ABSTRACT
Emotion is a hot topic in media research (Detenber and Reeves 1996; A. Lang et al. 1999; Lee and Lang 2009; Konijn and ten Holt this volume; Monahan 1995; Nabi 1998; Nabi et al. 2008; Newhagen 1998; Oliver et al. 2000). Clearly a great many, if not most, media messages contain emotional content and elicit emotional experiences in media users. Both the presence of emotion in messages (A. Lang et al. 1995; Nabi 1998) and the experience of emotion (Monahan 1995; Newhagen 1998) in users have been shown to have profound effects on many aspects of online message processing and subsequent related behavior (Calder and Gruder 1989; Isen 1989; also Gratch this volume). However, despite the ubiquitous nature of emotion as a content feature and emotion as a dependent variable, there has been remarkably little discussion or standardization of the concept or its measurement in our fi eld. As a result, it is diffi cult to draw broad conclusions about the role of emotion in mediated content. In this chapter, we will explore methodological issues involved with both emotion as a content feature of the message and measuring emotion as a reaction to media messages.
