such as public-visible and private-invisible as in the increased visibility of private
shopping mall of cities for example, and the dropping into obscurity of public parliamentary
debates. The mass media are high-visibility places endowed with the quality of conferring
visibility to the people who join them
46
. Visibility has a particular importance not only in
making identification possible, but also in breeding a culture of identification
47
.
The author concludes with the idea that in other words, visibility is not correlated in any
straightforward way to recognition and control, or to any specific moral value. As such, it does
not constitute anything inherently liberating, nor, conversely, does it necessarily imply
oppression.
48

In John Thompsons chapter The New Visibility in Theory, Culture, and Society he
explains how strongly new media has impacted our culture. This essentially is the baseline for
this debate. Without new media, this new fame would not exist. New media has evolved into a
platform in which fame has found a new home. With that said, a new type of fame has been
created and offline fame and celebrity status has grown new parts. This has been both in
detriment and benefit of celebrities who have generated fame from offline platforms, but the
issue has been a motivator for user generated content from the general population on online
platforms.
49

In conclusion, we can state that we are living in an information age, where revolutionary
technology has made the media more readily available than ever before. Outlets such as
Wikipedia, Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, YouTube and much more may be accessed on cell
phones and the news media update breaking news in mere seconds of its release
50
.With the
development of the media, the visibility of individuals, actions and events is severed from the
sharing of a common locale: one no longer has to be present in the same spatial-temporal setting

45
A. Brighenti, 2007, 331
46
A. Brighenti, 2007, 332
47
A. Brighenti, 2007, 333
48
A. Brighenti, 2007, 340
49
https://blogs.newmedia.edu/13ad486/ retrieved on 20.01.2014
50
http://newmediapoli.wordpress.com/ retrieved on 18.01.2014
13
in order to see the other or to witness an action or event. The rise of this new form of mediated
visibility has transformed the relations between visibility and power.
51

An example of visibility is the case of Kate Middleton, in which a French tabloid
publishes pictures of her topless during the holiday in Provence. Because of this, her private life
became public, creating a scandal by the media.



III. Analysis

Introduction

The British Royal family is one with big importance in the political field of the continent
and of the world, one with many eyes put on all the time. Taking peoples interest for this family
into consideration, mass-media is always eager to feed the consumers need for more.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have been in medias attention for a few years and
have become mere celebrities. Press regards them almost as any other well-known couple, such
as Victoria and David Beckham, and try to reveal their everyday activities as if they were at
public interest all the time, even when they are not doing royal activities.
The marriage of Prince William and Kate Middleton has reshaped Britain monarchy and,
it was a very important moment in the life of British people. Mass-media took advantage of this
huge interest upon them and followed the couple everywhere. All the key moments in their lives
were made public and discussed on every channel on TV, press, radio, online sites, and so on.
Since Dianas death, the British media agreed to avoid publishing embarrassing photos of
the Royal House. But not all the press agreed with this pact and they tried to come with some
more every new story. This was the case of the nudity scandal. The pact was broken once
paparazzi have published naked pictures with The Duchess while she and her husband were
enjoying their honey moon at a private Chateau in France, at the beginning of September 2012.
The whole issue started as a rumor firstly, the Royal House initially declining to believe
that this could happen. After a while, the photos have appeared in the French publication

51
J. B. Thompson, 2007
14
Closer, beginning to be spread quickly.
The event has saddened the Royal couple and brought back memories about Williams
mother, Diana. St Jamess Palace even said that what Closer did was "reminiscent of the worst
excesses of the press during the life of [Princess] Diana."
52

The research questions that we will try to answer in this case study analyze the way
media presented the event and what role did the visibility of The Royal Family played in this
scenario.

Research questions

The research questions are the following:
1. Where is considered appropriate to take pictures of public figure having in mind the
boundaries between public and private? Where does the limit of public stops? The analysts
debate about how paparazzi have access to some places and can take photographs of public
figures, and how they should not cross some boundaries that can affect the privacy of the
subjects.
2. What was Europe mass-media's position after the pictures of Kate Middleton went public? We
will take in consideration journalists' opinion from online mass-media and the concept of
visibility. BBC, the most followed online media channel, has made a summary of these positions
and presents the opinion of journalist from all Europe about the event.
3. How did mass-media choose to present the incident after the photos that exposed a private
moment where published in Close magazine? The visibility of royal family plays an important
role? What facts did they choose to expose the most and what news articles have in common
when debating The Duchess photos?

Methodology

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge case is a paradigmatic example of the how mass-
media plays an important role in managing the visibility of public figures and how the privacy

52
http://www.businessinsider.com/kate-middleton-topless-pics-2012-9 , retrieved on 17.01.2014

15
can be invaded and exposed to the masses in short time.
The theoretical framework describes the concepts of visibility, mass-media, private,
public, and it helps us to better understand the relationship between some aspects that we will
further comment and analyze.
The purpose of the study is evaluative: to observe how media decides to frame such
events and expose them to the masses, knowing that they have the power to influence the way
people perceive it.
The approach is illustrative in which we will examine one tightly defined period in time,
just after the Closer Magazine published the naked photos.
Regarding the problems that can arise while debating this case, we want to mention the
fact that is difficult to have an exact/visible limit between public and private. There might be
some issues on the fact that we cant have a broad research upon the articles that exist on the
Internet to sum up the common ideas that where spread in the media.
What we intend to do to solve these problems: the most influential online media sites are
chosen as main subjects for analysis (most followed press), we will use different theoretical
framework resources when trying to establish the limit between public and private.
The first two research questions are descriptive and the third one is explanatory. The first
one aims to show if paparazzi where entitled to take those photos or they crossed a limit. The
second one describes medias position in this entire situation and exposes a global view because
the comments are from different parts of Europe: Germany, UK, France, Spain, and Italy. All
these views are shown on BBC, the top leader of media channels in UK. The third question
explains what mass-media chooses to expose and what to neglect. This is useful because press
can create the agenda setting and influence people at some levels.
We chose to analyze six news articles from the most followed online press
53
that exposed
the event after 14 September 2012, such as: BBC, Daily Mail, The Guardian, Telegraph,
Independent, and Mirror. We chose both trustworthy online sites and tabloids because we want
to have a general coverage of the subject from the main sources of information in United
Kingdom, where the event had the most powerful impact. We will do discourse analyses to
answer the research questions.


53
According to www.alexa.com retrieved on 18.01.2014
16
Presentation of analysis

Research question 1: Where is considered appropriate to take pictures of public figure
having in mind the boundaries between public and private? Where does the limit of public stops?
Mass-media has become a public sphere where authorized analysts comment the hot
events that may or may not have an important impact upon the audience. The public sphere
created in online medium, as the one that we will see later, generates opinions and attitudes that
can guide the perception of the public that follow this channel.
Habermas says that public sphere is "made up of private people gathered together as a
public and articulating the needs of society with the state.
54
This definition explains the role of
the media voices that debate subjects such as Royal family naked pictures, that even though they
werent at public interest initially, they became important because they were published and,
moreover, without their consent.
The first actor of the public sphere is Roy Greenslade, Professor of Journalism at City
University, mentions in a BBC interview
55
about the editors code which says youre not to
photograph public individuals in private places without their consent. With other words, a
journalist is allowed to take pictures when the subjects are in private places only if they know
that are photographed and agreed to that. In The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge situation, this
is not the case. They were half a mile away from any public street, in a chateau that belongs to a
relative of the young couple. This means that the agreement is excluded.
The journalist says that you would need to have a public interest reason for overcoming
that, and I cant see there would be one. An exception of the rule can be to have a public interest
element. So if they were doing something that could affect United Kingdom for example, the
editors code would say that the paparazzi were allowed to cross the privacy boundary and
expose the photos. Again, this condition wasnt met, so from Roys point of view, the journalists
took some obviously intrusive pictures.
When asked about other similar examples of well-known people in the broadcasted
world, snapped in private moments such as Williams brother scandal in Last Vegas, not long
before, Roy Greenslade argued that those two sets of pictures were taken in what they call a

54
Habermas, Public Sphere, pag. 176
55
http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9751000/9751920.stm, retrieved on 20.01.2014
17
public place. In the case of the Duchess of Cambridge she was in a private place and private
places are regarded as places in which you have a reasonable expectation of privacy. In the other
cases they do it by appearing in public so if you speak of the lecture of the code, clearly
newspapers were doing then they were ok. Even though he compared two similar cases about
publishing naked pictures with the members of the Royal Family, the conclusions are different.
The only thing that changes is the physical location of the subjects. On other world, the public
and private aspects are mostly physical and less psychological.
PR guru, Max Cisotti, declared for Daily Mail
56
that France has strict laws regarding this
kind of intrusion from the paparazzi. He thinks that from the legal point of view the magazines
that dont have the consent of subjects cant have any chance in court, regardless the location of
the target: French magazines get sued every other week. It is part and parcel of magazines in
France because you are not allowed to photograph anybody without their consent whether on
private or public property. This is even a more strict argument that the previous one.
Daily Mail writes that Britain's close neighbor (France) considers that anybody has a
right to a private life, no matter how famous they are, and French publications tend to respect
this culture. So French culture is against revealing private moments, no matter of whom they
are, which makes this land a paradise for celebrities that want to relax in an intimate vacation.
This was not the case for Kate and her husband, which makes things more intriguing.
The Paris Court of Appeal upheld the following judgment: That's our culture and
tradition - the French believe that private life is not of interest to the public, whoever you are,
and even if you are having lots of affairs, for example.
57
Roys argument regarding the
exception in which the journalists had the right to take photos (the public interest) is not valid in
Paris Court and culture.
Taking everything into account, analysts from UK have more permissive moral and legal
laws that accept the photographs of public figure if they are on public domain and at public
interest. On the other hand, French analysts consider that private life in this country is something
sacred and to be protected, so they dont agree with the previous opinion. Paparazzi are banned
for revealing photos took on private places because it infringes the right to privacy of the person

56
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2202895/Kate-Middleton-topless-photos-Closer-Royals-confirm-legal-
action-French-magazine.html , retrieved on 22.01.2014
57
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2202895/Kate-Middleton-topless-photos-Closer-Royals-confirm-legal-
action-French-magazine.html , retrieved on 23.01.2014
18
in question.

Question 2: What was Europe mass-media's position after the pictures of Kate Middleton
went public?
Nowadays, living in the era of media visibility, the information spreads a lot faster and
targeted people had fewer chances to avoid embarrassing situations like this. Being previously
discussed how the boundary between public and private has been almost destroyed. We will try
to look at this situation from different angles.
Starting with the French publication, Sonia Delesalle-Stolper says in France's Liberation:
Last week the photos were offered to the British press, which, in a splendid impulse of
virtue, declined the offer. Rather than a sense of propriety, the chief reason for this is that
newspapers on the other side of the Channel have been treading very carefully since the News of
the World scandal and the illegal phone hacking of public figures.
58

She starts by somehow trying to diminish their role by saying that the French publication
offered the photos to the British press before they were released to the media, the latter declining
their offer due to the previously mentioned pact. The correspondent explains that the British
press is afraid to publish the photos, having in mind the scandal in 2011.
59
She tries to show
some kind of bravery from the side of the French publications, also enlightening the cowardness
of the British ones.
Furthermore, JF Alonso and N.Collisa in Spain's ABC:
In Spain, the line followed by the courts in lawsuits about honor, privacy or personal images
labors under the legacy of the Franco-era restrictions on freedom of expression. Judicial sources
admit that, in order to compensate for the lack of freedom of those years, the interpretation has
perhaps become too lax and "leeway" has been given to the media.
60

They say that now the Spanish press has the freedom to choose subjects easily, taking
into consideration the softer repercussions they may suffer. Moreover, in El Pais they explain::
Traditionally the Royal Family never takes legal action against the media, but the images are
perhaps the most intrusive ever published of a senior member... Closer magazine is one of the

58
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19622316, retrieved on 18.01.2014
59
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2011/apr/05/phone-hacking-affair-now-journalists-arrested, retrieved on
23.01.2014
60
idem
19
great celebrity scourges. The Grimaldi royal family of Monaco has filed several lawsuits over
reports of intimate moments.
61
The Spanish press acknowledges the fact that Kates pictures
are perhaps the most intrusive, and even though the Royal Family is not known for suing the
press, this might be the case. They even blame Closer for publishing such pictures, enforcing
their belief with several lawsuits of their own Royal House.
Francesco Merlo point of view in Italy's La Repubblica is:
The owner of Mondadori [Silvio Berlusconi] said no to Buckingham Palace's request...
not to publish the topless photos of Princess Kate, thus finally bringing to a triumphal outcome
the famous conflict of interest. It's an unexpected outcome, but prurient and grotesque, perfect
for vaudeville and above all for the burlesque that is the password that Berlusconi himself has
chosen for his own destiny.
62

He blames Silvio Berlusconis choice to publish the pictures, blaming that he ignored the
Palaces request. On top of this, Francesco Merlo states that its in Berlusconis character to do
that, its so specific of him. Somehow, Francesco Merlo shows some concern regarding Italys
future affairs with the United Kingdom. Coming in her fathers defense, Marina Berlusconi says
in the same newspaper: What should my father have done?... Out of respect for the duchess's
privacy and heeding only his own political interests, should he have trampled on the editorial
independence of Mondadori, forcing it not publish that which the overwhelming majority of
gossip papers, in every part of the globe, would have competed with each other to have?
63
. She
comes with a salesmans argument that is the pictures present so much interest for the audience,
her father shouldnt have let aside the political interests between the two countries. On top of
that, she sustains the independence of the publication, enforcing its free speech and its editors
free choice to choose the most convenient subjects.
It seems that Silvio Berlusconis point of view is backed-up by other publications too, as
Vittorio Sabadin says in Italy's liberal La Stampa: The real problem, as Queen Elizabeth learned
while still a child, is that being a member of the Royal Family is a privilege with very high costs.
The role and duties mean that you cannot expect at the same time to be a Royal Highness and
also live a normal life like ordinary people... If you want to continue to play the part of a Royal
Highness, there are painful sacrifices to be made: no more strip-billiards, and topless sunbathing

61
idem
62
idem
63
idem
20
only where you are really sure of not being seen.
64
Somehow, he encourages publishing the
pictures stating that the Royal Family should have in mind that their notoriety also comes with a
price. Moreover, he even blames the Princess for topless sunbathing without proper care. He says
that the title comes with the price of not having a normal life, and the Royal Family should have
that in mind.
As we can see, in three different politically sided newspapers the opinions seem to be the
same. Looking at Guia Soncini in Italy's left-wing L'Unita we can notice this: Britain is the
country that practically invented the notion of scandal-sheet journalism, but when it comes to
princessly boobs it rediscovers the notion of lese majesty. As if they had photographed her
during an orgy, or dressed as a Nazi (in both of which situations, to remind those inattentive to
scandal-sheet journalism, her brother-in-law Prince Harry has been immortalized).
65
She even
blames the British for being the ones that invented the term scandal, stating that its not such a
huge problem, it is something natural, not as the situations Prince Harry has been exposed to.
One can easily see that the opinions are shared on the continent. On one part of the story,
we have Great Britain whose journalists refused to publish the pictures, having in mind their
respect for the Royal Family. On the other hand, we have countries like Spain, Italy and France
where journalists have no fear of lawsuits, not even thinking about the past.
We can aslo see Thomas Kielinger very interesting reaction in Germany's conservative
Die Welt: Will the Palace in London start legal proceedings in Italy, too? That is doubtful for
now. And what about cyberspace, which is beyond any supervision? Ireland's Daily Star has
suspended its website, but the same is not true of the sources bubbling on the world-wide web.
Since Diana's time, the media scene has changed dramatically. National self-restraint may apply
in England - there is no such code of conduct in the internet.
66
We consider it interesting
because it makes no reference to a persons right to privacy. For him, it doesnt matter if you are
Royal or not, if anyone takes pictures of you in the private sphere is ok. Moreover, he states that
only the French publication will suffer after this incident, because they were the first publishing
the pictures.
We can easily see in the before mentioned article that besides the publications in the UK
no other media in Europe showed any concern about passing the boundaries of public. They

64
idem
65
idem
66
idem
21
simply think that celebrity and royalty come with the price of not having a private life, being in
the eyes of the audience all the time.
Taking into account the upper statements we can easily notice that the newspapers are
more willing to crash boundaries than to show people trust and respect.
In this world of mediated visibility, information is difficult to control, time doesnt
matter, and producers dont require any more direct or immediate answers.
Electronic media facilitates the very fast spread of information, media organizations are
all concerned about having something new and of interest for their readers daily, they dont
really care about the boundary between public and private.

Question 3: How did mass-media choose to present the incident after the photos that
exposed a private moment where published in Close magazine?
Analyzing the UK press, specifically six of the most important publications, we can
notice differences and similarities in the articles in the way the editors viewed the situation. All
British publications refused to give their audience these pictures, being blamed by other
European countries.
The analyzed publications present this case as a very sad one, a huge mistake, a privacy
invasion. The pictures were taken when the Royal couple was staying in a private chateau in
Provence, France. When looking and analyzing articles, we first see the obvious. The articles
insist on a grotesque mistake, on the fact that the French editor should be brought to justice and
pay for his mistake of publishing pictures that invade private sphere and also the articles keep us
informed which publications around Europe spread the pictures.
The case was also compared to price Williams latest photos in the media at a party in the
US. The difference between the two incidents is that in Prince Williams case, the location of the
party was a public place. Harry was filmed wearing a hat, sunglasses and colorful swimming
shorts, and socializing with bikini-clad women at a pool party...Harry in the nude with an
unnamed woman.
67

Some of the publications stressed the fact that : the prince had a "look of absolute
thunder" on his face as they left Kuala LumpurKate, meanwhile, "looked composed and was

67
http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2012/sep/14/kate-middleton-topless-photos-closer, retrieved on 20.01.2014
22
smiling"
68

Trying to support somehow the Royal family, the British mass-media focus on their somehow
lack of obvious reaction after receiving the news about the pictures. It is also stated that the
family was in an official visit in Kuala Lumpur when finding out the news.
On the other hand, the articles show the fact that the French editor does not regret what
he has done, it seemed like a normal article to him. He didnt consider that the Duchess privacy
was invaded. Closer editor Laurence Pieau said: "These photos are not in the least shocking.
They show a young woman sunbathing topless, like the millions of women you see on
beaches."
69
As a response to this lack of respect to a persons privacy the Royal House stated
that the press has invaded their privacy in such a grotesque and totally unjustifiable manner"
70

Mrs. Pieau insisted that she would fight any legal action, saying : These photos are not
in the least bit shocking.
71
Moreover, the photographer states: Ms. Suau described her pictures,
published in La Provence regional newspaper, as 'decent'.
72
The French press and editor consider
this issue a normal one that no boundaries were jumped, and moreover that no matter who the
person was she would have done the same. As a replica to this, a spokesman for the couple told
Mail Online: 'Their sadness has turned to anger and disbelief as we have learnt more about the
photographs. We believe a red line has been crossed and we are consulting the French lawyers to
see what, if any, action can be taken.
73

Instead, Ms. Pieau insisted the photographs were 'joyful' and the text which
accompanied them was 'extremely soft. She added: 'We must not be too dramatic about
this'.
74
The differences of opinion between the two parts are huge. Even though the privacy rules
in France are very restrictive, it seems that the Closer editor did not care, sustaining her opinion
that it was a public place. The Royal House decided to sue the publication for this. The Duke
claimed that they were reminiscent of the worst excesses of the press and paparazzi during the
life of Diana, Princess of Wales.
75


68
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19595221 , retrieved on 19.01.2014
69
idem
70
idem
71
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2202895/Kate-Middleton-topless-photos-Closer-Royals-confirm-legal-
action-French-magazine.html retrieved on 22.01.2014
72
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/kate-middleton-topless-pictures-french-2090890#.UuPXXxD8LIU,
retrieved on 20.01.2014
73
idem
74
idem
75
idem
23
Another publication in the UK presents a slightly different point of view: It is pure
jealousy, without a doubt. Think about the last year for this country: we have had two royal
weddings, a jubilee, the Olympics; we have been recognized twice as the most influential fashion
capital of the world ahead of America which is partly due to Kates global appeal.
76
,
Tillman said. He brings up something new, a political point of view over this entire situation. He
states that is all about jealousy, because the Royal Family was in the public eye with so many
events in the last years.
Independent brings out yet another point of view, this time of the UK Closer Chief
Executive Paul Keenan...said his company deplored the publication of the "intrusive and
offensive pictures" and had "complained in the strongest terms" to the firm which licensed the
title in France.
77
As we can observe, it seems to be a big gap between the same publications
editors in two different countries. The articles explain that the British have more respect for the
Royal Family, mostly after Dianas death they tried not to publish embarrassing articles
regarding them.
Taking into consideration all the researched articles, we can say that the information has
spread quickly, reaching several publications in Europe, but the ones in the UK refused from the
beginning to give their audience such pictures. On the other hand, the Royal Family sues the
French publication, considering the incident a grotesque invasion of privacy. The Duchess and
the Duke keep their calm after receiving the news and go further with their visit in Kuala
Lumpur, not showing the others their anger and disappointment.

Discussions, limits, conclusions

The case is a rather controversial one, due to the fact that the boundaries between public
and private were smashed. The Royal Family never expected such an invasion, but the French
editors looked very calmly at this situation, stating that no boundaries were broken and they only
photographed a girls like one can see all over the world on the beach.
We were limited because we faced some king of editors monologue, with little or no

76
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/theroyalfamily/9565729/Kate-Middleton-topless-pictures-are-a-French-
conspiracy.html retrieved on 21.01.2014
77
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/press/royals-launch-legal-action-after-topless-kate-middleton-
photographs-in-french-closer-magazine-8138710.html, retrieved on 20.01.2014
24
responded of the Royal House. It would have been more intriguing to find some Royal opinion
regarding the subject. Other limitations were the ones regarding time and space, analyzing only
some articles, and with the subject being some months old now some important article might
have been erased.
The first conclusion regarding this case is that it was an invasion of intimacy, one that no
one could have seen coming. The difference among opinions is considerable and must be taken
into consideration. Even if the British refused to publish such pictures, they spread very fast, due
to the internet speed and this century visibility.

Conclusions

Some of the conclusions show the fact that even though French laws and culture are
stricter regarding privacy issues, they were the ones that published the naked photos of Kate
Middleton. The online media, seen as a public sphere in which authorized analysts have debated,
blames the act of the paparazzi and exposes why they were crossing the editors code. First,
journalists from UK consider that paparazzi would had been legitimate in their action if they
would took the picture in public places or for public interest. On the other hand, French opinions
claim that this was not accepted even if they were in a public domain. The privacy is sacred and
this should remain like this. The conclusion should be that paparazzi are banned for revealing
photos took on private or public places because it infringes the right to privacy of the person in
question.
Medias position all over Europe is different. Some of them are interested in the legal
aspect of the situation and how The Royal family never takes action against press (Spain), some
discuss the fact that British newspapers would never publish such photos, defending their own
journalistic ethical aspects (UK), Italian journalists are interested in defending Berlusconis
decision to publish the photos and that being royal involves some costs automatically, some of
them accusing the British newspapers of inventing the notion of scandal. This reveals that
press from every country has its own interest and tries to have an opinion that supports itself or
blames how things are happening in the neighbors yard.
The common ground of most of the analyzed articles expresses some facts such as: the
grotesque invasion of privacy that was done by the paparazzi, the case being compared to
25
Harrys latest photos in the media, the reaction of Closer magazine that didnt regret anything,
and the fact that the event brings back sad memories of how Princess Diana died while being
chased by paparazzi.
Summing up all the aspects, media has debated this subject at international level, bringing
arguments mostly against the action of Closer while trying to expose all the facts as quickly as
they were known, keeping the audience updated all the time. The visibility of the Royal family
has been the subject of both tabloids and trustworthy newspapers all over Europe. The public
sphere that was created has debated the limits of the mass-media regarding private and public
aspects and how they should not cross the limits because they can bring prejudices to the subjects
in matter.





















26
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EXAM LECTURES:
Ilie Ioana Maria:
Theoretical approaches on culture. The question of modernity
Culture and identity
Culture and values. Values in a globalised world