Contemplative Media Studies

Digital technologies raise psychological and socio-economic questions about consciousness, selfhood, and ethics. This article proposes a framework called contemplative media studies, which combines critical political-economic media scholarship focused on justice and structural reform, media and religious scholarship examining digital culture and religious identity, and contemplative studies applying contemplative principles to research. The framework analyzes the spiritual ideology behind commercial digital platforms and asks whether alternative platforms could better support human development. Grounded in a commitment to socio-economic justice, contemplative media studies aims to articulate an ethically responsive and economically sustainable architecture for human flourishing.

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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.