This thesis aims to examine different independent fashion audience reactions to the covers of UK Vogue April 2021, which featured four upcoming models of color: Mona Tougaard, Janaye Furman, Achenrin Madit, and Precious Lee. The study focuses on responses gathered from two fashion sources: The Instagram account Diet Prada, and a fashion forum called The Fashion Spot. In addition, the design has been extended by The Fashion Spot fashion crowd’s reactions to the Vogue Italia July 2008 also known as “The Black Issue”.  The thesis intends to associate the main research problem with the magazine industry and digital world of fashion, media producers and advertisers, the issue of power, and female models diversity on the covers of Vogue. The study employs a method of qualitative content analysis. Additionally, Stuart Hall’s encoding and decoding model has been implemented to define the message displayed on the fashion magazine covers and to examine the readers' reactions based on the collected data.  The findings show that even though the UK Vogue April 2021 covers met with positive reactions and approval from independent industry voices, some concerns have appeared. While British Vogue has been praised for its decision to feature four black models on the covers, it has been mentioned that other international editions of Vogue did not decide to follow this idea. Moreover, the lack of more diverse fashion producers, such as fashion photographers or stylists has been pointed out. A comparative analysis of the reaction data studied also showed that the audiences of the two independent fashion platforms tend to differ in terms of reactions to the covers. Furthermore, an additional comparison between the Vogue Italia July 2008 and UK Vogue April 2021 has highlighted the differences between the social and cultural changes as well as the perception of a fashion magazine as a media.

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

A political system that facilitates and encourages sincere and careful listening among its citizens will produce more democratic decisions. Yet, good listening is being almost completely ignored in that form of political conversation we know as democracy. As such, this thesis argues that due to an abundance of ‘digital citizens' owing to the proliferation of the internet and social media, a ‘democratic listening' approach to political deliberation has become urgent. However, the application of digital citizenship and democratic listening theories have been minimal in Africa's democratic framework. Accordingly, this thesis seeks to develop this neglected body of scholarship by submitting a case study of Zimbabwe's 2018 harmonised elections. In the African context, most countries principal criterion for democracy is the holding of elections and simply letting citizens' vote. Most of these African administrations also escape the demands of accountability and democratization by steadfastly manipulating legacy media – media originally distributed using a pre-internet medium i.e., print, radio and, television. With the advent of social media which has enabled citizens to access alternative sources of information, this aberrant principal criterion of democracy is now being challenged. The thesis locates itself within digital methods that incorporate qualitative research methods. It makes use of the available digital objects such as the like, share, and retweet buttons to explore societal changes and cultural conditions by investigating online data. The data for analysis is gathered from the social media platforms, Twitter, Facebook, and WhatsApp Messenger. Twitonomy which was developed precisely for Twitter research and offers detailed and visualised analytics of tweets and hashtags is used for data gathering on Twitter. For Facebook, the now defunct Netvizz is used for textually mining data off the platform and on WhatsApp Messenger, an ethnographical approach is exercised. The findings confirm that in Zimbabwe and Africa, social media have emerged as a space for mobilising resistance to authoritarianism and failed promises from elections. Although, African administrations exercise listening as a rhetorical exercise undertaken for instrumental reasons to boost their popularity when they are in a state of decline, social media are now a viable alternative public sphere that democratises political space.

This study has attempted to explore the myriad ways talk radio is tied to everyday life in Mauritius. As a point of departure, this study has considered the success of Mauritian private radio stations as a social phenomenon that deserves attention. It has delved into the ways talk radio, especially their morning talk radio programmes, are tied to notions of citizenship, democracy and development. Anchoring popular talk radio as practice, the study has used a multilevel approach to find out what do people do to talk radio, what kinds of engagement are pursued, which ethical considerations are valued and the implications for citizenship and democracy in a Mauritian context of power differentials and social inequalities. Following a three tier approach implying discourse analysis of morning talk radio, focus group discussions with listeners as well as in-depth interviews of journalists, this study has underlined the importance and significance of the new political that has emerged, highlighting the fact that the democratisation of the radio airwaves in 2002 has allowed political engagements and participation of ordinary people hitherto excluded from the Mauritian public sphere. Against the perspective that views the public sphere as constituted unequivocally in rationality and consensus, this study contends that talk on morning talk radio is inherently conflictual and is performed in reason and affects. Anger, fear, anxiety, hope and solidarity are discursive resources that define the life trajectories of ordinary people but are also ways for listeners to “feel their way” into the stories and to bond together to create a sense of engaged community however fleeting these communities may be. The ethics of care and solidarity afforded by talk radio journalists to these communities shift understandings of the liberal democratic norms of journalism from professionalism to “interpretive communities” that are characterized by social reciprocity. Adopting a decolonial approach that foregrounds the importance of listening to the lived experiences of people, this study finally makes the case for an ethics of listening that is based on re-imagining the conditions for talk radio journalists to listen deeply to people, especially to marginalized communities as a way for journalism to stay relevant while improving the capabilities of people and consolidating the conditions of living together well.

This study critically analyses the coverage of the three main political parties (ANC, DA and EFF) in the 2019 elections by the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC). The SABC has been one of the main sources of information for millions of citizens across the country and many South Africans rely on the SABC for news concerning election proceedings. Therefore, the study aims to observe the role of the SABC in society, and politics during the 2019 elections in South Africa. The objective of this dissertation is to investigate whether the SABC‘s coverage was fair on the three main political parties or not. This research chose to use framing and social responsibility theory as guidelines to reliable and convincing information. Data for this research was obtained through secondary data from the SABC online channel; the study used election reports and its visuals such as pictures, videos for analysis. The study further used videos from the beginning of 2019 election campaigns, until the last day of elections which was scheduled on the 10th of May 2019. According to the research findings, the SABC did not represent the real image of the political parties which may be regarded as unprofessional and may taint the quality of their work. The research shows that in the media there are deep-rooted social and cultural issues that need transformation. The studies notes that media reforms can be the solution to some of the issues discussed in this dissertation. During election period the media was seen as bias, giving more coverage to the ruling party and this conduct led many to conclude that the SABC was used as a mouthpiece of certain political parties. However, the study also observed that there are traditional news factors that influenced the news selection.