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CMS News Archives
Ta-Nehisi Coates and Mark McKinnon
In the 2012 presidential campaign, a handful of media outlets deployed "fact-checking" divisions which reported the lies and distortions of the candidates. Some commentators have argued that these truth-squads exposed the inadequacy of standard print and broadcast coverage, much of which seems more like entertainment than news. This forum will examine the changing role of the political media in the U.S. Is our political journalism serving democratic and civic ideals? What do emerging technologies and the proliferation of news sources mean for the future?
Ta-Nehisi Coates is a senior editor at The Atlantic where he writes about culture, politics, and social issues for TheAtlantic.com and the magazine. He is the author of the memoir The Beautiful Struggle.
Mark McKinnon is a senior advisor of Hill & Knowlton Strategies, an international communications consultancy, a weekly columnist for The Daily Beast and The London Telegraph, and is a co-founder of the bipartisan group No Labels. As a political advisor, he has worked for many causes, companies and candidates including former President George W. Bush, 2008 Republican presidential candidate Senator John McCain, late former Texas Governor Ann Richards and Congressman Charlie Wilson.
Download, or watch below.
Continue reading "Video, "News or Entertainment? The Press in Modern Political Campaigns"" »
 Visualizing games and gameplay reveals both startling complexity...and stunning simplicity. This talk discusses many applications of information visualization to games: for theory, historical research, design, development, and creative art practice. Considering examples from across decades of video games (from blockbusters to art house experiments) reveals that most games are already information visualizations of a few particular kinds, and can be further transformed in ways that reveal the original through new eyes, suggesting new forms of play.
Jeremy Douglass is a researcher in games and playable media, electronic literature, and the art and science of data mining and information visualization. He is active in the Software Studies and Critical Code Studies research communities, which study software society and the cultural meaning of computer source code. Douglass is a founding member of Playpower, a MacArthur/HASTAC funded digital media and learning initiative to use ultra-affordable 8-bit game systems as a global education platform, and a participant in an NSF grant exploring creative user behavior in virtual worlds. His recording room for gameplay research includes systems spanning over three decades. The Atari 2600 has wood veneer; the PS3 does not.
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Continue reading "Podcast, Jeremy Douglass: "Visualizing Play: Graphic Approaches to Game Analysis and Innovation"" »
 Games are increasingly seen as a way to address human needs, from the intimate work of maintaining social relationships to the pragmatic benefits of games for learning, health, and social change. If we hope to design games that address these needs, we must understand how people create meaning with, through, and around games. How do specific game design decisions impact the way players think, feel, and behave? What kinds of imaginative and social affordances can games provide players? And what kinds of problems are most appropriate to solve with games in the first place? This talk explores the complex interaction between game design, user experience, and real-world problems through the lens of game-based research projects on discrimination, smoking, and history.
Jessica Hammer is a Mellon Interdisciplinary Graduate Research Fellow at Columbia University, a founding member of the Teachers College EGGPLANT game research laboratory and a member of the Creativity Research Group. She is the lead designer and researcher for the Advance game project, on which she is writing her dissertation. Her larger research interests include stories, games, communities, gender, creativity and learning. She also developed the game design course sequence for the Communications, Computing and Technology program at Teachers College Columbia University. Before joining the department, Jessica worked as a writer, consultant and game designer with an emphasis on serious games and social software. She has taught at NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program, consulted for both academic and business clients, and worked at noted New York game company Gamelab. She received a masters degree in interactive telecommunications from NYU and her BA in computer science from Harvard University. In her free time, she runs an experimental storytelling group in New York City.
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Continue reading "Podcast, Jessica Hammer: "What Games Mean (And How They Mean It)"" »
 In the last few years a new trend of designing video games intended to fulfill a serious purpose through impacting the players in real life contexts has emerged. These games claim to raise awareness about social and political issues such as inequity, injustice, poverty, racism, sexism, exploitation, and oppression. Their intent is to reach a specific purpose beyond pure entertainment. But what are the specific attributes of purposeful games and how can they be researched? Which game design challenges arise and how are they addressed? How do players make meaning of their game play experiences in general? And what is the future of purposeful games research?
In this talk three perspectives of Mitgutsch's recent research on purposeful games are outlined: To begin, insights from a recent study on meaningful experiences in players' lives are examined and the research method of playographies is discussed. In the second part, a research-based game design project on subversive game design and recursive learning is presented and the background of the game Afterland is highlighted. Finally, the narrative of serious games and the design of purposeful games are discussed. On this basis, recent research results will be explored and future challenges for game design and purposeful games research will be outlined.
Dr. Konstantin Mitgutsch is a post-doctoral researcher at the Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab and a Visiting Professor at the University of Vienna. In 2010 he was a Max Kade Fellow at the Education Arcade at the Program of Comparative Media Studies at MIT. He worked at the University of Vienna for several years and published books in the field of game studies and education. Since 2007 he organizes and chairs the annual Vienna Games Conference FROG and is on the expert council of the Pan European Game Information (PEGI).
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Continue reading "Podcast, Konstantin Mitgutsch: "Purposeful Games: Research & Design"" »
As a prologue to the Futures of Entertainment conference, this Forum will focus on the emergence of powerful new production cultures in such cities as Mumbai, Shanghai, and Rio de Janeiro. What do these developments portend for the international flow of media content? How does the nature of these cities shape the entertainment industries they are fostering? At the same time, new means of media production and circulation now permit individuals to produce content from suburban or rural areas. How do these apparently opposed trends co-exist? What is their likely impact on audiences and on the international media landscape?
Speakers include Sergio Sa Leitao, president of RioFilme; 2005 CMS graduate and author of Gay Bombay Parmesh Shahani, who now heads the Godrej India Culture Club and is Editor at Large for Verve magazine; and Ernest James Wilson III, dean of the Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism at the University of Southern California.
Download the video of this event or view below.
Continue reading "Video: "Communications Forum: Cities and the Future of Entertainment"" »
Marina Bers
This talk focuses on digital spaces to support positive youth development.
Download, or listen below.
As the design of our digital landscape is increasingly guided by commercial purposes and not by developmental concerns, there is a sense of urgency for developing strategies and educational programs that promote positive development by taking into consideration the children's social, emotional, cognitive, physical, civic and spiritual needs. But we should also consider the unique design features of each technology and the practices and policies that shape different interactions in the digital landscape. Although this talk will focus on new technologies, it is inspired by an old question: "How should we live?" This talk will present an approach to help children gain the technological literacies of the 21st century while developing a sense of identity, values and purpose. Too often youth's experiences with technology are framed in negative terms. This talk acknowledges problems and risks, and takes an interventionist perspective. Based on over a decade and a half of research, this talk provides a theoretical framework for guiding the implementation of experiences that take advantage of new technologies to support learning and personal development, as well as examples from concrete experiences. These engage children in playful learning by supporting digital content creation, creativity, choices of conduct, communication, collaboration and community building. These are the six C's proposed by the Positive Technological Development framework. They can guide the design and the evaluation of digital experiences from early childhood to adolescence, and offer a possible path to help children out of the playpens into the playgrounds of this technological era.
Marina Umaschi Bers, Ph.D., is an associate professor at the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development and the Computer Science Department at Tufts University. She heads the interdisciplinary Developmental Technologies research group. Her research involves the design and study of innovative learning technologies to promote positive youth development. Dr. Bers received prestigious awards such as the 2005 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), a five year National Science Foundation Young Investigator's Career Award and the American Educational Research Association's Jan Hawkins Award. Over the past decade and a half, Dr. Bers has conceived, designed and evaluated diverse technological tools ranging from robotics to virtual worlds in after-school programs, museums, hospitals, and schools both in the U.S. and abroad. Dr. Bers has received several NSF grants and is active in publishing her research in academic journals. Her book Blocks to Robots: Learning with Technology in the Early Childhood Classroom was published in 2008 by Teacher's College Press. Most recently, Dr. Bers wrote The Design of Digital Experiences for Positive Youth Development: Out of the playpen into the playground, to be published by Oxford University in early 2012. Dr. Bers is from Argentina. In 1994 she came to the U.S. and received a Master's degree in Educational Media from Boston University and a Master of Science and Ph.D. from the MIT Media Laboratory.
Continue reading "Podcast: "Out of the Playpen into the Playground: The Design of Digital Experiences for Positive Youth Development" »
From an on-campus infosessions about our grad program to "Cities and the Futures of Entertainment," there's lots to be excited about at CMS in November...
Upcoming Events (x7)
Wednesday 5pm
Mapping Media Ecosystems
cms.mit.edu/events/talks
Thursday 5pm
The Design of Digital Experiences for Positive Youth Development
Featuring Marina Bers of Tufts University
cms.mit.edu/events/talks
Next Thursday, 11/10, 9:30am
On-Campus Graduate Program Infosession (RSVPs close this Friday)
cms.mit.edu/events/infosessions
Next Thursday, 11/10, 5pm
Cities & the Future of Entertainment
A Communications Forum
The emergence of powerful new production cultures in such cities as Mumbai, Shanghai, and Rio de Janeiro.
cms.mit.edu/events/talks
Thursday 11/16, 5pm
Fandom Unbound: Otaku Culture in a Connected World
Featuring Mimi Ito, a cultural anthropologist at UC Irvine
cms.mit.edu/events/talks
Monday 11/20, 2pm
Online Graduate Program Infosession
cms.mit.edu/events/infosessions
Monday 11/30, 5pm
Civic Games
cms.mit.edu/events/talks
News
 Sasha Costanza-Chock, Assistant Prof. of Civic Media, publishes chapter in Race After the Internet:
"New Voices on the Net? The Digital Journalism Divide and the Costs of Network Exclusion"
Videos & Podcasts
Communications Forum: Local News in the Digital Age
Designing Connections with the Mobile Experience Lab's Federico Casalegno
Revision, Culture, and the Machine: How Digital Makes Us Human with John Bryant, Hofstra University
Communications Forum: Surveillance and Citizenship
Digital technologies have exponentially expanded the power of government and corporations to keep tabs on citizens. But citizens in turn are exploiting new technologies to expose the activities of governments, companies and even each other. How does the persistence and ubiquity of surveillance in our digitizing world affect what it means to be a citizen? Does our emerging condition of constant surveillance encourage individuals to curtail how they speak and act -- or to offer more information? In what ways are new forms of citizen surveillance and public witness instruments of democracy and transparency? In what ways are they tools of distortion and propaganda for ideologues or special interests? Our panel of three distinguished scholars will engage these and related questions on evolving notions of citizenship in the digital age.
Panelists include Sandra Braman, a professor of communication at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, and author of Change of State: Information, Policy, and Power from The MIT Press; Susan Landau, a visiting professor at Harvard University and author of Surveillance or Security? The Risks Posed by New Wiretapping Technologies, also published by The MIT Press; and Marcos Novak, professor and artist at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
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Continue reading "Podcast: "Communications Forum: Surveillance and Citizenship"" »
 Education Arcade program manager Scot Osterweil is slated to speak at MIT on October 22nd, giving the keynote address for a conference on youth media literacy:
HOME, Inc. invites educational decision makers, curriculum developers, after-school program coordinators, superintendents, instructors and community leaders are all welcome to attend and participate in relevant panel discussions and breakout sessions. The conference is the fourth to be held on a biennial schedule and will feature today's most topical 21st Century educational challenges: Play in Education At the Core of 21st Century Learning, Learning By Design, Using Alternative Reality Games to Uncover Real Science, Student As Television Journalist and Producer, Backpack Journalism and Youth as Advocates and Educators in public health. The conference will feature leaders in the field including Arnie Packer, the father of 21st Century skills and project based learning; and other prominent educators, filmmakers, public health workers and representatives from organizations dedicated to developing programs that promote and generate awareness and a deeper understanding of media literacy. Our Keynote address will be delivered by Scot Osterweil, Creative Director of the MIT Education Arcade and a research director in the MIT Comparative Media Studies Program. He is a designer of award-winning educational games, working in both academic and commercial environments, and his work has focused on what is authentically playful in challenging academic subjects.
Conference registration is still open at mlc2011.ezregister.com.
Particularly in its role with GAMBIT, the MIT Comparative Media Studies graduate program is truly the best of its kind.
Are you interested in joining CMS as a graduate student or spreading the word to your media-focused students or colleagues? Meet us online or on-campus for our fall information sessions.
You'll learn how to apply, what we look for in our grad students, and about opportunities to bring your passion to fields like civic media, games, computational expression, education, digital humanities, and more.
On-Campus
Thursday, September 22, 2011
9:30 AM - 7:00 PM
Thursday, November 10, 2011
9:30 AM - 7:00 PM
Online
Thursday, October 6, 2011
8:00 AM - 10:00 AM (Evening in Asia)
What time is this where I live?
Monday, November 21, 2011
2:00 PM - 4:00 PM (Evening in Europe)
What time is this where I live?
Join us and spread the word.
Download!
Drawing on recent U.S. television series "The Unit" and "Sleeper Cells," Cynthia Young examines recent shifts in media representations of African American men, arguing that in the context of the "war on terror," the image of the criminal and anti-social young black male has mutated into the image of the black patriot, at war against a new enemy of the nation, the Muslim terrorist. Exploring the figure of the black soldier, her work asks the questions: What kind of popular culture is made in the context of war? How do notions of civil rights shift in a post-Civil Rights era? And when and how are such notions mobilized in service to violent and racist conceptions of Iraqis, Arabs, and other Muslims? In his commentary, Visiting Scholar Anamik Saha will draw upon his research on popular cultural representations of South Asians and Muslims in Britain during the same period.
Cynthia Young is an Associate Professor of English and African and African Diaspora Studies at Boston College where she teaches courses on literature and popular culture. She received her B.A. from Columbia University and her Ph.D. in American Studies from Yale University. Her book on U.S. Third World Leftists, Soul Power, was published by Duke University Press in 2006. She is currently working on a project that considers race, specifically blackness, after the September 11 attacks. Interrogating popular culture and political organizing sites, this project considers how the Civil Rights legacy has been hijacked by Conservatives supporting an anti-immigrant, pro-war and often white supremacist agenda.
Continue reading "Podcast: Race and Representation after 9/11" »
The digital age has been heralded but also pilloried for its impact on journalism. As newspapers continue their mutation into digital formats and as news and information are available from a seeming infinity of websites, what do we actually know about the dynamics of news-consumption online? What does the public do with online news? How influential are traditional news outlets in framing the news we get online?
Pablo Boczkowski is a Professor of Communications Studies at Northwestern Univeresity where he leads a research program that studies the transition from print to digital media. He is the author of Digitizing the News: Innovation in Online Newspapers (2004) and News at Work: Imitation in an Age of Information Abundance (2010).
Joshua Benton is the founding director of the Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard University -- an effort to help the news business make the radical changes required by the Internet age. Before that, he was an investigative reporter, columnist, foreign correspondent and rock critic for two newspapers, The Dallas Morning News and The Toledo Blade.
Moderator: Jason Spingarn-Koff, a 2010-11 Knight Journalism Fellow at MIT, is a documentary filmmaker specializing in the intersection of science, technology, and society. His feature documentary Life 2.0, about a group of people whose lives are transformed by the virtual world "Second Life," premiered at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival and will be featured on Oprah Winfrey's documentary film club in 2011. He served as producer of NOVA's The Great Robot Race, and the development producer for PBS's Emmy-winning Rx for Survival, as well as documentaries for Frontline and Time magazine. He is a graduate of Brown University and the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.
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Continue reading "Podcast: Communications Forum: "Online News: Public Sphere or Echo Chamber?"" »
Max Ogden of Code for America discusses taking "treasure troves" of government datasets to bring citizens and friends together.
From "Cities, Code, and Civics", a Civic Media Session of the MIT Center for Future Civic Media.
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Continue reading "Video: From Cities, Code, and Civics: "Enhanced serendipity"" »
Nick Grossman of OpenPlans, Nigel Jacob of the City of Boston Mayor's Office of New Urban Mechanics, and Max Ogden of Code for America respond to questions about how civic tools do (or need to) vary from city to city.
From "Cities, Code, and Civics", a Civic Media Session of the MIT Center for Future Civic Media.
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Continue reading "Video: From Cities, Code, and Civics, "Customizing tools from city to city?"" »
Nick Grossman, Nigel Jacob, and Max Ogden
Moderator: Center director Chris Csikszentmihályi
Cities are vibrant, complicated organisms. A still-working 200 year old water pipe might rest underground next to a brand new fiber optic cable, and citizens blithely ignore both if they are working well. Cities are constantly rewriting themselves, redeveloping neighborhoods and replacing infrastructure, but deliberative structures like school boards and city council meetings continue to run much the way they have for generations. In what ways can information systems rewrite our understanding of civics, governance, and communication, to solve old problems and create new opportunities in our communities?
Nick Grossman is Director of Civic Works at OpenPlans. He oversees development of new products around smart transportation, open municipal IT infrastructure, participatory planning, and local civic engagement.
Nigel Jacob serves as the Co-Chair of the Mayor's Office of New Urban Mechanics, a group within City Hall focused on delivering transformative services to Boston's residents. Nigel also serves as Mayor Menino's advisor on emerging technologies. In both of these roles Nigel works to develop new models of innovation for cities in the 21st century.
Max Ogden is a fellow at Code for America and develops mapping tools and social software aimed at improving civic participation and communication. This year Max is working with Nigel and the Office of New Urban Mechanics to create technologies that better enable education in Boston's Public Schools.
Civic Media Sessions
Hosted by the MIT Center for Future Civic Media, these open sessions highlight cutting-edge media research and tools for community and political engagement.
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Continue reading "Video: Civic Media Session, "Bustling with Information: Cities, Code, and Civics"" »
This lecture examines the impact of globalization on the urban imaginary in relation to a recent art exhibition, commissioned by the Dutch government in 2009, in which a group of contemporary New York artists were invited to photograph Amsterdam to mark the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson's discovery of Manhattan.
Registering a long history of transnational exchange between the two cities, the selected artists sought to produce work capable of defamiliarizing established images of Amsterdam. The claim of the exhibition was that seeing Amsterdam through the lens of New York photographers enabled new and surprising perspectives on four key aspects of the city: the street, the night, the water, and the outskirts. Interrogating this claim, the lecture will analyze individual artworks, the marketing and staging strategies of the exhibition, and -- most importantly -- the role that transnational exchange can play in both resisting and reinforcing dominant, globalized images of contemporary city spaces.
Christoph Lindner is Professor of Literature and Director of the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis (ASCA) at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands. He is also a Research Affiliate at the University of London Institute in Paris. His recent books include Globalization, Violence, and the Visual Culture of Cities (2010), Urban Space and Cityscapes (2006), and Fictions of Commodity Culture (2003).
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Continue reading "Podcast: Christoph Lindner, "Amsterdam and New York: Transnational Photographic Exchange in the Era of Globalization" »
Sasha Costanza-Chock is a scholar and mediamaker who works in areas including: social movements and ICTs; participatory technology design and community based participatory research; the transnational movement for media justice and communication rights; comunicación populár; mobile phones and social change; digital literacies and digital inclusion; race, class, and gender in digital space, the transformation of public media systems; the political economy of communication; and information and communications policy. He holds a PhD from the Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism at the University of Southern California, where he is currently a Postdoctoral Research Associate, and is also a Fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. Sasha presently lives in Los Angeles, where he works with community-based organizations to develop critical digital literacies (for example, see http://vozmob.net). More information about Sasha's work can be found at http://schock.cc.
Costanza-Chock's presentation slides: Prezi.
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Continue reading "Podcast: Sasha Costanza-Chock, "Se Ve, Se Siente: Transmedia Mobilization in the Los Angeles Immigrant Rights Movement"" »
 Nitin Sawhney, Ph.D. is a Research Fellow and Lecturer with the Program in Art, Culture and Technology (ACT) in the School of Architecture and Planning at MIT. His ongoing research, teaching and creative practice engages the critical role of arts interventions in contested spaces and participatory media with marginalized youth. Nitin completed his doctoral work at the MIT Media Lab where he conducted research on open design collaboration and DIY cultures in the context of sustainable development, as well as wearable and responsive community media interfaces in transitional spaces.
In 2008-2009 he served as a Visionary Fellow with the Jerusalem 2050 project, sponsored by the Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning and the Center for International Studies at MIT, conducting research on urban renewal and civic engagement through the media arts in divided cities such as Belfast and Jerusalem. Nitin co-founded the "Department of Play", a research collaborative at the MIT Center for Future Civic Media, focused on designing participatory technologies and pedagogical approaches to facilitate civic empowerment among marginalized children and youth.
Over the past few years he has been conducting a digital storytelling and youth media program in the West Bank and Gaza, while developing a longitudinal research study on the role of participatory media for resilience and civic agency among youth in conditions of conflict and crisis. Nitin is currently working on a feature-length documentary film, Flying Paper, about the culture of kite making and flying in the Gaza Strip.
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Continue reading "Podcast: Nitin Sawhney, "Media and Resilience: Creative DIY Cultures and Civic Agency among Marginalized Youth"" »
One of MIT's greatest points of pride arrives each January: Independent Activities Period.
Many university staffs use January to rest up for the coming semester. But MIT doubles down on its need for caffeine with IAP, allowing anyone associated with MIT to teach or take any class they want, so long as it has a department sponsor and can fit, time-wise, within the month.
This gives CMS staff in particular a chance to show off their passions.
 For example, our own Mike Rapa launches "The Life and Death of John Carpenter" tonight, featuring the Carpenter film Dark Star, and continues a couple evenings each week through the month. It's your chance to sit with fellow fans and watch Carpenter flicks like Assault on Precinct 13, The Thing, and Big Trouble in Little China.
Meanwhile, Generoso Fierro will teach a one-evening course next Monday on "checking levels, making a segue, cueing vinyl (vinyl-what's that?)" -- all the basics an MIT student needs to be a DJ for WMBR. Not much of a fan of rest, Gene will also host a three-night film series featuring the work of young Japanese director Nobuhiro Yamashita.
Other CMS-sponsored IAP classes include ones on video games -- from making audio-only games as an intro to game design, to learning how to be a game master for an alternate reality game.
For the full listing of CMS Independent Activities Period events, check out our IAP page at http://student.mit.edu/iap/nscms.html.
Rosalind Williams is a historian who uses imaginative literature as a source of evidence and insight into the history of technology. She has taught at MIT since 1982 and currently serves as the Dibner Professor for the History of Science and Technology in the Program in Science, Technology, and Society. She has also served as head of the STS Program and Dean for Undergraduate Education and Student Affairs at the Institute, as well as president of the Society for the History of Technology. She has written three books as well as essays and articles about the emergence of a predominantly human-built world and its implications for human life. Her forthcoming book extends this theme to examine consciousness of the condition of "human empire" as expressed in the writings of Jules Verne, William Morris, and Robert Louis Stevenson in the late 19th century.
About this Communications Forum
Governments, corporations, and communities plan for sudden crises: the White House drafts strong responsive rhetoric for the next terrorist attack; Toyota runs reassuring national TV spots within hours of a product recall; and 32 Massachusetts towns successfully publicize water distribution sites following a water main rupture.
However, like the housing collapse or the recent Gulf oil spill, some crises are complex, difficult to warn of, and don't cleanly fit traditional media frames. They are slow moving, and the media still struggles to rhetorically or technologically cover these simmering, rather than boiling, dramas.
With government regulators weak, corporations still focused on the bottom line, and communities adapting to structural change, this Communications Forum asks: What new media tools and strategies can be used to help everyone better prepare for the unique communications challenges of slow-moving crises?
Download!
Continue reading "Video: Rosalind Williams: "Communications Forum: Public Communications in Slow-Moving Crises"" »
Abrahm Lustgarten is an investigative reporter for ProPublica -- his recent work has focused on oil and gas industry practices. He is a former staff writer and contributor for Fortune, and has written for Salon, Esquire, the Washington Post and the New York Times since receiving his master's in journalism from Columbia University in 2003. He is the author of the book China's Great Train: Beijing's Drive West and the Campaign to Remake Tibet, a project that was funded in part by a grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
About this Communications Forum
Governments, corporations, and communities plan for sudden crises: the White House drafts strong responsive rhetoric for the next terrorist attack; Toyota runs reassuring national TV spots within hours of a product recall; and 32 Massachusetts towns successfully publicize water distribution sites following a water main rupture.
However, like the housing collapse or the recent Gulf oil spill, some crises are complex, difficult to warn of, and don't cleanly fit traditional media frames. They are slow moving, and the media still struggles to rhetorically or technologically cover these simmering, rather than boiling, dramas.
With government regulators weak, corporations still focused on the bottom line, and communities adapting to structural change, this Communications Forum asks: What new media tools and strategies can be used to help everyone better prepare for the unique communications challenges of slow-moving crises?
Download!
Continue reading "Video: Abrahm Lustgarten: "Communications Forum: Public Communications in Slow-Moving Crises"" »
Andrea Pitzer is editor of Nieman Storyboard, a project of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University that looks at how storytelling works in every medium. Storyboard's mission is to feature the best examples of visual, audio and multimedia narrative reporting.
About this Communications Forum
Governments, corporations, and communities plan for sudden crises: the White House drafts strong responsive rhetoric for the next terrorist attack; Toyota runs reassuring national TV spots within hours of a product recall; and 32 Massachusetts towns successfully publicize water distribution sites following a water main rupture.
However, like the housing collapse or the recent Gulf oil spill, some crises are complex, difficult to warn of, and don't cleanly fit traditional media frames. They are slow moving, and the media still struggles to rhetorically or technologically cover these simmering, rather than boiling, dramas.
With government regulators weak, corporations still focused on the bottom line, and communities adapting to structural change, this Communications Forum asks: What new media tools and strategies can be used to help everyone better prepare for the unique communications challenges of slow-moving crises?
Download!
Continue reading "Video: Andrea Pitzer: "Communications Forum: Public Communications in Slow-Moving Crises"" »
Governments, corporations, and communities plan for sudden crises: the White House drafts strong responsive rhetoric for the next terrorist attack; Toyota runs reassuring national TV spots within hours of a product recall; and 32 Massachusetts towns successfully publicize water distribution sites following a water main rupture.
However, like the housing collapse or the recent Gulf oil spill, some crises are complex, difficult to warn of, and don't cleanly fit traditional media frames. They are slow moving, and the media still struggles to rhetorically or technologically cover these simmering, rather than boiling, dramas.
With government regulators weak, corporations still focused on the bottom line, and communities adapting to structural change, this Communications Forum asks: What new media tools and strategies can be used to help everyone better prepare for the unique communications challenges of slow-moving crises?
Andrea Pitzer is editor of Nieman Storyboard, a project of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University that looks at how storytelling works in every medium. Storyboard's mission is to feature the best examples of visual, audio and multimedia narrative reporting.
Abrahm Lustgarten is an investigative reporter for ProPublica -- his recent work has focused on oil and gas industry practices. He is a former staff writer and contributor for Fortune, and has written for Salon, Esquire, the Washington Post and the New York Times since receiving his master's in journalism from Columbia University in 2003. He is the author of the book China's Great Train: Beijing's Drive West and the Campaign to Remake Tibet, a project that was funded in part by a grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
Rosalind Williams is a historian who uses imaginative literature as a source of evidence and insight into the history of technology. She has taught at MIT since 1982 and currently serves as the Dibner Professor for the History of Science and Technology in the Program in Science, Technology, and Society. She has also served as head of the STS Program and Dean for Undergraduate Education and Student Affairs at the Institute, as well as president of the Society for the History of Technology. She has written three books as well as essays and articles about the emergence of a predominantly human-built world and its implications for human life. Her forthcoming book extends this theme to examine consciousness of the condition of "human empire" as expressed in the writings of Jules Verne, William Morris, and Robert Louis Stevenson in the late 19th century.
Moderated by Tom Levenson, who is Head and of the MIT Program in Writing and Humanistic Studies as well as Director of its graduate program. Professor Levenson is the winner of Walter P. Kistler Science Documentary Film Award, Peabody Award (shared), New York Chapter Emmy, and the AAAS/Westinghouse award. His articles and reviews have appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, The Boston Globe, Discover, The Sciences, and he is winner of the 2005 National Academies Communications Award for Origins.
Download!
Continue reading "Video: "Communications Forum: Public Communications in Slow-Moving Crises"" »
Governments, corporations, and communities plan for sudden crises: the White House drafts strong responsive rhetoric for the next terrorist attack; Toyota runs reassuring national TV spots within hours of a product recall; and 32 Massachusetts towns successfully publicize water distribution sites following a water main rupture.
However, like the housing collapse or the recent Gulf oil spill, some crises are complex, difficult to warn of, and don't cleanly fit traditional media frames. They are slow moving, and the media still struggles to rhetorically or technologically cover these simmering, rather than boiling, dramas.
With government regulators weak, corporations still focused on the bottom line, and communities adapting to structural change, this Communications Forum asks: What new media tools and strategies can be used to help everyone better prepare for the unique communications challenges of slow-moving crises?
Andrea Pitzer is editor of Nieman Storyboard, a project of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University that looks at how storytelling works in every medium. Storyboard's mission is to feature the best examples of visual, audio and multimedia narrative reporting.
Abrahm Lustgarten is an investigative reporter for ProPublica -- his recent work has focused on oil and gas industry practices. He is a former staff writer and contributor for Fortune, and has written for Salon, Esquire, the Washington Post and the New York Times since receiving his master's in journalism from Columbia University in 2003. He is the author of the book China's Great Train: Beijing's Drive West and the Campaign to Remake Tibet, a project that was funded in part by a grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
Rosalind Williams is a historian who uses imaginative literature as a source of evidence and insight into the history of technology. She has taught at MIT since 1982 and currently serves as the Dibner Professor for the History of Science and Technology in the Program in Science, Technology, and Society. She has also served as head of the STS Program and Dean for Undergraduate Education and Student Affairs at the Institute, as well as president of the Society for the History of Technology. She has written three books as well as essays and articles about the emergence of a predominantly human-built world and its implications for human life. Her forthcoming book extends this theme to examine consciousness of the condition of "human empire" as expressed in the writings of Jules Verne, William Morris, and Robert Louis Stevenson in the late 19th century.
Moderated by Tom Levenson, who is Head and of the MIT Program in Writing and Humanistic Studies as well as Director of its graduate program. Professor Levenson is the winner of Walter P. Kistler Science Documentary Film Award, Peabody Award (shared), New York Chapter Emmy, and the AAAS/Westinghouse award. His articles and reviews have appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, The Boston Globe, Discover, The Sciences, and he is winner of the 2005 National Academies Communications Award for Origins.
Intro music: "Pruit Igoe", Philip Glass
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Continue reading "Podcast: "Communications Forum: Public Communications in Slow-Moving Crises"" »
Trace Beaulieu and Mary Jo Pehl
In December of 2007, Joel Hodgson and Trace Beaulieu, two of the creators of Mystery Science Theater 3000, assembled many of the original members of that cult TV phenomenon to form Cinematic Titanic, a live and DVD version based on their original formula of riffing on terrible movies. The actors essentially play themselves as they participate in an experiment for some unknown, possibly shadowy corporation or military force. The story currently provided to the cast is that there is a tear in the "electron scaffolding" that threatens all digital media in the world. Their experience doing MST3K is key to the organization's plans. Two of the cast, Trace Beaulieu and Mary Jo Pehl, discussed their thoughts on producing Cinematic Titanic which came to Boston on October 29th at the Wilbur Theater.
They spoke with Generoso Fierro and Jason Begy, both of CMS's GAMBIT Game Lab.
Download!
Continue reading "Video: MST3K and Cinematic Titanic" »
David Ardia, Daniel Schuman, and Micah Sifry
What do citizens need to know when they publicly address legally challenging or dangerous topics? Journalists have always had the privilege, protected by statute, of not having to reveal their sources. But as more investigative journalism is conducted by so-called amateurs and posted on blogs or websites such as Wikileaks, what are the legal dangers for publishing secrets in the crowdsourced era? We convene an engaging group law scholars to help outline the legal challenges ahead, suggest policies that might help to protect citizens, and describe what steps every civic media practitioner should take to protect themselves and their users.
Micah Sifry is a co-founder and editor of the Personal Democracy Forum.
Daniel Schuman is the policy counsel at the Sunlight Foundation, where he helps develop policies that further Sunlight's mission of catalyzing greater government openness and transparency.
Co-sponsor: The MIT Center for Future Civic Media
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Continue reading "Video: "Communications Forum: Civic Media and the Law"" »
David Ardia, Daniel Schuman, and Micah Sifry
What do citizens need to know when they publicly address legally challenging or dangerous topics? Journalists have always had the privilege, protected by statute, of not having to reveal their sources. But as more investigative journalism is conducted by so-called amateurs and posted on blogs or websites such as Wikileaks, what are the legal dangers for publishing secrets in the crowdsourced era? We convene an engaging group law scholars to help outline the legal challenges ahead, suggest policies that might help to protect citizens, and describe what steps every civic media practitioner should take to protect themselves and their users.
Micah Sifry is a co-founder and editor of the Personal Democracy Forum.
Daniel Schuman is the policy counsel at the Sunlight Foundation, where he helps develop policies that further Sunlight's mission of catalyzing greater government openness and transparency.
Co-sponsor: The MIT Center for Future Civic Media
Download!
Continue reading "Podcast: "Communications Forum: Civic Media and the Law"" »
 There are a growing number of games that are location-based. They use mobile devices and locative technologies to turn physical space into a game board. Games like Foursquare get people moving from place to place, exploring the world around them and potentially meeting people nearby. But while many games use location as the context for interaction, few use location as the content for interaction. Local Engagement Games (LEGs) are location-based games designed for the specificity of a location, with the intention of integrating into local cultures and local institutions. They reinforce existing geographical communities because the rules of the game are couched within existing rules of civic participation. Whether it's a game built around a town hall meeting or a government planning process, LEGs scaffold local processes to foster community and commitment to civic life.
In this talk, Gordon discusses two LEGs developed at the Engagement Game Lab. Participatory Chinatown is a 3-D role-playing game designed to be integrated into the master planning process of Boston's Chinatown. And CommunityPlanIt, a location-based mobile game platform (in development), is designed to engage neighborhoods in official planning processes, while forging geographically-based communities and advocacy groups around local issues.
Eric Gordon is an associate professor in the Department of Visual and Media Arts at Emerson College and director of the new Engagement Game Lab. He is the author of The Urban Spectator: American Concept-cities from Kodak to Google (Dartmouth, 2010) and the co-author of the forthcoming book tentatively titled, Net Locality: Why Location Matters in a Networked World (Blackwell, 2011).
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Intro music: "Legs", Pickin' on ZZ Top: A Bluegrass Tribute
Continue reading "Podcast: Eric Gordon, "She's Got LEGs and She Knows How To Use Them: How Neighborhoods Can Use Local Engagement Games to Build Community and Plan for the Future"" »
The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation--sponsor of the MIT Center for Future Civic Media--in June 2010 announced their 2010 Knight News Challenge winners. Together, these winners form another ground-breaking, visionary class of civic media developers, inventors, and entrepreneurs.
This is video of the announcement by Knight Foundation president Alberto Ibarguen, as introduced by the Center's director Chris Csikszentmihalyi.
Please join us in congratulating the winners:
CityTracking, by Eric Rodenbeck, Stamen Design
$400,000
To make municipal data easy to understand, CityTracking will allow users to create embeddable data visualizations that are appealing enough to spread virally and that are as easy to share as photos and videos.
The Cartoonist, by Ian Bogost and Michael Mateas, Georgia Tech
$378,000
To engage readers in the news, this project will create a free tool that produces cartoon-like current event games -- the game equivalent of editorial cartoons.
Local Wiki, by Philip Newstrom and Mike Ivanov
$350,000
Based on the successful DavisWiki.org in Davis, Calif., this project will create enhanced tools for local wikis, a new form of media that makes it easy for people to learn and share their own unique community knowledge.
WindyCitizen's Real Time Ads, by Brad Flora, WindyCitizen.com
$250,000
As a way to help online startups become sustainable, this project will develop an improved software interface to help sites create and sell what are known as real-time ads.
GoMap Riga, by Marcis Rubenis and Kristofs Blaus, GoMap
Riga
$250,000
To inspire people to get involved in their community, this project will create a live, online map with local news and activities.
Order in the Court 2.0, by John Davidow, WBUR
$250,000
To foster greater access to the judicial process, this project will create a laboratory in a Boston courtroom to help establish best practices for digital coverage
that can be replicated and adopted throughout the nation.
Front Porch Forum, by Michael Wood-Lewis, Front Porch Forum
$220,000
To help residents connect with others and their community, this grant will help rebuild and enhance a successful community news site, expand it to more towns and release the software so other organizations, anywhere can use it.
One-Eight, by Teru Kuwayama
$202,000
Broadening the perspectives that surround U.S . military operations in Afghanistan,
this project will chronicle a battalion by combining reporting from embedded journalists with user-generated content from the Marines themselves.
Stroome, by Nonny de la Peña and Tom Grasty, Stroome
$200,000
To simplify the production of news video, Stroome will create a virtual video-editing
studio.
CitySeed, by Retha Hill and Cody Shotwell, Arizona State University
$90,000
To inform and engage communities, CitySeed will be a mobile application that allows users to plant the "seed" of an idea and share it with others.
PRX StoryMarket, by Jake Shapiro, PRX
$75,000
Building on the software created by 2008 challenge winner Spot.us, this project will allow anyone to pitch and help pay to produce a story for a local public radio station.
Tilemapping, by Eric Gundersen, Development Seed
$74,000
To inspire residents to learn about local issues, Tilemapping will help local media create hyper-local, data-filled maps for their websites and blogs.
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Continue reading "Center for Future Civic Media hosts announcement of 2010 Knight News Challenge winners" »
The third panel from the Comparative Media Studies 10th anniversary symposium.
- Erin Reilly is Research Director for Project New Media Literacies, a past CMS project now housed at the University of Southern California.
- Karen Schrier, a CMS grad, is the Director of Interactive Media and Technology at ESI Design and a part-time doctoral student at Columbia University in games and learning.
- Sangita Shresthova is a Czech/Nepali international development specialist, filmmaker, media scholar, and dancer, who currently manages Henry Jenkins new project on participatory culture and civic engagement at USC.
- Pilar Lacasa is a researcher at Alcalá University in Spain. She also works on a project for Electronic Arts in Spain about how to use commercial games in education.
- Mitch Resnick is Professor of Learning Research at the MIT Media Laboratory. He develops new technologies that engage children in creative learning experiences and is a principal investigator with the MIT Center for Future Civic Media, a CMS-partnered project.
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Continue reading "Video: Participatory Culture: The Culture of Democracy and Education in a Hypermediated Society, moderated by Henry Jenkins" »
The second panel from the Comparative Media Studies 10th anniversary symposium.
- Beth Coleman is Assistant Professor of Writing and New Media in the Program in Writing and Humanistic Studies and Comparative Media Studies. Her fields of research interest include new media, contemporary aesthetics, electronic music, critical theory and literature, and race theory.
- Philip Tan is a CMS grad who now directs the Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab, a partnership between MIT/CMS and the government of Singapore to explore new directions for the development of games as a medium.
- Brett Camper is a 2005 graduate of the CMS master's program, where he conducted research in part with The Education Arcade. He now works at Kickstarter, a website for social fundraising of creative ideas.
- Ivan Askwith is a CMS grad working in New York City as Director of Strategy at Big Spaceship, a digital creative agency.
- Clara Fernández-Vara is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab and a graduate of the CMS master's program.
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Continue reading "Video: Creativity and Collaboration in the Digital Age, moderated by Jim Paradis" »
The first panel from the Comparative Media Studies 10th anniversary symposium.
- Pete Donaldson is a Professor in the MIT Literature section, which he headed from 1990 until 2005.
- Kurt Fendt is Research Director in Foreign Languages and Literatures and the Comparative Media Studies Graduate Program and directs the HyperStudio, a CMS research project.
- Scot Osterweil leads several Education Arcade projects promoting learning in math, literacy, history, science and foreign language.
- Rekha Murthy, CMS '05, works at the intersection of public radio and digital media, currently overseeing distribution and content strategy initiatives for PRX, an online distributor of audio programs to public radio networks, stations, and audio platforms including mobile, internet, and satellite radio.
- Matthew Weise, CMS '04, is Lead Game Designer at the Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab.
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Continue reading "Video: Applied Humanities: Transforming Humanities Education, moderated by William Uricchio" »
We are marathoning for earthquake relief in Haiti. We have teams of players ready to grind it out for charity, but we need your help! Tune in to the webcam feed on the weekend of February 26th-28th to check it out, and please donate to the cause. Every little bit helps.
Check out the teams, including favorite The Stickhandlers:
Abe Stein
Andy Bouchard
Lord Generoso Fierro
A full 82 game hockey season (plus playoffs) with the beloved Boston Bruins on EA's NHL 10 on the Playstation 3. Trades will not be initiated by the players, but computer initiated trades will be reviewed. Acquisitions via free agency are fair game. We are also going to play the All-Star Game. Lots of fights will be instigated by the players. We will probably wear the alternate jersey with the bear, or throwback sweaters for the majority of the games. Also, Scott Thornton will probably be moved to the first line. Abe intends to spend the entire 25 hours speaking Canadian, Andy might knock out some teeth training for the event, and don't be surprised if Gene is wearing skates and tearing up the lab carpet. Tune in to watch the B's win the Stanley Cup, in February!
Estimated Time: 25 Hours
And watch the feed!
Above all, reward their obsessiveness by donating to help Haiti!
Dear Friends of GAMBIT,
Like the rest of the world, we here at the GAMBIT Game Lab are shocked by the recent devastation in Haiti. One cannot help but wonder what it will take to rebuild the community leveled by this disaster. The people of Haiti need our help now, and we at GAMBIT have a plan!
February 26-28th, GAMBIT will be hosting the 2010 Complete Game-Completion Marathon to raise money for relief efforts in Haiti. Teams of players will gather at our MIT lab to attempt to complete a game in one sitting. Participants will independently seek sponsorship on a dollar/hour basis with all proceeds going directly to relief efforts in Haiti through Partners in Health, and with support from the MIT Public Service Center. The labs will be open 24 hours a day through the weekend to accommodate the teams, with snacks and refreshments available for the players.
More at gambit.mit.edu.
From http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2010/gambit-game-jam.html
The Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab will play host to Boston's developer community for the 2010 Global Game Jam, as participants worldwide try to design ground-breaking games in just 48 hours.
The Jan. 29-31 weekend event, organized by the International Game Developers Association, features volunteer teams of video game designers across six continents, working together for two days and nights as they create games from scratch. In the process, they uncover new possibilities for game styles, execution, and collaboration that future designers can utilize.
Philip Tan, U.S. Executive Director of GAMBIT, said that the Global Game Jam creates an opportunity to prototype new kinds of games, ones that by necessity are more experimental. "Game jams don't give you enough time to mope. It's hard enough to come up with an idea and prototype it without worrying about whether it's good enough."
"Community and creativity are what it's all about," said William Uricchio, Director of MIT's Comparative Media Studies program and Lead Principal Investigator at GAMBIT. "With the Global Game Jam, GAMBIT continues its efforts to promote fresh thinking about games -- and to draw on global talents to do so. GAMBIT has been playing an increasingly important role as a place where the local gaming community meets, and the Game Jam will give the lab a chance to redouble its efforts, fueled by caffeine and a brilliant mix of people."
"The Global Game Jam is not really a competition," Tan added. "It's all done for the heady thrill of getting together with fellow game-makers and creating something playful." He urges the participants to get some rest on the first and second nights. "The intensity is what makes it fun, but I'm sending folks home in between days," he said. "Being around developers in the lab every day, we know the final result can be better with some pacing, clear thinking, and, seriously, a bit of sleep."
MIT's jam site at 5 Cambridge Center won't be limited to those with MIT ties. "GAMBIT's goal is to share insights, experiences, and findings with the rest of the game development community," Tan said. "The Global Game Jam is a great opportunity for local developers and enthusiasts to make games together with the students and staff of the lab."
Participants of the Global Game Jam will find out this year's mystery theme at 5 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 29. After brainstorming ideas for games, teams form and start creating the code, art, music, and gameplay needed for a game. The new games are uploaded to the Global Game Jam web site (http://www.globalgamejam.org) on Sunday, Jan. 31.
Day 2 of Futures of Entertainment 4 is now sold out.
That leave just a handful of tickets available for Day 1. If you're still (inexplicably!) on the fence about attending a conference whose first day alone will feature Wired's Frank Rose, the head of the BBC's Fiction & Entertainment Multiplatform Commissioning, NYU's Stephen Duncombe, and our old friend Henry Jenkins, register for Day 1 today!
Futures of Entertainment 4
November 20 and 21 (Friday and Saturday)
The entire video is available for download (.m4v, 305mb).
This year's Julius Schwartz Lecture speaker was transmedia creator J. Michael Straczynski, who has most recently entered the motion picture arena, writing the period drama Changeling for Clint Eastwood and Angelina Jolie, adapting such books as Lensman for Ron Howard, World War Z for Brad Pitt's company, and They Marched Into Sunlight for Tom Hanks and Paul Greengrass, as well as reviving Forbidden Planet for Warner Bros. and selling two new original movies, The Flickering Light and Proving Ground to Universal and Tom Cruise's United Artists, respectively. He has also begun work on Last Words, a pilot for a new TV series for the TNT network.
Continue reading "Video: "J. Michael Straczynski: The Julius Schwartz Lecture"" »
As old media die, new forms are emerging, but it's not clear they will serve such vital civic functions as "helping people form publics," as Pat Aufderheide puts it. These panelists point to promising experiments in "Public Media 2.0," but caution that new media are not guaranteed to shore up democracy or invigorate public culture.
Continue reading "Video: Media in Transition 6: "New Media, Civic Media"" »
Scholars of "dead tree technologies" feel increasingly uneasy in a culture overwhelmingly consumed with innovation. Although we may "live in a condition of perpetual flux," David Thorburn hopes that "we won't allow utopians and futurists to intimidate us." Moderator Peter Walsh poses a series of questions to the archivists and historians on this panel, who reflect the anxiety and exhilaration of a digital age that is constantly transforming their disciplines.
After a thousand years and the extinction of many written literatures, John Miles Foley views the oral tradition (OT) as "alive and well in highly literate societies, even in the wired West, and multifunctional: it does many more things for societies than literature is able to do." It has survived through its "ability to morph in support of morphing societies," such as in South Africa as it dissolved apartheid. And OT and IT (Internet technology) are quite alike: both performer driven, involved in emergent activities, partaking in distributed authorship. Indeed, OT may find robust expression on the Internet, with new journals and multimedia e-companions encouraging wider audiences and interactive users for performances and events.
A switch from physical to digital archives "will change historical knowledge," Lisa Gitelman says, because it means a change in the systems governing those archives. Whenever you open a Gmail account, says Gitelman, you're urged not to delete: "new media have always prompted new archival sensibilities." But, she warns, the emerging archive system "depends almost wholly on the alphanumeric character of objects and the metadata that describe them." A historian searching through archives is like a miner whose helmet light can only illuminate narrowly defined areas.
Rick Prelinger views archives as "culturally emergent. ...They're going retail." Once used mainly by specialists to produce books, TV shows, and exhibits, archives now attract ordinary users with home-based projects. YouTube -- which only resembles an archive -- has created unrealistic expectations of 24/7 archival access. But if archives rebuff users, "the social-cultural consensus that supports us and keeps archives open may fail." Prelinger sees possibilities for changing the perception of archives "as the place where documents go to molder and die." Archives could be "a point of departure ... for historical intervention," generating "opportunities for mainstreaming history and re-anchoring in the public sphere."
"Stewardship responsibility in a digital environment is essential," says Ann Wolpert, who believes "the odds that bits will survive in a shoebox in the attic are pretty small." She also points to a "yawning gap emerging between institutional archives and records ... and those archives (that are) a byproduct of normal human activities." She shows an MIT photo of a 1935 drama club performance, where the "winsome damsel" would one day become the president's wife. It's the "incidental archives that create the flavor, richness and texture of life at a point in time." What scrapbook items will people hold onto for future generations, as we record more and more "in media so ephemeral that we run the serious risk of losing ...these experiences"?
Download video (1.6gb)
Continue reading "Video: Media in Transition 6: "Archives and History"" »
This panel explored theoretical, methodological, and practical issues surrounding the study of media circulation in an age of increasing global connectivity. "Global media" often serves as a placeholder for media outside Anglo-American academic settings, with "global" gesturing towards "Other" media ecologies. This panel brought together scholars and practitioners who wrestle with the simultaneous indispensability and inadequacy of Anglo-American paradigms - both for media practitioners and scholars - in Asian, African, and Latin American contexts. In what ways can we move away from the "national" as the pre-eminent analytic frame? How do media producers in the global south grapple with the challenges and opportunities of globalization? What role are audiences playing in shaping media circuits? In tackling these and other questions, panelists Jonathan Gray, Communication and Media Studies, Fordham University; Carolina Acosta-Alzuru, Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Georgia; African filmmaker Abderrahamane Sissako; and CMS alum Aswin Punathambekar SM '03, Communication Studies, University of Michigan explored ways in which recent developments in diverse settings worldwide might inform and revitalize our understanding of how media circulates. Henry Jenkins moderated this forum which kicked off the sixth Media in Transition conference at MIT.
Continue reading "Video: "Communications Forum: Global Media"" »
CMS Co-Director Henry Jenkins last month joined the likes of Madeleine Albright, Craig Newmark, and Former U.S. Solicitor General Theodore Olson for a panel on how public policy and private initiatives can better meet the public's information needs.
Jenkins participated in a similar panel at Aspen last year on media and values and blogged about the experience:
As I found myself making small talk with everyone from the heads of major media companies to former members of the Bush administration, the one topic which seemed to have captured everyone's interest was Harry Potter. Almost everyone had stories to tell about the experience of reading the final book in the series. In Convergence Culture, I suggested that fan communities might offer us better chances to talk about shared values across the ideological divides that currently shape American politics because they offer us shared fantasies and common reference points. Well, this was a pretty dramatic illustration of that principle at work.
William Uricchio, the co-director of Comparative Media Studies and a lead principal investigator for the Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab, will present a selection of lessons learned from the lab's first year in existence at the fourth Games, Learning and Society Conference July 10-11 in Madison, Wisconsin. From the conference's website:
Can we make a game that can be played equally by sighted and sightless players (AudiOdyssey)? How do we make a multiplayer game where the collective behavior of the players shapes the simulation (Backflow)? These are some of the research challenges presented by the Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab in their 5-year initiative to bridge the cultures of engineering and humanities. GAMBIT Game Lab incorporates academic researchers into the process of game development, and provides a space for researchers to work across and learn from both Eastern and Western cultures. In this fireside chat, William Uricchio, a lead principal investigator of GAMBIT Game Lab, will share the techniques and strategies that have been particularly effective... and those that were not. How does this project compare with other cross-disciplinary game development initiatives, like the Dutch GATE project? Where are they going from here?
More about Uricchio can be found at http://cms.mit.edu/people or at http://www.glsconference.org/2008/person.html?id=326; more about the Comparative Media Studies program can be found at http://cms.mit.edu and more about the Singapore-MIT Game Lab can be found at http://gambit.mit.edu.
William Uricchio will speak about new directions in archiving-- social tagging, access, recycling
and the broader implications for the interaction between history and memory-- in his opening keynote for European Network for Cinema and Media Studies in Budapest, Hungary. Founded in February of 2006, NECS brings together scholars and researchers in the field of cinema, film and media studies with archivists and film and media professionals who share a common interest in academic film study and the preservation, distribution and programming of film and media art and the film heritage. Click here for more information.
03.21.08 | 11 AM-6 PM | 35-225
CMS Class of 2008 Thesis Presentations
The CMS Class of 2008 will be giving their thesis presentations today, Friday, March 21, 2008, from 11AM to 6PM in room 35-225. The event is open to the public; CMS students, faculty, associates and friends of the program are all warmly welcomed to attend.
10:30-11:00 AM
Coffee and Pastries
11:00-11:45 AM
Information Visualization for the People
Michael Danziger
An analysis of the field of information visualization focusing on the theoretical and methodological challenges associated with conceptualizing and designing visualization as a mass medium.
11:45 AM - 12:30 PM
New Potentials for 'DIY' Music Making: Social Networks, Old and New, and the Ongoing Struggles to Reshape the Music Industry
Evan Wendel
An historical and comparative exploration of "independent" music scenes and their associated social networks during both the post-punk period of the late-1970s and early
1980s, as well as the current music climate which is increasingly defined by online networks. The larger contention is that the
potentials for "independent" musicians to maintain viability, and even achieve success, outside of a terrain traditionally structured by the mainstream recording industry are greater today than ever before, especially when informed by an understanding of the successes and shortcomings of past practices.
12:30-1:15 PM
Targeting Digital Youth in Web 2.0 China
Liwen Jin
A recent Netpop survey reports that Chinese
Internet users are much more likely to use
user-generated content to make purchasing
decisions than Americans (58% to 19%).
They also are much more likely to participate
in forum discussions and blogs. Web
2.0 technologies originate in the United
States. But why does this East Asian society
embrace more of the web 2.0 activities than
its Western counterpart? This thesis will
examine this question from societal, cultural
and psychological perspectives in order to
discuss new marketing strategies to target the
young and dynamic population in China's
cyber communities.
1:15-2:00 PM
Lunch
2:00-2:45 PM
Underground Tunnels, Neon
Signs, and Asian-American
Identity: The Many Dimensions of
Visual Chinatown
Debora Lui
What is Chinatown? Is it an imaginary
construct, a real location, or a community?
Is it an ethnic enclave only available to
insiders, or a fabricated environment
designed specifically for tourists? This thesis
attempts to reconcile the multiple ways in
which Chinatowns in the U.S. are conceived,
understood, and used by both insiders and
outsiders of the community.
2:45-3:30 PM
Public Interest in the
Broadband Age: Media Policy
for the Network Society
Stephen Schultze
What does "public interest" media policy
mean in the broadband age? Using a
three-pronged set of methods consisting of
historical survey, contemporary case study,
and immediate policy recommendations, this
thesis seeks to distill a unified theory of the
public interest in media policy.
3:30-3:45 PM
Coffee Break
3:45-4:30 PM
The Modular, Mechanical and
Wacky World of Slapstick:
Sound/Image Relationships in
the Looney Tunes
Andres Lombana
A comparative and multimedia analysis of
the sound/image relationships developed by
the Warner Brothers animation studio in its
Looney Tunes series. This thesis focuses on
two theatrical animated cartoons: "Porky
in Wackyland" (1938) and "Dough for the
Do-Do" (1948).
4:30-5:15 PM
Tactical Cities: Negotiating
Violence in Karachi
Huma Yusuf
This thesis uses the theories of Henri
Lefebvre and Michel de Certeau to examine
how everyday practices help the residents of
Karachi, Pakistan, negotiate the violence that
is endemic to their city. In this construction,
remembering, blogging, and navigating
heavily trafficked roads become 'tactics' that
create 'representational spaces' symbolically
free of violence.
5:15-6:00 PM
Reception
Please visit http://cms.mit.edu/people for individual
profiles of the Class of 2008. PDF copies of the theses
will eventually be available at http://cms.mit.edu/research/theses.php.
Games for Change (G4C), the international nonprofit dedicated to supporting research & development of digital gaming for positive social change, announces their very first Boston Games Salon, which will serve as the local adjunct to the national umbrella organization of Games for Change.
The first meeting will serve as an organizing event designed to support the Boston-based community of folks interested in digital games for social change, whether you are a researcher, developer, non-profit rep. or just plan interested in our movement. Along with this special focus on how to shape G4C's Boston activities and outreach, the evening will also highlight a game by Kent Quirk, founder CogniToy - focused on environmental issues/global warming.
Demos will also be presented by MIT's Education Arcade! http://educationarcade.org
Date: Monday, February 26, 2007
Time: 6:00 pm
Place: MIT - Room: Building 14E (east), room 304
It will be a great chance to network with others in the field -- drinks and snacks will be provided!!
We have limited space, so please RSVP to Gary Goldberger (Regional Leader – Boston) @ gary@fablevision.com or 617-956-5707
For more information about Games For Change, explore . . .
www.gamesforchange.org
Featured Presenter
Kent Quirk is a software architect, game designer and entrepreneur with 25 years of software development experience who has been working in computer games and educational software since the mid-1990s. He has led the development of several commercial games, including MindRover, 5 Card Dash, and Cosmic Blobs. He is the founder and CTO of CogniToy, and is currently working on a game about global warming.
Demos will be exhibited during the networking hour
It's our pleasure to announce the start of the MIT Videogame Theorists Colloquium, a series of short, informal (noncredit) classes and discussions about videogames and their relationship to academic study . This is truly an interdisciplinary group intended for people of all ages and experience whose interests span the sciences, social sciences and humanities.
The first meeting is this coming Monday, 2/12, 7pm-8:30pm in room 32-124 on the MIT campus. Please contact Kenny Peng <pengk(at)mit.edu> if you cannot attend and would like to be added to the mailing list to be notified of our upcoming sessions.
Continue reading "Open Invitation to First MIT Videogame Theorists Colloquium session this Monday!" »
Converging Media: Games, Literacy and Culture Research Fair
February 22, 2007
5-7pm
Stata Center, 1st floor lobby (Vassar and Main)
What do Yahoo!, Shakespeare, GPS, Bullet time, Spacewar and MIT have in common?
CMS!
Yahoo! ... along with MTV, GSDM, Turner Broadcasting and Fidelity with the Convergence Culture Consortium respond to the demands of a new media landscape and an empowered client base;
Shakespeare ... early comics, modern dance and the citizens of Berlin are among the many topics explored in the rich multi-media data bases of MetaMedia and Repertory
GPS ... is one of many technologies that we us in handheld gaming applications, all part of our exploration of computer games for education in the Education Arcade
Bullet time... and other special film effects, comic book production, dj-ing, graffiti, and other media expressions come into focus in Project New Media Literacies.
Spacewar ... is where computer gaming all began at MIT, and now it moves into a new generation with the Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab
Join us to explore the many facets of research on cutting-edge digital games, media literacy, innovative humanities databases, and redefined corporate/consumer relations now underway in MIT's Comparative Media Studies program. Faculty, staff and students will be on hand to showcase their work and answer questions about their latest findings. Refreshments will be served.
CMS Undergraduate Coordinator Gene Fierro sends along the following report from the CMS Media Spectacle 2006:
Last night, a great crowd turned out for the CMS Media Spectacle in honor of Chris Pomiecko, the former program administrator here at CMS. The Media Spectacle was held at Stata and was a huge success both in the quality of submissions and in audience response. Cathy Pomiecko, Chris' sister and his mother were in attendance, and Cathy served as one of the judges. The other judges were Professor Junot Diaz, Dr. Laura Ceia-Minjares, Dr. Doris Rusch, Dr. Joern Ahrens, and myself. The event was filmed and aired on MIT cable.
There were two awards given last night, one for the best undergraduate submission (The Chris Pomiecko Award) and another for the best graduate submission.
The winning undergraduate submission was A Piece of Cake, by Anna Wexler (Brain & Cog Sci) and Nadja Oertelt (Brain & Cog Sci), who were awarded the Chris Pomiecko Prize for their work. Both Anna and Nadja were unable to attend as they are in the Cambridge-MIT Program. Cake is a very funny film with monotone dialogue showing a very mismatched date.
The winning graduate film submission was Amnion, by Rajesh Kottamasu (Urban Planning). Amnion was an ambitious experimental film set within a womb, where a pair of twins was recreated using a light table and fabric. A voice-over narrative chronicles the experiences they would share in their lifetimes.
CMS congratulates the winners on their excellent work, and everyone who attended for coming together to make the Media Spectacle 2006 a memorable experience.
We hope to make streaming versions of the award-winning videos available here on the CMS website in the next few weeks, so check back soon!
CMS is proud to announce:
Tea with Claudia Hart
Claudia Hart is an artist, curator and critic, working in the contemporary context since 1988. She creates virtual paintings that take the form of 3D imagery integrated into photography, animated loops, and interactive screen-based installations. At MIT, she will talk about the different roles she has taken on in her career and her views on the themes of popularity, populism and interactivity in the digital arts.
Take a look at her website, get excited and join us!
http://www.claudiahart.com/
Wednesday, February 22nd, 2006
5:00 - 7:00pm, 14E-417
Tea and cookies will be served.
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.
Doug Lowenstein, president of the Entertainment Software Association, was the speaker for a CMS Colloquium entitled "What Will it Take for Video Games To Emerge as the 21st Century's Dominant Entertainment Form?". David Edery has a detailed report.
The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs Web site is in French, but has links to videos, including opening remarks by CMS Director Henry Jenkins, that are in English.
MediaDailyNews has coverage of Henry Jenkins' presentation at The Next Big Idea: the Future of Branded Entertainment.
An article from the MIT News Office.
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