Feeling Mediated A History of Media Technology and Emotion in America [Hardcover]

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.

In reconstructing the debates surrounding media physicalism, Malin draws on substantial archival and primary-source research, and brings in as well intelligent discussions of the history of psychology and the philosophy of mind. Ultimately, his critique of media physicalism underscores the necessity of apprehending the historical situatedness of media technologies, showing how race, class, and gender norms were built into various media and the systems set up to measure their impact. Indeed one of the great many joys in readingFeeling Mediatedis its lCÔ