In the previous two posts (here and here), I linked to the work of the four recent graduates of the Program in Comparative Media Studies here at MIT who worked with the Convergence Culture Consortium. In this final post, I want to also link to the thesis work of our other alum, 2006 CMS graduate and former graduate student researcher for C3, Ilya Vedrashko. I also wanted to mention two other C3 affiliates who are CMS alum, former C3 manager Parmesh Shahani, who graduated from the program in 2005, and C3 Consulting Researcher Aswin Punathambekar, who graduated from the program in 2003.
Ilya Vedrashko, Advertising in Computer Games
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.
Also, although the theses are not available online, I wanted to point out that, in that thesis database is also a mention of theses from Shahani and Punathambekar. Shahani's work, completed in 2005, is entitled Disco Jalebi: An Ethnographic Exploration of Gay Bombay, while Punathambekar's work, completed in 2003, is entitled Kuch To Hota Hai: Desis and Hindi Films in the Diaspora.
