Congratulations Pyeongchang, host city for the 2018 Winter Olympics! This morning I noticed a spike in traffic to this blog, all because of a short post I did back in March on the central role of television and the media in the modern Olympics.
Now that the 2018 Winter games have been awarded to Pyeongchang, we may well anticipate the sort of television and media coverage the world has never yet seen for the first Winter Olympics in Korea. By that time, further digital development, media convergence and further ubiquitous networking will have all progressed well beyond their current state. Visitors to Pyeongchang will likely have their choice of a nice variety of free and paid apps for their smartphones, augmenting the reality of the opening and closing ceremonies, as well as the Games themselves. History buffs will no doubt be able to use their phones or tablets to trace the Korean-war era battles and other history that took place on or near some of the ski slopes and other winter sports venues.
A number of interesting possibilities surround the potential of television and the media to assist North-South reconciliation in Korea, especially given that Pyeongchang is not far from the DMZ, which separates the southern part of Gangwon Province from its northern part, including Korea's fabled Diamond Mountain.
These are just some of the thoughts that occur to me today, after the IOC's decision in Durban, South Africa yesterday.