The Argentine media in the face of the death of Diana of Wales. Tabloid construction analysis of a myth of the end of the century

Abstract

When remembering the last decades of the 20th century, who does not have in mind the perhaps most beautiful and luminous woman. Who does not think of Lady Di, Princess of Wales, former wife of the heir to the British crown, Prince Charles of England, with whom almost all women in the world identified and men admired. It was the year 1981 and the almost incredible news of Prince Charles's engagement jumps onto the pages of newspapers and magazines around the world; the character of it was striking because the protagonist, 32 years old and with several failed attempts to fulfill his obligation to the crown and his family to carry out a wedding that would perpetuate the Windsor dynasty, had chosen a young woman 19-year-old aristocrat, almost unknown. She was Diana Spencer.

News of her engagement was celebrated with sighs of relief by the editors of the media and with omens and good wishes by those who, still rather wistfully, remembered the splendor of the old British Empire. Wars, political crises, of the most diverse, and also the irresistible influence of world events had left the monarchy of Great Britain badly damaged. In fact, it was more than thirty years since the empire had been extinguished and its pageantry and its romantic side had ended; but the memory lasted.