Developing a Media Event: a Case Study of BBC Persian Coverage of 2011 British Royal Wedding

The present article aims to explain the concept of “media event” as a new concept in communications sciences and media studies, and examine an outstanding case in this regard. This case is “the news coverage of British Queen’s grandson wedding ceremony by BBC Persian channel. ” The data were gathered through watching the footages related to news coverage of the wedding on BBC Persian. Semiotics was used for the analysis of the data using structural analysis for images and semiotics of connotations and denotations was employed for the analysis of the language components. In each sequence, the results were compared with the attributes of media event concept. “Thematic sequence” was the unit of analysis. The research findings indicate that this ceremony possesses the following characteristics: precise planning, world’s well-known media support for the ceremony, people’s wide participation, security and discipline during the ceremony. According to the finding, the wedding ceremony followed several covert propagation of culture, civilization and media, media technological competition and showing off superiority, power and capability to hold such a ceremony, setting the ground for 2012 Olympic games and expressing readiness for holding this ceremony, showing the glory of the monarchy, popularity with the monarchy, being beyond place and time, etc.