Rethinking Media Studies: Media, Meditation and Communication

This book reconsiders media studies from different philosophical and theoretical perspectives from around the world. It brings together diverse views and visions from thinkers such as Sr Aubrobindo, Jurgen Habermas, Paul Ricoeur, Pope Francis, and Satyajit Ray, among others. The authors focus on the issues of ethics, aesthetics, meditation, and communication in relation to media studies and explore the links between media and mindfulness. The volume includes case studies from India, United States, Switzerland, and Denmark and presents empirical works on new horizons of critical media studies in different fields such as American news media and creative media lab. A unique contribution, this book will be indispensable for students and researchers of journalism, communication studies, social media, behavioural sciences, sociology, philosophy, cultural studies, and development studies.

Ananta Kumar Giri is Professor at the Madras Institute of Development Studies, Chennai, India. He has taught and done research in many universities in India and abroad. He has an abiding interest in social movements and cultural change, criticism, creativity, and contemporary dialectics of transformation, theories of self, culture, and society, and creative streams in education, philosophy, and literature. Dr Giri has written and edited around two dozen books in Odia and English, including Global Transformations: Postmodernity and Beyond (1998); Knowledge and Human Liberation (2013), Practical Spirituality and Human Development: Creative Experiments for Alternative Futures (editor, 2019), Mahatma Gandhi and Sri Aurobindo (editor, 2022), and The Calling of Global Responsibility: New Initiatives in Justice, Dialogues and Planetary Realizations (2023).

Santosh Kumar Biswal is working as Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication at Rama Devi Women’s University, Bhubaneswar (India). He has worked in Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication, Symbiosis International (Deemed University), Pune (India). Previously, he has worked in Andhra Loyola College (Autonomous), Vijayawada; and Hindustan Times, New Delhi. He has co-edited books – Social and Cultural Dynamics in Indian Cinema (2020) and Holistic Approaches to Brand Culture and Communication Across Industries (2018). He has published business cases in reputed platforms including SAGE. He has published popular columns in national English dailies including The Indian Express, The Asian Age, The Telegraph, Hindustan Times, The Pioneer, The Statesman, Deccan Chronicle, and Yahoo India. He has contributed MOOCs for SWAYAM & e-PG Pathshala- MHRD, Govt. of India. Currently, he is the Associate Editor of Media Watch, a double-blind peer-reviewed media and communication journal.