By MARK PEARSON Follow @Journlaw
Journalism education colleague at the University of Tennessee, Melanie Faizer, has had a second article on mindful journalism published – this time in the leading media-technology outlet MediaShift.
In it she profiles a fascinating experiment at Ryerson University’s School of Journalism in Toronto where a course in mindful meditation and journalism is being launched in January.
Faizer writes:
Practicing mindfulness may help journalists better withstand the unrelenting stresses of the job. …And although mindfulness can help reduce human suffering, Ryerson’s mission is really about creating a methodology for young journalists that helps them resist falling into the storytelling traps of negativity and sensationalism.
Faizer’s first article on the topic appeared in Columbia Journalism Review and can be viewed here.
Her quotes from me for both articles stem from this interview we conducted over Skype in May:
Our book Mindful Journalism and News Ethics in the Digital Era: A Buddhist Approach (Shelton Gunaratne, Mark Pearson and Sugath Senarath eds; Routledge, NY, 2015) explored the possibilities of applying mindfulness techniques to journalism practice.
I penned an article on the “Right Speech” aspect of mindful journalism for the International Communication Gazette titled ‘Enlightening communication analysis in Asia-Pacific: Media studies, ethics and law using a Buddhist perspective’. Its abstract and link to the full article is available here.
The article backgrounds important critiques of the Western approach to communication studies, and considers how globalized communication and media studies has become, before exemplifying how a secular Buddhist perspective might offer 2,500 year-old analytical tools that can assist with media analysis, law and ethics.
I’ve also written a shorter account of the basic principles of mindful journalism in the journal Ethical Space: The International Journal of Communication Ethics, and the editors have been kind enough to make that article available for free viewing as a feature item on their website here. You might also want to explore some of their other fascinating articles on media ethics here and perhaps subscribe.
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Disclaimer: While I write about media law and ethics, nothing here should be construed as legal advice. I am an academic, not a lawyer. My only advice is that you consult a lawyer before taking any legal risks.
© Mark Pearson 2017
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