Talking About Mindfulness: Portrayals in Diverse Communication Communities

Abstract

Mindfulness as a concept and a practice has gained significant recognition, referenced and employed in academic studies and the popular press, among other communities. Within these literatures, broad conclusions are often drawn about mindfulness, its relationships to other variables, and its impacts or benefits. Given the surge of writings about mindfulness in these contexts, and the complexity of the mindfulness construct itself, it is not surprising that there is variation in its conceptualization across sources even as the same name “mindfulness” is used. It is therefore important to discern “what are different groups talking about, when talking about mindfulness?” to assess, among other things, the varying meanings and values imbued within the term by these different communities. Taking an Ethnography of Communication approach, this study performs a communication codes analysis on two communication communities (popular press articles and academic journal articles) to determine if there are particular communication codes associated with either community and, if so, what distinguishes them both within and across the communities. This analysis has implications for academic understanding on as well as practical application of the topic/practice.