Media and Monarchy in Sweden

Can an unmediated monarchy even be imagined? In today’s rapidly changing media, private and intimate aspects of monarchies are thriving. New as these phenomena may seem, and in some aspects surely are, relations between media and royalties have existed for centuries. In this book, scholars from a variety of academic disciplines put contemporary media-monarchic relations in historical perspective. The ways in which the monarchy navigates in a new digital media landscape are revealed with the help of older media strategies, while present conditions guide the analyses of monarchic relations to “new media” in the past. In Media and Monarchy in Sweden, altars and statues are thus taken just as seriously as traditional and digital mass media. Hereby, new insights into the complex interrelations between two powerful institutions are reached.

Content

Acknowledgements

Media and Monarchy. An Introduction
Mats Jönsson, Patrik Lundell

Queen Philippa and Vadstena Abbey. Royal Communication on a Medieval Media Platform
Louise Berglund

Royal Bronze. Monarchy and Monuments in the Nineteenth Century
Magnus Rodell

Pressing the Centre of Attention. Three Royal Weddings and a Media Myth
Kristina Widestedt

Long Live the King! Long Live the Press! The Monarchy and the Legitimacy of the Press
Patrik Lundell

An Enduring History Lesson. National Honour and Hegemonic Masculinity in the Early Swedish Blockbuster Karl XII
Tommy Gustafsson

Family Matters. The Bernadottes and the 1940 Defence Loan
Mats Jönsson

National Pleasure. Gender and Nation in Royal Yearbooks
Cecilia Åse

The Royal Napkin. Sanctifying Processes in the Media Landscape
Mattias Frihammar

A King without E-mail. Reflections on New Media and the Royal Court
Pelle Snickars

References

Contributors

Index