Communication and emotions: the art of distinguishing, processing, and reacting

The notion that emotion and media require more studies is undisputed. Media today are emotion generators: the football World Cup in Qatar, COVID-19 and the pandemic management in the global arena, the war between Russia and Ukraine, the influx of refugees on the Mediterranean coasts that cause tension between the European Union countries, and the latest Climate Change Convention hosted in Egypt (COP27) may fill us with anxiety, fear, and even worries. In addition, the news produced and shared through social media also impacts society, giving rise to primary emotions that, on many occasions, result in a reaction of acceptance, rejection, or even commitment. For example, the president of Ukraine seeks to develop positive feelings—empathy and compassion—on a global level with messages through social networks, such as: “We are grateful to everyone for supporting our values, for believing in Ukraine, and our victory. We feel that the world is supporting Ukraine, and this gives us strength in our struggle.” (@ZelenskyyuA, 5th of November 2022). This exemplifies the colossal variety of emotions presented and distinguished through media platforms and also evoked by its users all around the globe. These examples not only reveal the need to research emotions from an interdisciplinary lens—philosophy, sociology, psychology, anthropology, media, and communication—but also lead us to transcend interpretive barriers related to ethics and objectivity, understand the existing nuances in the new interactions between the media and the audience; where sometimes, the audience ends up being placed in the center of the scene. Returning to emotions, it is important to understand that they are presented as a fundamental component of social reality and they allow us to structure—in a certain sense, order—the world based on the distinction between closeness and distance. In this sense, according to the Communicative Theory of Emotions, we experience emotions when events occur that are important for our goals and plans; they represent ...