Handbook of Research on Global Media’s Preternatural Influence on Global Technological Singularity, Culture, and Government

Stephen Schafer’s interest is on communications research relating to media influence on cultural transformation. He has been developing a theoretical analog between cognitive models and video game structure. The analog is based on a multidimensional common denominator—narrative-metaphorical linguistic structure—that operates as an affective transducer between conscious and unconscious cognitive dimensions. Accordingly, a genre of drama-based video games (DBG) may be used as a research instrument to access robust data relative to unconscious cognitive states. Schafer is Principal Lecturer and Past Chairman of the Humanities & Social Sciences Department at Digipen Institute of Technology where he has taught since 2000. In addition to teaching at several colleges and universities, he has twenty-five years of experience that includes senior management in both the public and private sectors, social and environmental activism, marketing, and journalism. The unusual breadth and depth of his practical experience supports his research on the media dynamics of cultural evolution. Conference presentations and professional affiliations include such events as PAX 2009, GDC Austin 2008 & 2009, Toward a Science of Consciousness 2008 & 2009, Social Approaches to Consciousness, Game Education Summit (GES) North America 2009, GES North America 2010, and GES Europe 2010. He was invited to co-organize an international invitational workshop on Meaningful Media at the Asia Festival 2009, is a Senior Fellow of the Video Games & Human Values Initiative, an invited member of The Society of Industry Leaders, a member of the Immersive Education Initiative (MediaGrid), The C. G. Jung Foundation, and others. He teaches an array of classes that emphasize mythology, symbolism, and Jungian psychological dynamics of dream interpretation in order to train game-story writers to apply the principles to interactive narrative.