Journalism as an essential protagonist in the plot of the series The Crown

Abstract

The media play a key role in the script of the successful Netflix series The Crown (Peter Morgan, 2016-2020), since a multitude of information-related actions appear in its 40 episodes. Journalism is essential in the daily agenda of the royal family and politicians and it becomes the undisputed protagonist to unite the plot, even with some chapters in which it occupies more than half the time. To quantify the presence of journalism in the four seasons, this research uses a structuralist method inspired by the book Morphology of the story (1928), by Russian Vladimir Propp, which extracted 31 irreducible functions or actions after analyzing one hundred traditional stories. This work is based on the template made by itself Morphology of the journalist in the cinema, with 70 functions in three spheres: with high, medium and low impact of journalism. Among the conclusions, the constant presence of journalism stands out from the first minutes of each episode to the end, with which headlines, flashes, radio broadcasts or television images mark the rhythm of the narrative thread in each chapter and become the link between royal family and politicians and society. In addition, the supremacy of the work of newspapers over radio and television is observed, and the prevalence of sensational themes linked to the personal lives of royals is also detected. This investigation thus becomes a new testimony of the fruitful union between journalism and cinema. It is also another document in the history of British journalism and its decisive link with the Crown and the political life of England during several decades of the second half of the 20th century.