The Media Object Appearing as Others

This chapter presents an analysis of media-based public discussion as involving an empathic experience. Here, “empathy” is an English translation of the German term Einfühlung, which means an experience of another consciousness. By applying the phenomenological concepts of empathy and the body, this chapter argues that we encounter others in media-based public discussion as other persons, even if they appear to us differently than in face-to-face communication. The chapter illuminates the characteristics of media as a form of communication from the perspective of the subject who attends the discussion. Thereby the chapter argues that nothing in the media-based nature of contemporary public discussions as such hinders meaningful discussion and learning.