Feeling Mediated

New technologies, whether text message or telegraph,

inevitably raise questions about emotion. New forms of communication bring with

them both fear and hope, on one hand allowing us deeper emotional connections

and the ability to forge global communities, while on the other prompting

anxieties about isolation and over-stimulation. Feeling

Mediated investigates the larger context of such concerns, considering both

how media technologies intersect with our emotional lives and how our ideas

about these intersections influence how we think about and experience emotion

and technology themselves.

Drawing on extensive archival research, Brenton J. Malin explores

the historical roots of much of our recent understanding of mediated feelings,

showing how earlier ideas about the telegraph, phonograph, radio, motion

pictures, and other once-new technologies continue to inform our contemporary

thinking. With insightful analysis, Feeling

Mediated explores a series of fascinating arguments about technology and

emotion that became especially heated during the early 20th century. These debates, which carried forward and

transformed earlier discussions of technology and emotion, culminated in a set

of ideas that became institutionalized in the structures of American media

production, advertising, social research, and policy, leaving a lasting impact on

our everyday lives.