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.

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. / "June 2010." Cataloged from student submitted PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 233-235). / How does one design a game to make change? How can I design a game that engages players in ethical gameplay? For this project, I used multiple methodologies--research through design, background research, iterative game design, playtesting, and player interviews--to explore strategies that game designers might use to accomplish goals that involve affecting change in players. I designed a pervasive game adaptation of Alexandre Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo, through which I explored ways to engage players in ethical decision making. I playtested the game, Civilité, with a group of fifteen Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) students and affiliates during MIT's Independent Activities Period (IAP) in January 2010. The game ran around the clock for seven days and took place throughout MIT campus. Supported through a variety of media, including a website, audio podcasts, physical props, hidden tupperware boxes, and a variety of paper documents, Civilité transformed the players' everyday campus environment into an imaginary nineteenth century Paris on the eve of Napoléon's Hundred Days. Along with the ethical decisions confronting players' fictional characters, players also had to make ethical decisions regarding what was acceptable gameplay behavior. After the playtest, players participated in a group post mortem and individual thirty minute interviews. This thesis discusses the methodologies that I employed in this project to engage Civilité players in ethical and unethical behavior and to encourage ethical reflection both during and after gameplay. It also addresses the thorny question, "what are game ethics?" by crafting a rough framework for ways that game designers can think about game ethics. Using observations from the playtest, players' daily reports, the group post mortem, and the individual player interviews, this thesis argues that the ethical issues that players identified fall into three ethical domains: the procedural domain, the diegetic domain, and the magic circle's domain. / by Michelle Moon Lee. / S.M.

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Through the phenomenon of digitization, political parties are now able to communicate their messages in a variety of ways. With this in mind, it is interesting to see how different parties tweak and refine their messages to different target groups. Earlier research suggests that arguments that affect people's feelings are those that make us act. It also shows that value-added words are usually used in connection with such arguments, which coincided with the results of this study. The purpose of this study was to combine rhetorical analysis and critical discourse analysis to see how the Sweden Democrats communicate their elderly policy in three main forums: election manifesto, motions, and the media. The framing of the main question therefore was "How do the Sweden Democrats communicate their elderly policy in their election manifesto, motions and in the media?". The material used in the analysis included three debate articles that were selected through the search words SD, Debate and 2018. Furthermore, the Sweden Democrats’ latest motion and the party's election manifesto on elderly policy were used. The analysis was conducted by reviewing the texts individually and by finding different tools that fell within the framework of rhetorical analysis and critical discourse analysis. This was followed by a summary of the tools that existed and of how the texts differed. The result of the analysis showed that the messages used in the three forums were similar, but that they were designed differently to suit the intended target group. For example, in the debate articles, the Sweden Democrats used arguments that evoked emotions, while in the election manifesto and above all the motion, they used arguments that were supported by data-based facts.

In a time of shifting technological, regulatory and economic regimes, and debate as to the present and potential uses of media, this thesis offers radio practitioners and students a pragmatic, rather than a highly theorised, enquiry into the notion and value of local radio. In a detailed case study, it uses the chosen stations as the basis for an empirical examination of actual output, and demonstrates comparisons between objectives and achievement against the background of regulatory and self-reflective constraints, and within geographical and technological contexts. This thesis also challenges some common assumptions about localness in quasi-local radio and provides a detailed insight into the perceptions of a number of managers about local and community radio stations. This is a qualitative study, focusing on broadcaster-output rather than on listener perception. The enquiry takes the form of a case study of “local” radio in the south-west of Cornwall, UK, by examining examples of the three tiers of radio: BBC Public Service, Commercial and Community Radio respectively. Methodologically, background factors are first assessed by interrogating literature covering local radio in the digital age; the nature of locality and localness; the notion of community; and the role of commercialism in local radio. The research, centered in particular upon notions of localness and community, interrogates those terms for meaning and relevance. A detailed review follows, looking at the formal obligations imposed on each tier and each station (a) by broadcast licences and (b) by self-reflective aims and objectives. Field research then employs observation and full-day, annotated audio monitoring, leading to detailed analytical comparisons of the extent to which the stations rise to the challenges posed. Aspects of typicality and representative sampling are addressed, to ensure that the results obtained through field-research methodology are reliable and repeatable. Conclusions on the specific issue of compliance produce a mixed picture, with all stations complying to a greater or lesser extent with regulatory licence conditions while some appear to fall short of fulfilling their own objectives. Other conclusions on comparative operational and management issues are equally varied but equally worth perusal.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Comparative Media Studies, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 105-111). / This thesis explores the evolving nature of independent music practices in the context of offline and online social networks. The pivotal role of social networks in the cultural production of music is first examined by treating an independent record label of the post-punk era as an offline social network. This develops a useful framework for then considering the similar and distinctive ways in which contemporary independent practices are enabled and/or shaped by online social networks. Analysis is based on close, comparative readings of the structures and affordances of two case studies: the UK-based Rough Trade record label (1978 - 1991) and MySpace (2003 - present). Numerous examples of artists and their practices are drawn upon to illustrate how discursive meanings of independence are negotiated within each network. Investigated are potentials for realizing not only autonomy from the mainstream music industry, but also a range of other post-punk ideals tied to a broader independent ethos concerned with issues of access and participation, artistic control and freedom, as well as desires to engender more diverse music cultures. The intersection of offline and online networks in the context of today's dynamic, transitional music industry further provides new opportunities for more meaningful artist-to-artist, artist-to-fan, and artist-to-company/label interactions. By emphasizing the centrality of social networks, conceptions of autonomous, "do-it-yourself" music making are problematized in favor of "do-it-together" understandings that foreground cooperation. / by Evan Landon Wendel. / S.M.