Visual
Elements in Framing Political Events: The Royal Massacre in Nepal
Visual
components are beginning to play crucial roles in the modern era of technology
and innovations. These days nobody likes to read a text with no graphics and arts.
Images, fonts, videos, and graphics are some examples that would easily manipulate
the readers’ thoughts.
Let's explore The Royal Massacre in a small South
Asian landlocked country known as Nepal and how the visual elements framed the
event and influenced the audience.
Royal Family of Nepal
From left to right Crown Prince Dipendra, King Birendra, Prince Nirajan Queen Aishwarya, and Princess Shruti respectively.
Background
The Nepalese Royal Massacre occurred on June 1, 2001,
at the Narayanhiti Palace, the then-home of the Nepali Royal Family. In that event,
King Birendra, Queen Aishwarya, and seven royal family members were shot dead
whereas the King’s whole generation was wiped out. All of the international and
national news media including some investigations suggested that it was Crown
Prince Dipendra who killed his family to marry the girl of his choice. Other theories
suggest that the Crown Prince killed his family because he was unhappy with the country's shift from an
absolute to a constitutional monarchy.
 |
| The New York Times |
.png) |
New Straits Times, Published on 15 June, 2001
“If you
tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed.”
-Adolf
Hitler
The quote is taken from the Mien Kampf where Hitler explains
the propaganda of the Big Lie. In my way of thinking, while framing the massacre
the whole media, the movies, and reports are following the Big Lie propaganda.
Every nation, international news, reporters, eyewitnesses, BBC documentaries
and everyone repeatedly blamed Dipendra who allegedly shot himself after the massacre
and died three days after in a state of coma.
Due to public pressure, an inquiry committee was
formed by the new King Gyanendra, Birendra’s younger brother, to investigate
the event. 15 days after the incident, they
submitted a report of 139 pages concluding that the super-drunk Crown Prince
who was not able to walk previously had dressed as an army combat and went on
to kill his family members, he was found shot and unconscious outside with no eyewitness
to what happened to him.
On the other hand, the BBC had already published the
news the day after the Royal massacre claiming that the then Crown Prince of
Nepal killed his royal family and himself in the end. Many international media
made documentaries regarding the event where everyone framed Dipendra as the
culprit.
Channel 4 royal massacre documentary
Clive Maltby has directed a film named Zero Hour regarding the incident in which he claims that Dipendra is the killer, and he is also taking pills for depression and cannot respond well to stress.
All of these documentaries, investigative reports,
news, and so on were beating around the bushes and kept on repetitively claiming
that Dipendra killed his family even though all these reports are questionable.
King and Queen Funeral
Conclusion
All of these things come around to the same thing how
the visual elements shaped the way of perceiving the event. How all the news
broadcasters, movies, documentaries, and video clips created an image in front
of Nepal. Whatever the truth is, the
truth shown everywhere without concrete evidence became the truth for the
masses.
References
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Hb-VFXtKpc
Picture
references
https://www.reddit.com/r/Nepal/comments/nqd9zt/front_page_ny_times_story_on_nepal_royal_massacre/
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/17/technology/amazon-hitler-mein-kampf.html
https://sushrey.wordpress.com/2015/10/31/10-major-events-in-nepalese-history/
https://images.app.goo.gl/wV5rjjngSFgV47iQ7
https://images.app.goo.gl/yh4EQ1YK4sLvRMrVA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMGSP0keRh0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cop9fmSGxr0&list=PL3425BD947BD88C53
https://youtu.be/8P_xq6lwJyg?si=deCWXSd_TPQ39Jsk
Comments
Post a Comment