经济学人

Social media are changing relations between the royals, the press and the public

社交媒体真正改变皇室与媒体、公众的关系

The Economist

经济学人

The press had been camped outside the Lindo Wing of St Mary’s hospital in west London for weeks before the birth of Prince George, son of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (better known as William and Kate), in July 2013. Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor made a quieter entrance on May 6th. There were no waiting journalists because his parents, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex (Harry and Meghan), had kept the location of his birth secret. Instead, the first word of his arrival came via @sussexroyal, the couple’s official Instagram account, which scooped the press with a message reading: “It’s a boy!”

2013年6月，在剑桥公爵和公爵夫人（也就是大家熟知的威廉姆和凯特）的儿子乔治王子出生前的几周，媒体就已经驻扎在西伦敦的圣玛丽医院的林都院区外。而阿尔奇·哈里森·蒙巴顿-温莎的出世则略显安静，因为小王子的父母萨赛克斯公爵和公爵夫人（即哈利和梅根）没有公开小王子的出生地，所有并没有记者等候在外。关于小王子的到来的第一个消息则是通过王子夫妇的官方Instagram账号@sussexroyal发布的，这条独家新闻中写到：“是个男孩！”

The relationship between Britain’s royal family and the media has long been strained. But two developments in recent years have made the palace and the press mutually less interested in each other. One is that British newspapers have toned down their royal muckraking. Tighter budgets mean that editors lack the staff to pursue princes and princesses as closely as they used to.

长时间以来，英国王室和媒体的关系一直很紧张。近些年来两个趋势使得王室和媒体不再紧密相连。其一是因为英国报纸不在大肆揭露王室的丑闻。预算收紧，编辑无法像之前一样派出人员跟踪王子和王妃。

At the same time, the internet has made British papers less important to the monarchy. Readers can get their royal gossip from foreign publications that are not bound by British privacy or libel laws.

同时，网络使得英国报纸对王室的重要性下降。读者可以通过国外的出版刊物体获得王室的八卦，这些媒体不受英国隐私或诽谤法的约束。

This is especially true of social media. The royal family has upped its social game, hiring a head of digital engagement in 2016. It now has several social-media accounts, each with millions of followers, who monitor the royals’ activities alongside those of Beyoncé or Kim Kardashian.

这在社交媒体上是显而易见的。王室升级了社交媒体布局，并在2016年雇佣了数字互动主管。现在王室有已经有好几个社交媒体账号，每个账号都有上千万的关注者。这些关注者在了解王室活动的同时，还关注着碧昂斯或金·卡戴珊等人。