The 1911 South Pole Conquest as Historical Media Event and Media Ensemble

Abstract

The conquest of the South Pole by Roald Amundsen and his team of explorers in 1911 became a major international media event by virtue of Amundsen's ‘Race for the Pole’ against Robert Falcon Scott's ill-fated expedition. This article shows how Roald Amundsen and his team entered into close collaborations with journalists, as well as engaging in extensive feats of media management. It also discusses how various media came together to build the media event, forming a ‘media ensemble’. The roles of books, photography, cinematography and newspapers are highlighted. On a conceptual level, this article considers possible differences between events involving the media ensemble from the previous turn of the century, and media events from the subsequent broadcast-dominated period. It comparatively discusses the tradition of media event research building on Dayan and Katz and a recent German strand of research into historical media events.