The Worlds That Are Watching: Media, Politics, Diplomacy, and the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics

This article explores selected English-language media representation of the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics. These Games were remarkable in suddenly becoming a key subject for global media when North Korea unexpectedly announced its intention to participate barely a month before the opening ceremony. There followed an extraordinary turn of events, including revived talks between the Koreas and a meeting between South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un, the last-minute formation of a unified women's ice hockey team, Korean athletes marching under a unification flag, and an unprecedented summit in Singapore involving U.S. President Donald Trump and Kim Jong-Un. These developments raise critical questions regarding sport, diplomacy, media, and geopolitics. A discursive exploration is conducted of the main thematic mediated currents as the Games passed from being in prospect to taking place to being appraised in rapid retrospect. It is argued that each sport event of this kind has much in common with others but also displays unique characteristics that can never be replicated in space or time. It seeks to derive lessons for communication and sport analysis from PyeongChang 2018 alongside sporting and other cultural events that have already happened and are yet to be conceived.