CMS News Archives

In today's New York Times, Professor Henry Jenkins weighs in on the topic of pop cosmopolitanism as it relates to the rising global popularity of Korean pop music:

Inevitably, non-Asian Americans are discovering such easily accessible foreign culture, too. Because of the "multidirectional flow of cultural goods around the world," there is a "new pop cosmopolitanism," according to Henry Jenkins, professor of comparative media studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In an essay in "Globalization" (University of California Press, 2004), Jenkins writes that "younger Americans are distinguishing themselves from their parents' culture through their consumption of Japanese anime and manga, Bollywood films and bhangra, and Hong Kong action movies."

Read the article.

Posted by CMS Webmaster at 12:22 PM in CMS In The Press | Permalink

The CMS program is currently soliciting applications for two new postdoctoral teaching and research fellowships: one focused on media education and designed to help support the work of the Education Arcade and the New Media Literacies Project; the second focused on creative industries and globalization and linked to the new Convergence Culture Consortium. The post-docs will also be teaching courses designed to broaden the CMS curriculum into areas that are increasingly central to the program's research efforts. The fellowship program is also designed to encourage the academic growth of promising media studies scholars with recent Ph.D. degrees. Support for the new postdoctoral program has come from an anonymous donor and from the Dean of Humanities.

Posted by CMS Webmaster at 1:18 PM in Announcements | Permalink

CMS is looking for films, videos, video podcasts and mobisodes produced by MIT and Wellesley students, faculty, staff and affiliates for its 2006 Media Spectacle.

The deadline for submission is April 10.

Screenings will begin at 7 pm on Wednesday, April 26 in 32-123 (the Stata Center). All formats, styles, lengths and subjects are acceptable. Works-in-progress are welcomed.

The Chris Pomiecko Prize will be awarded to the most outstanding undergraduate media submission. The prize is named for the CMS administrator who died in a car accident last year.

To submit a work, send title, format, description and running time to Gene Fierro at generoso@mit.edu or contact CMS at 617.253.3599.

Posted by CMS Webmaster at 3:54 PM in Announcements, Events | Permalink

Beginning this term, webcasts of all Communication Forum talks will be made available by MIT World, which provides free on-demand video of significant public events at MIT.

"The Communications Forum is a welcome addition to our video collection," said Laurie Everett, MIT World's project manager, about the arrangement. "These scholarly discussions help MIT World stay true to its mission to present a wide range of ideas and topics to a global audience of learners."

The MIT Communications Forum, founded by Ithiel de Sola Pool who taught in the Department of Political Science, has sponsored talks on all aspects of communications for more than 25 years. An article about the Forum and CMS appeared in the fall 2005 issue of In Medias Res.

"The rapid expansion of broadband and wireless technology makes these webcasts feasible and significant. The collaboration strengthens both the Forum and MIT World," said Literature Professor and Forum Director David Thorburn.

This spring, the Forum will sponsor a conversation between former Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky and Thorburn; and three linked forums on the state of TV – the economics of television, the changing face of television news and a discussion with David Milch, creator of HBO's Deadwood.

The Forum will continue to make audio recordings of its talks available from web.mit.edu/comm-forum about 48 hours following live events. Webcasts will be available from MIT World approximately a month following live events.

MIT World currently hosts nine Forum events. To browse titles, go to mitword.mit.edu and under "Video Finder" select "MIT Communications Forum" from the "All Hosts" dropdown menu.

Posted by CMS Webmaster at 3:52 PM in , Announcements | Permalink

In an article on the disappearing line between real and virtual (MMORPG) economies, The Boston Globe turns to Professor Henry Jenkins for a quick perspective:

As the Xbox generation spends more time online, immersed in multiplayer online games with thousands of other people, the value of their characters increases. So something that one can't touch -- a cute elf, a powerful warrior, or a butt-kicking ogre -- accumulates real-world value. Call it the world of Dungeons & Dragons and Dollars -- or, as one professor calls it, an ''illusionary economy." ''For the players, these characters are not without value," says Henry Jenkins, director of MIT's Comparative Media Studies program. His upcoming book, ''Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide," touches on this virtual commerce among online game players. He compares this underground character trade to buying your way into any coveted group.

'You are buying the power to participate," he says. ''The game world is kind of like a social or country club. So it's somewhat similar to buying access to some sort of entertainment or some membership to participate instead of building it from the ground up. For the people who participate, it's not just about the fantasy of slaying dragons but about the reality of forming strong bonds with other people around the world, and that's what gives real economic value to buying these characters."

Read the article.

Posted by CMS Webmaster at 1:21 PM in CMS In The Press | Permalink

An editorial by Amit Khanna, chairman of Reliance Entertainment, references the public work of CMS's Convergence Culture Consortium (C3) to support his argument that "Digital Convergence is Finally Getting the Recognition It Deserves":

The past few years have seen the emergence of multiple platforms like satellite TV, broadband cable, and wireless, which are delivering all kinds of content to a plethora of devices. Convergence is no longer about what content you access through which device but how long do you engage with that content. The Convergence Culture Consortium (C3) at the famous MIT sums it up succinctly, "There are three core concepts that are central to the way that we at C3 think about the current media landscape. Transmedia entertainment, participatory culture, and brand extension describe the same process as experienced by the creative artist, the media consumer, and the marketer."

Find out more about the Convergence Culture Consortium.

Posted by CMS Webmaster at 12:26 PM in CMS In The Press | Permalink