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.
Graduate Program Information Session
November 12, 3pm. Join us for this fall’s graduate program information session! (This time, it’s hosted virtually and registration is required.)
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.
Assistantships
Central to the graduate program experience is the research assistantship. It not only provides hands-on experience but helps cover the cost of the program itself.
Latest
Assistant Professor Justin Reich publishes Failure to Disrupt
Reich’s new book argues education needs to focus on incremental improvements, not wholesale technological reinvention that benefits the affluent.
Prof. Elyse Graham, CMS ’13, shows how remote education should be done
COVID threw open the windows to instructional experimentation. Graham took that to mean she should amp up her Digital Intelligence Arts & Engineering 101 course at Stony Brook University — with everything from trailers to costumes.
Deepfakery: A Livestream Talk Series
Join in as our Open Documentary Lab co-hosts interdisciplinary discussions about deepfakes with leading artists, activists, academics, film-makers and journalists.
