ABSTRACT
Recent historical accounts propose that emotional expression has acquired more signifi cance in the public sphere (Furedi 2004; Nicholson 1999; Scherer 2001; Wouters 1986). In the last decades we have witnessed the emergence of the so-called ‘therapy culture’ and, accordingly, the creation of new forms of public spaces that are devoted to disclosing and scrutinizing emotions (Lupton 1998; Nicholson 1999: 152). In contemporary mediated culture, the fascination with emotions is most evident in different forms of infotainment, such as reality television and tabloid magazines, in which emotional expression fi gures prominently (e.g., Aslama and Pantti 2006). ‘Serious’ journalism, although it has never been devoid of emotion, has not been immune to the emotionalizing of public life. It is generally assumed that sometime during the 1990s emotional expression became more prominent in Western news media – for instance, the role of the news media frantically reporting and forming public emotions following the death of Princess Diana in 1997 is well documented (e.g., Thomas 2002; Walter 1999).
