Since her most recent official appearance, during Christmas mass, Kate Middleton has risen to the top of the most discussed subjects and catalyzes scabrous conjectures. Very little information has been provided to explain its improbable disappearance.
On January 17, Kensington Palace announced that Prince William’s wife was recovering from a so-called “planned” abdominal operation, but the rumors continued to multiply. Countless conspiracy theories are circulating on the internet: Kate was murdered, she had a Brazilian butt lift, she had a lookalike, her relationship was in trouble, etc.
PHOTO FROM X @KENSINGTONROYAL
The fake photo published by Princess Catherine on the occasion of British Mother’s Day
The one who is said to be in turn cuckolded, anorexic, runaway and even comatose now finds herself at the center of a media storm metastasizing at high speed. At a time when the media want to protect us against false news, this Does the profusion of crazy plots indicate a growing inability to distinguish truth from falsehood?
Plotting for fun
According to the American journalist Ryan Broderick, this abundance of conspiracies would rather underline a thirst for distractions. “Misinformation is fun. […] It now serves as entertainment,” he says. in its Garbage Day newsletter1. Reality is sometimes less important than the pleasure we get from these collective fictions. And if we feed digital misinformation, it is not necessarily with the intention of deceiving others, but with the aim of joining a plural conversation.
Besides, you don’t need to believe in the conspiracies that circulate online to enjoy them. All you have to do is temporarily suspend your disbelief, as spectators do, for example, in the theater.
Despite the portrait that we often paint of conspiracy theories, they are not the prerogative of the far right or even supporters of Donald Trump. They even present themselves on occasion as participatory games. Literature and communications professor Jon Glover writes in Real Life that conspiracy beliefs generate immersive experiences, like life-size role-playing games. “They add a playful dimension to everyday life, giving mundane objects, situations and gestures a larger-than-life meaning.2. »
Towards collective intelligence
According to Alexandre Coutant, professor of communications at UQAM and researcher at LabCMO, popular fictions like the Kate Middleton affair serve as a social lubricant. “They fuel the somewhat ordinary conversations we have at the coffee machine, while waiting for the bus,” he told me in an interview. If these unifying banter have always existed, digital technology would make them more visible. Moreover, rather than favoring our credulity, these conversations would enable us to activate our critical thinking. According to Coutant, “surveys on the uses of digital social media show overall that most of the time, [les conversations sur les plateformes] are useful. There is mutual help, people provide each other with additional knowledge, elements of contextualization.” Thus, far from dumbing us down, these exchanges would make it possible to pool everyone’s expertise for the benefit of collective intelligence.
It is also by taking advantage of this group intelligence that Internet users were able to uncover inconsistencies in the photo that the royal couple shared on the occasion of Mother’s Day, with the implicit aim of dispelling rumors surrounding of the princess. Photographers, fashionistas, photo retouchers or simple followers of royalty then helped each other to identify numerous elements to prove that the photo of Kate and her children had been manipulated. In the process, many news agencies unpublished the image, declaring it fake. The Princess of Wales was even forced to publish a short mea-culpa.
For the unity of a people
It must be said that after the publication of Harry’s memoirs and the accusations of sexual assault made against Prince Andrew, #Katespiracy is not the only recent event which has cracked the reputation of the Crown.
The Middleton affair signals a certain debacle, but it also highlights the unifying role of the monarchy and reaffirms its symbolic value.
Because the British royal family wants to unite, beyond the political allegiances of its people: it maintains national unity. The same goes for collective stories, which have the power to unite people, to make them forget their differences, for the benefit of a bigger story.
There Katespiracy strikes at a time when the war in Gaza is dividing the United Kingdom. Debates on a lasting ceasefire are sowing discord even within political parties. Speculating about the princess perhaps distracts the Brits from more serious political issues and allows them to make conversation. This is not the first time that the private life of a princess has been sacrificed on the altar of the nation. The last time this happened I was 7 years old.
Consult the text of the Garbage Day newsletter (in English)
See the text in Real Life (in English)