Historicity of Affective Experience: Contents Catching Our Attention and Influencing Us

This chapter builds a bridge between the second and the last part of the book by analyzing how the others we encounter in public media affect us. I argue that affects do not appear as if from nowhere, but affects are related to our previous experiences and socialized patterns called “sedimentations” in our experiences. The sediments of affects can be seen in how media contents gain different meanings and come to affect us differently than before, when the discussions unfold and develop. First, the chapter presents the concept of affectivity and then turns to the sedimentations of affectivity in public discussions in media.