Thesis (S.M. in Science Writing)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Comparative Media Studies, 2013. / "September 2013." Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (page 28). / Though shipwrecks and treasure are deeply seductive to the public, the political, ethical, and scientific geography surrounding these sunken ships is not well publicized, except in cases involving large amounts of money. There is a battle for access rights to these objects with some claiming them as public historical commons, and others as commodity. Written for a popular audience, this thesis explores the history, technology and common sentiments surrounding shipwrecks from the people who have dedicated their lives to them: commercial firms (treasure hunters, salvors, etc.), academics (maritime archaeologists, conservators, educators, historians and cultural managers) and hobbyist SCUBA divers. / by Leslie G. Baehr. / S.M.in Science Writing

Thesis: S.M. in Comparative Media Studies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Comparative Media Studies/Writing, September, 2019 / Cataloged from the official PDF of thesis. "September 2019." "Figure 17 is missing from p.51"--Disclaimer page. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 138-140). / In this work I seek to show how the lack of nuance in data representation and media practices of the American educational system impedes the design of effective educational interventions for low-income Black youth. First, I argue that data on educational attainment misrepresents race and class thereby masking the educational reality of low-income Black youth. "Data realities" and "Black Hole Data" emerge as hidden phenomena. Next, I analyze a successful transmedia civic initiative, the Ice Bucket Challenge, to illustrate how new media structures and technologies are being used to create new opportunities for social impact. I will then communicate the design process called HIIPE, as well as the work titled Black (w)Hole SC-i52 (Street Cred' iteration 52) that I produced using this process. The goal of this body of work and design approach is to create a new communication system using virtual reality that more clearly articulates the impacts of race and class on educational attainment for low-income Black youth. / by Sultan Sharrief. / S.M. in Comparative Media Studies / S.M.inComparativeMediaStudies Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Comparative Media Studies/Writing

This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections. / Thesis: S.M. in Comparative Media Studies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Comparative Media Studies/Writing, 2019 / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 129-136). / From drones to predictive policing systems, there has been an increasing incorporation of new security technologies over the last years in Chile to make the fight against crime and "rural terrorism" more effective, in a context marked by a persistent attention to feelings of insecurity. Even though surrounded by an aura of neutrality, these technologies are far from neutral, as they form part of a complex sociocultural fabric of people, practices, discourses, legal frameworks and institutions. Furthermore, instead of solving problems more effectively, these technologies are complicating preexisting tensions. This thesis delves into a critical study of the contemporary anatomy of power, in which mediation processes are becoming central to policing practices, with a focus on two contexts: the fight against crime in urban areas, and the battle against "rural violence" or "terrorism" in the Mapuche indigenous territories in the south of Chile. / Drawing on media theories and governmentality studies, I offer the term operational atmospheres as a notion to think with and account for the composition of policing practices at the cross of vertical (aerial, orbital, and electromagnetic), algorithmic, and affective fields of actions. Operational atmospheres are entanglements of feelings, imaginaries, and discursive practices; technologies and techniques; local and transnational political economies and histories; that form perceptual systems, ways of seeing or sensing like a state which are contingent, partial and grounded on fragile and labor intensive processes, through which they come into existence. I take as a methodological framework Donna Haraway's situated knowedges to locate and shed light on the processes of manufacturing state's logistics of perception and their consequences on the (re)production and government of others' spaces and subjects, in this case, the Mapuche as a "terrorist", and the criminal in urban areas. / In the context of "rural terrorism", I examine three police operations: the killing of Camilo Catrillanca by Comando Jungla; the fake intelligence police operation, Operacidn Huracdn; and the introduction of aerial surveillance in the "red zone". Through this analysis, I shed light on the central role mediation processes play to produce imaginaries of the Mapuche as criminals and terrorists, and to sustain the development of special police operations to target, deceive and incriminate Mapuche in the context of their mobilization to recover lands and autonomy, crossing colonial pasts, neoliberal extractive presents, and global security discourses and practices. I then examine the informational, algorithmic, and unmanned aerial systems mediating carabineros'work in urban spaces, conceived as the location of calculable risks mobilizing preemptive actions to affect feelings of (in)security. / By the implementation of a local version of CompStat, the integration of predictive policing, and the use of drones, urban policing has increasingly expanded beyond the realm of preemptive actions into the formation of "safety" ambiances, becoming atmospheric, pervasive, and affective. More than answers, this thesis opens up contemporary mechanisms of security operating in Chile, to denaturalize and dismantle the neutrality and effectiveness attached to the implementation of new technologies in policing. / by Josefina Buschmann Mardones. / S.M. in Comparative Media Studies / S.M.inComparativeMediaStudies Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Comparative Media Studies/Writing

Thesis (S.M. in Science Writing)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Comparative Media Studies, 2013. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 30-44). / One of Hawaii's most dangerous natural hazards is sitting in plain sight: Mauna Loa volcano. The mighty mountain makes up more than fifty percent of the island and is the largest volcano on Earth. Since 1843, when people started rigorously recording Mauna Loa's eruptive activity, the volcano has produced raging lava flows, billowing sulfuricrich clouds, and giant ground cracks, as well as triggered earthquakes, landslides, and even tsunamis. While geologists and emergency managers are concerned about and actively preparing for a future eruption, Hawaii's general public is largely ignorant or apathetic to their risk. This thesis explores what a future Mauna Loa eruption may look like in terms of geology, disaster response, and damage. It also identifies and profiles the most threatened Hawaiian communities and industries, as well as explores the factors driving differences in risk perception across various stakeholders on the island. / by Zahra R. Hirji. / Thesis (S.M. in Science Writing)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Comparative Media Studies, 2013.

Thesis: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Comparative Media Studies/Writing, 2016. / "June 2016." Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references. / The proliferation of sensor devices in the emerging landscape of 'smart cities' provides new mechanisms with which to measure the built and natural environment. City governments increasingly rely on sensor data to monitor infrastructure, mobility patterns, environmental hazards, disasters, and more. At the same time, citizens have increasing access to tools with which to examine urban concerns outside of institutional means. By looking at the use of one specific category of sensor data, air quality, this thesis provides a critical analysis of the plurality of ways in which urban sensing data is generated and represented. Specifically, the thesis examines representations of air quality data intended for governmental to grassroots audiences, and how these representations may prove to be problematic in attempts to reconcile their myriad forms and meanings across contexts and constituencies. Urban planning and design, disciplines that rely on the interpretation of environmental data in order to propose strategies for shaping the built environment, serve as a unique point of convergence of the key tensions that persist in the use of sensor data in cities. Case studies of various urban sensing initiatives in the U.S. and abroad illustrate disjunctions between different modes of sensor data collection and the way that data is communicated, affecting the way that governments negotiate with citizen stakeholders and vice versa. The core research questions this thesis examines are twofold: (1) What are the ways in which air quality sensor data is represented and given meaning in city dashboards, data portals, and other graphic user interfaces for different audiences, and (2) How might sensor data be used in the context of urban planning and design to reveal new frameworks for environmental data collection and representation that promote collaboration between government and citizen stakeholders? / by Lilian Bui. / S.M. in Comparative Media Studies

Thesis: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Comparative Media Studies/Writing, 2017. / "September 2017." Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 93-97). / In recent years, the incidence of violence against Chinese doctors has increased dramatically, with the scale, frequency and viciousness of attacks shocking the world. The challenging doctor-patient relationship remains a complicated issue with no single cause. When the tension intensifies, some news media tend to blame the doctors, using misleading narratives to create sensationalism, thereby aggravating the antagonism between the society and medical professionals. Much scholarship has focused on exploring the social, economic, political, legal, and medical aspects of the doctor- patient relationship. In contrast, little research has been done to interrogate the media's role in contributing to the tension. Additionally, although most studies are concerned with proposing suggestions, no study has posed an intervention to combat the twisted depictions of doctors and to abate the worsening doctor-patient tension. To this end, this thesis examines the role of the media to provide an explanatory analysis of its influence on the doctor-patient relationship, and then leverages on the power of narrative to offer an intervention as an aid to the current doctor-patient tension. User feedback has been collected and analyzed to measure the effectiveness of this project. The aim of this intervention is to help promote perspective taking, increase awareness, and foster understanding toward medical professionals in China. / by Yao Tong.

Thesis: S.M. in Comparative Media Studies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Comparative Media Studies/Writing, May, 2020 / Cataloged from the official PDF of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 91-100). / In the last few years, the perception of virtual reality (VR) has shifted from an entertaining novelty to an increasingly mainstream technological medium. However, the methods of creating and assessing high-fidelity immersive VR for learning remain nascent. With the growing demands for change in the 21st-century American education system, it is increasingly important for designers and developers to approach the topic of VR for K-12 learning thoughtfully yet critically. This thesis grounds VR within the greater context of technology-mediated learning by examining its affordances, relevant educational frameworks, and cognitive limitations through the academic lenses of pedagogy, cognitive science, and educational psychology. It then utilizes a case study, the CLEVR project, to trace an in-depth example of an ongoing VR game through user feedback, data analysis, and iterative game design. Ultimately, I use findings generated from the CLEVR project to develop recommendations for designing and integrating VR into K-12 classrooms, with the hopes of informing current and future designers about balancing VR's affordances with learning outcomes in order to develop successful immersive learning experiences. / by Annie Wang. / S.M. in Comparative Media Studies / S.M.inComparativeMediaStudies Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Comparative Media Studies/Writing

Thesis (S.M. in Science Writing)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Comparative Media Studies, 2013. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 40-51). / In 2002, following the September 11th attacks and the anthrax letters, the United States allocated money to build two maximum containment biology labs. Called Biosafety Level 4 (BSL-4) facilities, these labs were built to research new vaccines, diagnostics, and treatments for emerging infectious diseases, potential biological weapons, and to contribute to the nation's biodefense. These labs were not the first dramatic reaction to the threat of biowarfare and are in fact, one product of a long history of the country's contentious relationship with biological weapons. Of the two labs created, Boston University Medical Center's National Infectious and Emerging Disease Laboratories (NEIDL) has remained the more controversial given the urban community it resides in. However, increasingly the mandate of these labs has been expanded from biodefense to all infectious disease, regardless of their potential probability for use as a weapon. These include looking at pathogens that could potentially cause a pandemic like SARS, ebola, or smallpox. The repurposing of these labs could make them an invaluable contributor to the United States public health system. / by Alison K. Bruzek. / S.M.in Science Writing

Thesis (S.M. in Science Writing)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Comparative Media Studies, 2013. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 37-39). / At the Sherrill House Rehabilitation and Retirement Center in Boston, MA, music therapist Dianne Tow and her interns use a variety of therapeutic interventions to treat physical and psychological dysfunctions-though not every method has been supported by rigorous scientific research. With current technology in the fields of neuroscience and psychology, the effectiveness of most therapies is difficult to quantify. Most of the progress has been made for methodologies targeting physical limitations. The two therapies with the strongest documentation are rhythmic-auditory stimulation (RAS) gait training and melodic intonation therapy (MIT). RAS gait training is typically used to treat patients with Parkinson's disease or some kind of mobility loss caused by brain damage. Parkinson's disease attacks a person's motor system, and RAS gait training re-stimulates the motor system with music, specifically sound with rhythmic qualities. MIT is used to treat certain kinds of speech loss caused by brain damage in the left hemisphere. Speech is housed in specific organs, primarily in the left hemisphere, but music processing is dispersed throughout both halves of the brain. If the main language enter is compromised, the music neural network can be reworked through multiple therapeutic sessions to help relatively unused language centers in the right hemisphere to develop and grow the connections necessary to produce speech again. Other music therapies that target emotional and psychological dysfunctions appear to have positive effects, as observed by family members and therapists, but science is not yet satisfied. Human musicality and music's direct effects on our health remain mysterious, but the complexities that have been unraveled thus far with gait training and melodic intonation hold a positive note of hope for the future. / by Hannah Yee-shing Cheng. / S.M.in Science Writing

This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections. / Thesis: S.M. in Comparative Media Studies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Comparative Media Studies/Writing, 2019 / Cataloged from student-submitted PDF of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 162-174). / by Libby Falck. / S.M. in Comparative Media Studies / S.M.inComparativeMediaStudies Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Comparative Media Studies/Writing