With this contribution, we present a framework for what we call utopian media studies. This framework is derived from our work as co-editors on a special issue called ‘Utopian Media Studies’ that will be published in Convergence. This special issue departs from the observation that digital media studies generally operates within a register of ‘critique’ but that it has fewer rigorous conventions to produce what Ruth Levitas (2013) describes as the utopian ‘reconstitution of society.’ Following Steven Jackson’s (2023: 428) claim that the ‘mutual transmission of hope’ may be ‘the central task ... of critical scholarship today,’ we consider how media studies can become a site of utopian digital praxis, research and experimentation. We do so by highlighting five sensibilities to explicate the nature, value and contribution of utopian media studies and by exploring concrete ways in which existing media studies research is doing utopian work that aligns with these sensibilities.