ABSTRACT
This introduction to the volume contextualises the theme of the conference and examines how all the papers included in this special issue address the theme of ‘Documenting the Beijing Olympics’. The issue of what it means to document, especially in the twenty-first century in which the media must include new technologies, is considered in some detail. Types of documentation, the problem of intentional and unintentional meanings, are considered and the question ‘what does it mean to represent an event?’ is asked.
