To Frighten and to Amuse: Mediatisation of Emotions in the Radio News Section Headings

Abstract

Seemingly objective radio-information sharing often exhibits a significant amount of emotional weight. Senders tend to invoke extreme emotions in order to rivet listeners’ attention. On the one hand, they focus on the feeling of anxiety, however, on the other the primary goal is to amuse and entertain. Media bombards us with news regarding terror, bloody accidents, political disputes or ecological disasters. Senders often use infotainment — light-weight, humorous, and at times infantile information — to release the tension. The strongest emotional impact can be found in the news’ headings. Aforementioned headings presented during the Radio ZET’s broadcasts (for the period ranging from 6^th until 12^th of May 2019) construct the corpus on which the analysis is conducted. The quantitative research indicates which emotions are most frequently exploited, however the qualitative research allows for the further examination and analysis of stylistic devices used.