Media Mindfulness

IGod by Ranci11

Daniel Pinchbeck has some choice words on ways to think about a new paradigm for mass media. I acknowledge that I am somewhat guilty of focusing on negative trends in media, so I think it’s always good to point a finger in the right direction. This article provides a short and succinct map for what is possible in order to build a more sustainable world.

Conscious Choice: Mission Possible:

One way that massive change could happen quickly is through a paradigm-shift in the mainstream media. While the United States has lost much of its standing in the world in recent years, we still operate the controls of the collective dream-machinery for the planet. The blueprint for a better life now being pursued by the masses and entrepreneurial classes across Asia, India, and the Third World is the “American Dream” of unlimited affluence, promoted by our television shows and films over the last half-century. A transformation of values — a spiritual revolution — in the US could initiate a global shift in priorities. If we used our genius for marketing and storytelling to project a different vision and value system, we could repattern and reprogram the collective psyche in a very short period of time.

This new media paradigm would encourage participation over passivity, collaboration over individual success, attunement to local differences over acquiescence to mass marketing, and sufficiency over abundance. The “new news” would focus on trends that support sustainability and higher consciousness, and relentlessly expose techniques of fear-mongering, social control, and “greenwashing.” Rather than exploiting violence and sex to grab at the public’s fleeting attention, our media would present strategies of conflict resolution and nonviolent practices, while offering a positive revisioning of eroticism as a tool for personal growth.

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