Editor’s Note

Dear Readers,

The aim of this special issue was to spark ‘Better Questions’ along with new thoughts and dialogues about the role of media in an unknown plurality of the existing and freshly envisioned contexts of Post-Abnormal. Post-Abnormal is an epoch that is primarily devoid of ‘Better Questions’. Globally for many, they are already a part of it. For the rest, they are about to be a part of it but are not a part of yet. I hope that this issue can inspire ‘Better Questions’ and through them dialogues that can generate new lines of scholarly inquiry by igniting creativity and imagination within you. For the new lines, needs, and avatar of the role of media in the Post-Abnormal, I request that you be open to relaxing your concern of if this is the same ship like it was for the Ship of Theseus.

This special issue has been curated with care to cover different aspects of media in human lives during the imagined Post-Abnormal. In this issue you will find articles that will stimulate you to think, if not creatively then, differently, and enable you to ask ‘Better Questions’. This ability to think creatively is going to be crucial for up-and-coming scholars because they will be burdened with not just enhancing existing aspects of media but also be equally invested in creating and developing new frontiers of media, appropriate for the presently imagined PostAbnormal.

The contributions in this issue expect and want that you transport yourself as a reader into an imagined future. A future that we have decided to label as “The Post Abnormal”. Since the last two years, our planet has been besieged by a pandemic, where COVID-19 hit us. The pandemic has callously altered the course of our future. And while there is a hope for the future, the outline of what it will be is unclear. There are no ‘Better Questions’. Keeping such unknowns and uncertainties in mind, we challenged young minds to dig deeper to envision a planet with people in the Post Abnormal and the role of media in it.

I thank Dr. Manjushree Naik for her able and unconditional support in this journey, and Dr. Padma Rani for trusting my venture into the Post-Abnormal. My hope is that after reading this issue your propensity to appreciate, accept, and embrace the plurality of and in scholarly ideas, connections, and possibilities substantially increases.

Dedicating this to ‘Better Questions’.

Kindly,

Arpan Yagnik, Ph.D
Action Inspired by Creativity