Audience experiencing of emotions in the contemporary media landscape

This short piece reflects on the mediated experiencing of emotions, based on a literature review of the field of audience research during 2005-15. We live in a complex and ubiquitous media environment which makes our experiencing of the world increasingly mediated, and audience studies have been part of this discussion. The main emergent themes identified in this field are emotions and identity formation; emotions and individual and collective memory; and mediated experiencing of negative emotions related to trauma and distant suffering. A transversal paradox was found: while interaction and participation seem more frequent and spontaneous experiencing of emotions appears to be possible, technological mediation introduces distance and detachment. This literature analysis shows the need for psycho-cognitive and cultural-critical approaches to the study of emotions to be reconciled in order to tackle the complexity of the phenomenon.