In Comparative Media Studies, we investigate and engage in the world’s complex media environment. We research multiple media forms and technologies, from books, pamphlets, and silent films to social media, virtual reality, and globally-networked games. We study the emerging media practices of states, corporations, social movements, fan communities, and everyday people. Embracing MIT’s motto of mens et manus, we design and create media through practice-based research labs. We examine media within the contexts of varied cultures, societies and social structures, and we critique and design media to empower communities. Above all, we are committed to an ethically and critically engaged approach to the study and production of media.
Research Themes
Our research groups, using a lab model, produce diverse projects. But collectively they work within themes of equity, critical design, and open collaboration.
2021 CMS Thesis Presentations
On Friday, April 16, join us as our Comparative Media Studies graduate students present their theses. Zoom link available after registering.
Postdoc Opportunity with Prof. Justin Reich and the Teaching Systems Lab
To play a lead role in the analysis of mixed-methods data collected from a cohort of math teachers in an urban school district. Full description.
Latest
Start-up funding news: Faculty and alum secure combined $2.25 million
Professor Ian Condry and CMS alum Han Su recently announced funding rounds for their respective start-ups.
Video, James Wynn: “There’s No Place Like Home: Promotional Narratives, Science Fiction, and the Case for Mars Colonization”
How do you persuade people to leave their indigenous communities to start new ones in a foreign and sometimes hostile place?
Video: Joshua Littenberg-Tobias, “Measuring Equity-Promoting Behaviors in Digital Teaching Simulations: A Topic Modeling Approach”
How natural language processing tools can be used to better understand participants’ experiences within simulated environments focused on anti-racist teaching.
