Natural disaster news and communities of feeling: the affective interpellation of local and global publics
This paper engages with contemporary debates around the mediation of distant suffering by examining the ways in which news selection and reporting interpellate audiences into communities of feeling, in which affective belonging is structured by multimodal rhetorical strategies. Concepts
drawn from discursive psychology and systemic-functional linguistics (appraisal theory) are used to show how news coverage of natural disasters positions audiences affectively. Analysis of Australian print media coverage of the 2009 Australian bushfires and the 2010 Haiti earthquake will be
used to show how this process differs for local and international events. The paper contributes to debates on the “emotionalisation” of public culture by exploring the precise functions of affect within disaster reporting; in particular, how the production of various kinds of affects
in the wake of a disaster shapes local and global publics.
Keywords: affect; appraisal theory; disaster news; emotions; global public
Document Type: Research Article
Affiliations: School of Applied Media & Social Sciences,Monash University, Churchill,Victoria, Australia
Publication date: 01 September 2012
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