ABSTRACT
It is a commonplace in media studies that the British press is ‘patriotic’ (Conboy 2006), with an attitude to royalty that is essentially conservative. But while it would be hard to dispute the British press has an ongoing fascination with royalty and rarely espouses overtly republican causes, assertions that the press has one consistent attitude towards monarchy – across time and across different outlets – are simplistic. Even a cursory glance at newspapers in the post-war period shows an evolving rather than a static relationship, one encompassing extremes of near reverence to something closely resembling outright hostility in the immediate aftermath of Princess Diana’s death.
