Is Popular Culture Good for You?
Thursday, October 6, 2005
What standards should be used to evaluate contemporary popular culture?
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The Future of the Digital Commons
Thursday, September 22, 2005
A look at arguments and legal confrontations over the control of music, writing and visual materials in the digital age.
abstract | speakers | summary | audiocast | video

Branding the Urban Landscape
Thursday, April 21, 2005
Examination of new forms of branding and marketing.
abstract | speakers | summary | audiocast

What's New at the MIT Media Lab?: Technologies for the Young and the Restless
Thursday, March 31, 2005
Two of the Lab's leading researchers reporrt on recent work.
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Election 2004 and Beyond: Did the Media Fail?
Thursday, February 17, 2005
Report card on the media and the 2004 presidential election.
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Copyright Wars
Thursday, November 18, 2004
A continuing conversation about copyright in the digital age.
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New Roles for Established Media?
Thursday, October 28, 2004
The evolving roles of traditional media in the presidential election.
abstract | speakers | summary | audiocast | video

Media Literacy: Learning and Understanding in the Information Age
Thursday, October 21, 2004
Educators discuss how to evaluate media environments.
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New Media, Old Politics?
Thursday, October 14, 2004
The impact of the Internet on the presidential election.
abstract | speakers | summary | audiocast | video

MIT OpenCourseWare: A Status Report
Thursday, Sept. 23, 2004
An update of MIT's OpenCourseWare initiative.
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Movies in the Digital Age
Thursday, April 8, 2004
Jack Valenti discusses entertainment and digital piracy.
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Changing Media, Changing Audiences
Thursday, April 1, 2004
MTV Networks executive on changing television audiences
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The Emerging Mediascape
Thursday, March 18, 2004
Digital media's impact on journalism.
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Interactive Television
Thursday, March 11, 2004
Industry insiders explore innovations to the television interface.
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Writing and Producing in Prime Time
Thursday, Feb. 15, 2004
Writer and producer John Romano (American Dreams, Hill Street Blues, Third Watch) returns to talk about crafting prime-time television.
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E-topia/ Designing Cambridge: How Well Does Media Serve Cambridge Citizens?
Saturday, Nov. 22, 2003 (11:15 am-12:15 am)
Part of two-day event in which critics, policymakers and media practitioners discuss and debate the civic uses of communications technologies.
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E-topia/ Designing Cambridge: How Can Information Technologies Serve Cambridge?
Saturday, Nov. 22, 2003 (10-11 am)
Part of two-day event in which critics, policymakers and media practitioners discuss and debate the civic uses of communications technologies.
abstract | speakers | summary | audiocast

E-topia/ Designing Cambridge: 21st-Century Communications for our Community
Friday, Nov. 21
Begins two-day event in which critics, policymakers and media practitioners discuss and debate the civic uses of communications technologies.
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Covering Iraq: American Media vs. the World?
Thursday, Nov. 13, 2003
Critics grade America's mainstream media in comparison with media from around the world.
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Are National Television Systems Obsolete?
Thursday, Oct. 30, 2003
Media scholars Elihu Katz, James Carey and William Uricchio discuss television in the 21st century.
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Pinker's Farewell
Thursday, Sept. 25, 2003
Legendary professor and author Steven Pinker reflects on his research on language, cognition and creativity and on his career as one of MIT's most admired teachers.
abstract | speakers | summary | audiocast | webcast

Demographic Vistas
Thursday, April 17, 2003
The concluding Forum in a series covering prime-time television examines audience measurement in a period of technological convergence.
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Writing and Producing in Prime Time
Thursday, April 3, 2003
The second in a series of Forums about prime time television features John Romano, a writer and producer of over a dozen prime time television shows including Hill Street Blues, L.A. Law, Knott's Landing, Party of Five, Third Watch and American Dreams.
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Is TV Drama Obsolete?
Thursday, Feb. 27, 2003
This ongoing series of Forums on prime time television will feature some leading TV scholars and media professionals. Their assignment: To help us understand the forces shaping contemporary prime time by looking in part to television's past.
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Culture Talk on Public Radio
Thursday, Nov. 14, 2002
A significant strand of broadcasting over public radio centers on the world of what many call "culture" -- the realm of the arts, literature, music, intellectual conversation about books and ideas. How large is the current audience for this sort of programming? In what ways does such programming differ from that of earlier eras? How important to our society is this sort of program?
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Copyright and Culture
Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2002
This concluding Forum in our series on copyright will focus on the ways in which copyright law affects individual artists and the intellectual life of the community at large.
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America at War? A Conversation with Helen Thomas
Monday, Nov. 4, 2002
Long-time White House correspondent Helen Thomas discusses the role of the media during times of crisis.
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Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution
Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2002
Howard Rheingold discusses his latest book, Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution. Co-sponsored with authors@mit.
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Creativity/Markets/Copyright
Thursday, Oct. 3, 2002
In this second of three linked forums, we will examine notions of copyright and ownership as they are evolving in the market place, among corporations, producers, and artists, and will speculate on the broader cultural implications of the new forms of creativity but also of control latent in digital technologies.
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Who Owns Research and Teaching?
Thursday, Sept. 19, 2002
This fall the MIT Communications Forum will sponsor three linked conversations about changing notions of ownership, markets, invention and property. The first will center on universities and on contested or emerging views of research and teaching. Who “owns” scientific data bases? Should research results be private and for sale? Are current definitions and emerging ground rules for patents comparable to recent changes in copyright law? Topics will include MIT initiatives in Open Course Ware and other non-commercial projects.
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World Media and Monopolies
Thursday, May 9, 2002
This Forum will focus on the consolidation of media ownership in the U.S. and elsewhere and how it affects the format and content of news and entertainment. We will explore the implications of this trend toward monopoly control of media distribution and access as a prelude to the Media in Transition 2 international conference on globalization and convergence, May 10-12.
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Alternative Media
Thursday, April 25, 2002
Emerging digital technologies have created new global audiences for local and alternative media. This Forum will offer a status report on the current condition and future prospects of alternative media, with special emphasis on non-commercial radio. How are independent media creators adapting to new technologies and to changes in the way consumers use media?
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Religion and the Internet
Thrusday, April 18, 2002
In this forum, we bring together three experts actively involved in understanding how people are using the Internet for religious purposes.
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Humor on the Web
Thursday, April 4, 2002
In this forum, we will examine two of the most successful online humor magazines, The Onion and Modern Humorist, and explore how humor is evolving in a digital culture.
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Transformations of the Book
Thursday, March 7, 2002
How are new technologies transforming publishing and the culture of the book? What does the digital future promise for writers and for readers? What are the near- and longer-term implications of recent failures in the production and marketing of so-called e-books? This forum will address these and related questions about the fate of books in the digital age.
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Grassroots Coverage of Global Events
Thursday, November 1, 2001
This Forum will examine how grassroots documentary makers such as Paper Tiger Television and Big Noise Films are responding to the September 11 terrorist attacks and the war against terrorism, and what challenges they face in forming grassroots media organizations for covering international developments.
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Teen Activism on the Web
Thursday, October 25, 2001
The democratic potential of new media depends in part on their capacity to empower groups that historically have had a limited voice in politics. Some American teenagers are now exploring the power of the Internet in imaginative ways. This Forum will combine scholarly perspectives on teen culture on the Web with front-line accounts by youth activists about how they have deployed the resources of new media.
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Writing for TV: The State of the Art
Thursday, October 11, 2001
In this Forum, writer/producers for such innovative shows as The Sopranos, The West Wing and Party of Five will discuss the current state of television drama, the commercial realities and artistic possibilities of TV today and in the future.
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Female Entrepreneurs and Cyberspace
Thursday, May 10, 2001
Women have been at the center of e-commerce, often working out of their homes and juggling child-care needs. In this forum leading female entrepreneurs talk about the challenges faced by today’s wired women.
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Trademark Wars -- Corporations and Publics on the Web
Thursday, April 12, 2001
The struggle over control of trademarks embodies a larger struggle. a system of proprietary control, born in principles governed by advertising and mass marketing, is changing into something more dynamic. The Web confers new power on consumers, new forms of accountability on corporations.
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The Digital Museum
Thursday, March 8, 2001
Are digital technologies allowing museums to reinvent themselves? This Forum will reflect on the ways in which museums are exploiting new technologies to transform both internal practices and communication with their varied audiences through marketing, access to collections, exhibitions, and public programs. What are the risks of these new ways of working? And what lies ahead for the digital museum?
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Journalism and Cyberspace
Thursday, November 30, 2000
A conversation about the current state of digital journalism. How have traditional newspapers been affected by the World Wide Web? How are new media being exploited by traditional newspapers? How are journals born on the Web differentiating themselves from their counterparts with roots in the print medium? What is known about the audiences for on-line newspapers? Is the content and even the mission of on-line journalism different from that of older media? What are the future prospects for journalism in cyberspace?
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New Media and the Elections
Thursday, October 19, 2000
This Forum will discuss the 2000 presidential election and the media. What are the underlying dynamics of the election, and how has the race unfolded? Who is likely to win and why? How have political communications -- through traditional media such as television and new media such as the Internet -- shaped the 2000 election? What innovations in electoral politics and political communications have come about through the Internet? How does the American political experience with new media compare with that of other countries?
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Public Intellectuals: the Cyberspace Generation
Thursday, September 21, 2000
A new generation of public intellectuals has emerged, at home with digital media, engaged in cultural and political debates central to the new communities of cyberspace. These new public intellectuals found their voices in the zines that appeared in the 1970s and 1980s, expressing the values of various subcultural communities. These new intellectuals have created Webzines such as Slashdot and Bad Subjects, which reach a global audience and enable immediate responses to political and cultural issues.
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The Digital Library
Thursday, April 20, 2000
How are digital technologies affecting the traditional work of libraries? How will these technologies transform libraries in the future? Join this distinguished panel for a discussion of the central issues confronting libraries in the digital age.
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Youth in a Digital Era
Thursday, March 2, 2000
The "moral panic" that surrounded the shootings in Littleton, Colorado sparked dramatic responses from the on-line community. Jon Katz's "Voices from the Hellmouth" series on slashdot.com became the focal point for teenagers to respond to the crackdown on cultural diversity in the schools. Katz and Jenkins will have a conversation about American politics, teen culture, the education system, and the power of the internet.
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"Real Artists Don't Go to MIT"
Thursday, February 24, 2000
John Maeda will discuss some issues about art at MIT in the context of his personal work as well as the work performed at the Media Lab Aesthetics and Computation Group. Central to the discussion will be an attempt to discover pathways for MIT students to realize their destiny as humanist technologists.
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The Public Intellectual
Thursday, December 2, 1999
This forum aims to explore the ways in which academic ideas have been disseminated to the public in recent years and how (or whether) this has changed the professional priorities and research of scholars.
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Imaging Science and Technology
Thursday, September 23, 1999
Felice Frankel, an artist in residence at MIT and a pioneering photographer of scientific and technological phenomena, delivered an illustrated lecture about the power of images in communicating science and technology. Boyce Rensberger, Director of the Knight Science Journalism Fellowships program at MIT, served as respondent.
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Stealth Bombers: Invisible Information?
Thursday, April 15, 1999
A cable television documentary described the development of the $2 billion B-2 bomber (and other stealth planes). Was the program adequate? What information does the American public get about such high tech weapons--or about scientific and technological information more generally? Robert Zalisk, the writer and co-producer of the program, screened his documentary and raised some disturbing questions about how his work was edited and "framed" by the cable channel that telecast it.
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The Dark Side of Information Technology
Monday, March 15, 1999
What impact will information technology have on world culture? Will it widen the exisiting gap between the rich and the poor? This issue was addressed in a seminar organised by Sangam, the MIT-Indian Students' Association and co-sponsored by the Media in Transition Project and MIT Communications Forum.
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Beyond the Ivory Tower: 
Academic Discourse in the Age of Popular Media
Thursday, February 18, 1999
This forum examined the role of the "public intellectual," considered the ways in which academic ideas have been disseminated to the public and asked how (or whether) so-called "popular science" has changed professional priorities and research.
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Journalism and Cyberspace
Thursdays, November 5, 12, 1998
How has American journalism been affected by digital technologies? What new skills and new knowledge are needed by reporters and editors assigned to cover the "cyber-beat"? How have traditional newspaper formats been altered, challenged, enhanced by the World Wide Web? Do the Web and other aspects of the digital future threaten the very existence of newspapers in the long term?
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Hypertext in Historical Context: Vannevar Bush and Ted Nelson Revisited
Thursday, October 1, 1998
This forum used video clips from Ted Nelson's lecture at a 1995 symposium in honor of Vannevar Bush to illustrate how hypertext evolved from conceptualizations rooted in older media toward the reality of today's World Wide Web. A discussion following the screening considered factors that have constrained current implementations of hypertext. 
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The Aesthetics of Transition - Three Lectures: The Cinema and Other Media at the Turn of the Century
Tuesday - Thursday, February 24-26, 1998
Film historian Tom Gunning reported on his latest reseach on early movies and other media technologies. 

Race and Cyberspace
Thursday, April 23, 1998
This day-long symposium examined the ways in which digital media may be shaping our notions of  race.   
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From Resistance to Commerce: Media and Popular Culture in Post-Communist Russia
April 25, 1996
abstract