ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to relate research in emotion communication to McLuhan’s analysis of media. Our central thesis is that the kinds of holistic perceptual/cognitive processing that McLuhan identifi ed with electronic media stem, not from vague changes in sense ratios, but rather from a lessened relative role of symbolic communication and expanded role of spontaneous emotional communication that electronic media afford. This offers an alternative mechanism by which to understand the phenomenon of the global village which is more amenable to empirical test than the hypothetical notion of changes in sense ratios. With spontaneous communication, mass media afford the possibility for immediate, direct emotional communication on a global scale. From a dual-cognition theory viewpoint, this has encouraged greater reliance upon syncretic, holistic, heuristic, and affective cognitive processing
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‘unmediated empathy’ via media, which holds relevance for media studies and is consistent with McLuhan’s ideas. The mirror neuron evidence suggests the potential for a direct apprehension by the audience of the feelings and desires of the sender via video and audio representations of the sender’s emotional displays. We consider specifi c implications involving presence, charisma, and the potential of electronic media to foster both prosocial, altruistic, compassionate responses and hateful, vengeful, remorseless responses – even genocide.
