The future of humanity in relation to the development of digital technology in the field of communication is surely a priority issue for reflection in contemporary societies.
Research in this field within media education is still very incipient. Working for a digital future that generates a human and social balance, in many contexts, is still an illusion. To face these challenges, the main challenge of communicators and other professionals, is not only to continue advancing in the digitalization of communication processes but to work in parallel on proposals that facilitate inclusion, respect and reciprocity.
Therefore, our research aims to make a contribution that allows the application of strategies that strengthen the individual and social skills of children and adolescents. It is about the theoretical and practical development of spiritual competence within the framework of media education that has its starting point in communicative competence.
From this perspective, our initial question can be formulated as follows: Among the competencies that children and adolescents should have in front of digital media messages, what role does spiritual competence have, how should it be understood and applied in the media education, in the perspective of facilitating inclusion, respect and reciprocity?
To address these questions, we start from the main results of our previous research on the communicative dimension of media education (dialogue and cognitive decentration) in order to deepen now the anthropological-philosophical dimension where aspects of spirituality can be addressed.
On this occasion we wish to offer researchers and those in the field of education and the production of media messages a proposal for analysis and application of spiritual competence. Our proposal is based on the theoretical contributions of Arnaud Join-Lambert, Walter Lesch, Henri Derroitte, André Fossion, Marie-France Daniel, Jean-Pierre Meunier, Paul Ricoeur, Paulo Freire Mario Kaplún, among others. In the experimental part our indicators arise from research results with children and adolescents - that is, people with identity, spirituality and dignity - after having been exposed to various types of media messages in different geographical, social and cultural contexts.
As a general conclusion, it has been observed that the understanding and subsequent application of spiritual competence in children and adolescents - within various types of media education processes - can contribute significantly to strengthening the most noble values (inclusion, respect and reciprocity) that lead them to be actors of a digital future for the benefit of humanity.