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Children's
Culture and New Media
Thursday, February 21, 2002
This forum will discuss how new media products for children are
conceived and
developed and will also consider the social and cultural implications
of a digital
world in which children are media makers as well as consumers.
abstract |
speakers
| summary
Trends
in Advertising
Thursday, November 8, 2001
This panel brings together an advertising insider and a critic
of the industry to discuss the current battle for consumer eyeballs
and how Madison Avenue is responding to the changing media environment.
abstract
| speakers | summary
| webcast
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.
abstract
| speakers | summary
| webcast
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.
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.
abstract
| speakers | summary
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.
Copyright and Globalization
In the Age of Computer Networks
Thursday, April 19, 2001
Copyright developed in the age of the printing press, and was
designed to fit well with the system of centralized copying imposed
by the printing press. But the copyright system does not fit well
with computer networks, and only Draconian punishments can enforce
it.
abstract | speakers
| summary | transcript
| audio
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.
abstract
| speakers | summary
| webcast | paper
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?
abstract
| speakers
| summary |
webcast
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?
abstract | speakers
| summary
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?
abstract | speakers
| summary
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.
abstract | speakers
| summary
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.
abstract | speakers
| summary
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.
abstract | speakers
| transcript
"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.
abstract | speakers
| summary
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.
abstract | speakers
| papers
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.
abstract
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.
abstract | speakers
| summary
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.
abstract | speakers
| summary
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.
abstract | speakers
| summary
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?
abstract
| speakers | summaries
| papers
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.
abstract | speakers
| summaries
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.
abstract
| speakers
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.
abstract
| speakers | summary
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