MECHANISMS OF GENERATING EMOTIONS IN AUDIO-BASED MEDIA
MECHANISMS OF GENERATING EMOTIONS IN AUDIO-BASED MEDIA

Summary/Abstract: Audio-based content is considered to be extremely intimate and easily evoking emotions in listeners. The aim of this article is to determine the affective mechanisms used in audio productions during the COVID-19 pandemic. The analysis focuses on radio programmes of public and commercial radio stations and the broadly defined audio media segment: podcasts and streaming services from Europe, the USA, and Australia. The content created during the so-called first wave of the pandemic (March–June 2020) was considered. Sound recordings are analysed in terms of four aspects related to the structure of audio content: words, music, acoustic effects, and silence. This study aims to present the perspective of a broadcaster who designs the audience’s affective reactions and the unique nature of radio journalists’ work during the pandemic. The study confirmed the use of mechanisms intended to intensify and regulate emotions in audio productions in all of the analysed areas. This is especially true for emotionally-charged lexis, voice expressions, selection of musical repertoire and solutions applied in sound editing. The importance of silence as an acoustic equivalent of distance, void and isolation is emphasised. We put forward a list of mechanisms behind generating and modulating emotions in audio-based media. The study shows how sound, as diverse as it is, conveys emotions in the media.

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