Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Comparative Media Studies, February 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 61-64). / This text explores three developments pertaining to children and reading in seventeenth-century England. The author aims to show how profoundly death was implicated in the development of thought about children's reading as well as in the emergence of a literature for children in the early modem period. The first chapter discusses the negative reaction to the growing phenomenon of children reading romances and adventures in chapbook form. Escapist literature was believed to make one forget one's mortal lot, which in turn decreased one's motivation for piety. Through a discussion of the threat chapbook romances posed to pious reading, the chapter establishes the historical context for a related development, the creation of a religious or moralizing literature that children would find compelling. In their quest for gripping settings, authors latched on to the deathbed scene for its felicitous blend of inherent theatricality and religious resonance. By early seventeenth century, a few women writers even used the pretext of deathbed advice to pen their own conduct-of-life manuals in an otherwise male-dominated marketplace. The second chapter discusses the prefatory rhetoric used by the two most successful female writers in this genre. The remarkable success of maternal deathbed advice literature suggests that books in Protestant culture absorbed the near-superstitious value of Catholic icons and relics. The genre also implies a Protestant adaptation of the Catholic veneration of the mother. Comfort for the motherless child no longer came from prayer to Mary, but through the reading (and perhaps holding of) a book of advice by a model (and dead) Protestant mother. An analysis of the prefaces enables a close reading of the self-fashioning / of model mother-authors. The third and final chapter discusses the starring role of death in the first English-language children's book, A Token for Children, by James Janeway. The chapter explores the literary interest in the early deaths of ordinary children of extraordinary piety. By reference to the doctrine of predestination, the author speculates that these books had a comforting as well as a preparatory function, allowing parents and children to rehearse (through reading) a model death of a child undoubtedly bound for Heaven. By no means a comprehensive treatment of the connections between death culture and children's reading in the early modern period, the thesis is intended to indicate how pious reading functioned as a reminder of one's mortality and a spur to self-scrutiny. The "looking glass" of the text displayed idealized and heaven-bound children and parents compared to whom the reader may have felt sorely in need of increased vigilance. / by Heather Miller. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Comparative Media Studies, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [169]-174). / Television is in a period of dramatic change. As the mass audience continues to fragment into ever-smaller niche audiences and communities of interest, and new technologies shift control over the television viewing experience from network programmers into the hands of media consumers, television's traditional business models prove themselves increasingly untenable. In an attempt to preserve these models, television executives are attempting to shed television's long-standing reputation as a passive medium, which emphasized the viewer's role as a consumer of television content, and which critics often decried as vacuous and mindless. The current discourse suggests that television's future now relies on the industry's success recasting it as an active medium, capable of capturing and holding the audience's attention, and effective at generating emotional investment. The single most important concept in this new industrial discourse is that of audience "engagement", a term that has generated a tremendous amount of debate and disagreement, with television and advertising executives alike struggling to understand what engagement is, how it works, and what its practical consequences will be. This thesis argues that television's future as an engagement medium relies not on inventing new methodologies that define engagement in terms of quantifiable audience behaviors and attitudes, but instead in a new conceptual model of television, better suited to a multi platform media environment and the emerging attention and experience economies, which focuses on the development of television programs that extend beyond the television set. / (cont.) Such a model must understand television not as a method for aggregrating audiences that can be sold to advertisers, but as a medium that draws upon media platforms, content, products, activities and social spaces to provide audiences with a range of opportunities to engage with television content. Accordingly, this thesis offers a framework for thinking about viewer engagement as the range of opportunities and activities that become possible when drawing upon an expanded, multi-platform conception of the modern television text. Applying this framework to the innovative and experimental textual extensions developed around ABC's Lost, the thesis indicates both the challenges and opportunities that emerge as television becomes an engagement medium. / by Ivan D. Askwith. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Comparative Media Studies, 2010. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 131-136). / The recent increase in digital gaming players and platforms does not imply that digital gaming is as inclusive as it could be. There are still gaps in participation that, if left unaddressed, will exclude groups who have been historically marginalized. Women are among those individuals most vulnerable to exclusion from gaming. In order to better understand the motivations and practices of female players, this study focuses on a group of undergraduates at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who have created a community that plays digital and non-digital games together and includes women. The research was conducted over eight months using interviews and participant observations. The study concludes that there are interrelated factors at the group, game play, and individual levels that influence this particular community's inclusiveness. These factors include how the community values the play process over who wins or loses a game, uses games as facilitators of playful socializing, and negotiates their identities in relation to the "gamer" stereotype. / by Hillary Kolos. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Comparative Media Studies, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves [67]-[74]). / This paper suggests advertisers should experiment with in-game advertising to gain skills that could become vital in the near future. It compiles, arranges and analyzes the existing body of academic and industry knowledge on advertising and product placement in computer game environments. The medium's characteristics are compared to other channels' in terms of their attractiveness to marketers, and the business environment is analyzed to offer recommendations on the relative advantages of in-game advertising. The paper also contains a brief historical review of in-game advertising, and descriptions of currently available and emerging advertising formats. Keywords: Advertising, marketing, branding, product placement, branded entertainment, networks, computer games, video games, virtual worlds. / by Ilya Vedrashko. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Comparative Media Studies, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 90-92). / Despite an increasingly complex academic discourse, the videogame medium lacks an agreed-upon definition. Its relationship to previous media is somewhat unclear, and the unique attributes of the medium have not yet been fully catalogued. Drawing on theory suggesting that videogames can convey ideas, I will argue that the videogame medium is capable of modeling and critiquing elements of moral philosophy in a unique manner. To make this argument, I first address a number of questions about the proper definition of videogames, how games in general and videogames specifically convey ideas, and how games can be constructed to form arguments. Having defined my terms, I will conduct case studies on three games (Fable, Command & Conquer: Generals, and The Punisher), clarifying how the design of each could be modified to address a specific philosophical issue. / by Peter E. Rauch. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Comparative Media Studies, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 108-113). / Title as it appears in MIT Degrees Awarded booklet, Sept. 2008: Viral communication in Chinese online forums / This thesis explores various aspects of the online Bulletin Board System (BBS) world as they relate to the possibilities of the public sphere in China. It addresses two major questions: what has BBS brought to China where traditional media primarily serve as the mouthpiece of the government? And, why are Chinese netizens, especially younger generation, particularly enthusiastic about this online platform? Through a full- dimensional view into BBS'S information communication mechanism and BBS users' identities, social behaviors and values, we investigate the pros and cons of BBS in terms of its potential to contribute to cyberdemocracy in China. The Introduction addresses research motivations, critical questions, and research goals. It also provides an overview of China's Internet landscape and a brief review of Chinese BBS studies. Chapter One walks through the history and development of BBS in China, and analyzes the demographics and online behavioral patterns of BBS users. Chapter Two looks into the distinct information communication mechanism of BBS as well as BBS regulation and censorship in China. Chapter Three looks at a cohort of BBS users, exploring who are using BBS in China, why they are enthusiastic about this online community, and what are their distinct identities, social behaviors and values. The Conclusion makes explicit the relevance of these developments to the ongoing growth of the Chinese Public Sphere. / by Liwen Jin. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Comparative Media Studies, 2010. / This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections. / Cataloged from student submitted PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 121-128). / The American television industry is in a moment of transition because of changes brought about by digital distribution and audience fragmentation. This thesis argues that the television industry can no longer adapt to the changing media landscape because structural relationships and business logics forged in previous eras do not allow for meaningful innovation. This project investigates how these relationships evolved and how they can be made more flexible to meet the challenges of digital distribution and digitally networked audiences. Legacy relationships, logics, and measurement methods have prevented the television industry from maximizing the value of increasingly fragmented television audiences. Publishers, advertisers, and measurement companies have historically been able to get around the limitations of their relationships to one another, but they are now faced with increasing competition from digital companies that understand how to make fragmented audiences valuable. This thesis argues that the methodologies and corporate ethos of successful online companies can serve as a model for the television industry, or they can be its undoing. This project also argues that the television ratings system is no longer serving the television industry, the advertising industry, and television audiences. The television industry has the opportunity to develop a system of audience measurement that maintains the residual value of television audiences while accounting for the value of audience expression. To leverage the true value of the television audience, the television industry must reconcile the commodity value of the audience with the cultural value that viewers derive from television programming. This thesis proposes that the cultural value of content should augment the commodity value of the audience. This project concludes that the television industry should reconfigure its economic structure by looking to other digital business, experimenting with new business models online, and actively exploring emergent sites of audience value. / by Sheila Murphy Seles. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Comparative Media Studies, 2008. / "June 2008." / Includes bibliographical references (p. 111-113). / What is Chinatown? Is it an imaginary construct, a real location, or a community? Is it an ethnic enclave only available to insiders, or a fabricated environment designed specifically for tourists? This thesis attempts to reconcile the multiple ways in which Chinatowns in the U.S. are conceived, understood, and used by both insiders and outsiders of the community. By using Henri Lefebvre's triad of spatial analysis (as detailed in The Production of Space), I create an analytical narrative through which to understand the layered dimensions of Chinatown through the realms of perceived, conceived and lived space. In the first chapter, I closely analyze the visual landscape of an actual location, Tyler Street in Boston's Chinatown, in order to decipher the spatial (and therefore economic and cultural) practices that shape the environment. In chapter 2, I discuss the representations of Chinatown, or the space as it has been conceived by media makers including photographers, writers and filmmakers. By looking at these through the lens of tourism, I create a framework for analyzing the many cinematic depictions of the neighborhood. In the last chapter, I return to the actual spaces of lived Chinatowns, in particular San Francisco's Chinatown as captured in the independent film Chan is Missing (1981), and Boston's Chinatown, as exemplified by three Chinese restaurants in the area. I use Erving Goffman's idea of everyday performance in order to dissect the ways in which people and spaces perform "Chinese-ness" for outsiders of the community. By focusing all three chapters on the material, tangible artifacts of the physical environment, or what I call 'Visual Chinatown,' I hope to create a unified vision of how spaces are created in popular culture. / by Debora A. Lui. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Comparative Media Studies, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 131-132). / An audience's satisfaction with an entertainment product is dependent on how well their expectations are fulfilled. This study delves into the implicit contract that is formed between the purveyor of an entertainment property and their audience, as well as the consequences of frustrating audience expectations. Building on this model of the implicit contract, the creation of expectations through marketing, character and world development, and the invocation of genre discourses are examined through the lens of the television shows House M.D. and Veronica Mars. The issues surrounding the dynamic equilibrium between novelty and stability in serial entertainment and entertainment franchises brought up by these initial case studies are examined in further detail through the collectible card game Magic: the Gathering, and the complexity of the interactions between different types of expectations are demonstrated via a study of the superhero comics serials 52 and Civil War. / by Alexander Chance Austin. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Comparative Media Studies, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 69-71). / This thesis explores the practices of filmmakers of color in the United States who employ strategies to circumvent industrial, financial and cultural barriers to production and distribution. To overcome these barriers, many filmmakers of color in the United States operate as independents, which can allow them to route around Hollywood or forge a new space within. For most contemporary independent minority filmmakers, such as those from Latin, Asian, Pacific, Native and African American communities, an amalgam of political, industrial, economic and technological shifts have both facilitated and hindered access to crucial funding and distribution opportunities, which in turn impacts their ability to control and shape their imagery and identity. The result of these impediments inspires a mix of endeavors by those who seek mainstream access and success, those who seek independent status, and the hybrid practices of those who increasingly negotiate between the two. Hybrid Cinematics describes practices of those who negotiate such strategies to not only overcome persistent barriers, but also to strengthen their presence and authority within the American motion picture industry. / by Tracy K. Daniels. / S.M.