Media Times| Networked Simultaneities in the Time of the Great Exhibitions: Media and the 1914 Oslo Centenary Jubilee Exhibition

Espen Ytreberg

Abstract


 

In media-historical research, the experience of mediated simultaneity is primarily seen as a function of the much-discussed ability of certain media to impart a sense of vicarious presence. This article argues that mediated simultaneity also vitally depends on the physical movement of people, objects, and information along networks of transport. In the case of the Great Exhibitions of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, technologies of transport and media representation went together to allow the Great Exhibition crowds a sense of simultaneity with the event. The article’s conceptual discussions are illustrated with the case of the Centenary Jubilee Exhibition, held in Oslo in 1914. Analysis is based on document and print material from the exhibition and on its comprehensive newspaper coverage.



Keywords


Great Exhibitions, world’s fairs, simultaneity, media event, network, crowd communication

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