The sensational landscape: the history of sensationalist images of the Arctic, 1818-1910

This thesis is a study of the public perception of the Arctic through explorers' journals and the modern press in America and Britain. The underlying question of this thesis is what exactly was the role of the press in forming public opinions about Arctic exploration in general? Did newspaper editors in America and Britain simply report what they found interesting based upon their own knowledge of Arctic explorers' journals, or did these editors create that public interest in order to profit from increased sales? From a historical perspective, these reasons relate to the growth of an intellectual and social current that had been gaining strength in the Western world throughout the nineteenth century: the creation of the mythic hero. In essence, the mythical status of Arctic explorers developed in Britain, but was matured and honed in the American press, particularly in the competitive news industry in New York. Here, the creation of the heroic Arctic explorer resulted largely from the vicious competitiveness of the contemporary press.