Autistic media
A book by Peter Hobson - called 'The Cradle of Thought: Exploring the Origins of Thinking' looks at the development of thought. At its core is the hypothesis that thought (and language) arises largely from our instinctive emotional connection with others.
The relationship of emotion to information has been largely overlooked - indeed, news reports seem to strive towards being dispassionate (in distinction from being objective) - but it seems that it is central to the way that we (humans) store, retrieve and process information.

As you might expect of a creature honed by evolution, our memories are designed to retain information with strong emotional tags - 'bad thing', 'good thing' etc. But as social creatures, we assume these tags from others i.e. when we observe another person their facial expressions, tone of voice etc. it automatically elicits an 'emotional echo' - which gives the emotional 'flavour' to the information they impart. It also seems the emotional 'tags' we attach to information may be intrinsic or extrinsic - our news presenter attaches the requisite jollity or gravity, but when we are looking for a solution to a medical problem on the web we know the answer is important.

So what? So I suppose this is why we have news presenters. I suppose this identifies some of the missing ingredients in much online learning - the teacher we all remember, who was passionate about their subject and who inspired us. I suppose this provides a simple model for much advertising, where the trick is to attach a strong emotional tag to the target information. Some adverts (such as the ones against drink-driving) I find quite unforgettable. It is also an interesting element of the debate regarding whether or not reporters should 'personalise' their reports; it seems they should.

I heard a dismissive analysis of youtube's popularity on R4 the other day, to paraphrase 'I suppose Americans are just interested in weird stuff' - but it's a very personal, emotional media - not the kind of stereotyped 'autistic' media or 'super-emotional' media (e.g. EastEnders) that we are used to. What people are saying on youtube is important at an emotional level. At this level a teenager's bedroom post can easily be more imporant than a news story about Israeli/Palestinian conflict.

I would imagine that in an era of 'information overload' we will become increasingly dependent on our emotional responses to guide us.