Everybody likes the Queen, don’t they?
After having read an article about the popularity of the Queen on medium I accidently stumbled across a post on facebook involving the Queen that showed the other side of the coin. The later mentioned post that is accompanied with a significant picture focuses on the Irish Rugby player Ronan O’Gara who seemingly refused to shake the hand of Queen Elizabeth II. Although that action has happened in 2009 it is something that still stirs up discussion years later (as the explanation by O’Gara 4 years later [the picture was unfortunately taken just before he removed his hands from his pockets to greet the Queen] as well as the comments on that post on facebook indicate). While the media, such as The Independent, depicts O’Gara as a lout whether by being rude or making a political point, he has surprisingly received quite the approval on social media. Additionally, my assumption would be that the Queen’s popularity in former exploited colonial countries that are still struggling with the consequences is not as high as considered. Of course there are always people lining up to see the Queen when she is engaging in public events. However, this post made me think about the people we do not see out there and we usually do not get to hear from. For me it was interesting to see how people were directly reacting to this as they did not play into that highly claimed popularity of the Queen. Since the media on the contrary very much defended the Queen and dispraised O’Gara it leaves me wondering in how far the media is trying to influence us consumers and maybe even deforms our perception when it comes to the British monarch.
Sources:
http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/rugby/if-i-didn-t-like-the-queen-i-wouldn-t-have-travelled-1.1582248
