Contemplative Media Studies
Religions August 26, 2015 Peer reviewed DOI: 10.3390/rel6030948 via DOAJ
Summary
Digital technologies raise questions about consciousness, selfhood, and ethics. This article proposes contemplative media studies, a framework combining critical political-economic media scholarship (focusing on social and economic justice through policy reform), media and religious scholarship (examining religious dimensions of digital culture and media's role in shaping religious identity), and contemplative studies (applying contemplative principles to research methods and theory). This approach analyzes the spiritual ideology behind commercial digital platforms and asks whether alternative platforms could better foster human development, aiming for an ethically-responsive and economically-sustainable architecture of human flourishing.
Study at a glance
| Design | theoretical or philosophical paper |
|---|---|
| Key finding | Contemplative media studies offers a framework for examining the spiritual ideology of commercial digital platforms and envisioning alternative platforms that better catalyze human development, anchored in a commitment to socio-economic justice. |
Abstract
The psychological and socio-economic implications of digital technologies call for scholarship that engages questions about the nature of human consciousness, the construction of the self and the ethics of technical development. In this article, I outline a framework for an approach called contemplative media studies. This approach incorporates several different scholarly threads, namely: via critical political-economic media scholarship, a focus on achieving social and economic justice through policy initiatives and structural reform; via media and religious scholarship, an interest in the religious dimensions of digital culture and the role of media in shaping religious identity; and via contemplative studies, an appreciation of the applicability of contemplative principles to research methods and theory. This framework allows us to examine the spiritual ideology that drives the construction of commercial digital platforms and to ask whether alternative platforms might better catalyze human development. Anchored in a critical commitment to socio-economic justice, contemplative media studies is aimed at articulating an ethically-responsive and economically-sustainable architecture of human flourishing.