Ben from Wisconsin - M.A. Media Theory and Research.

Hi, my name is Ben Birkinbine.  I am originally from Madison, Wisconsin and I'm currently a student in the Master of Arts program in Media Theory and Research.

I'm interested in the relationships between media institutions and how that constitutes the way in which we receive media content.

My thesis was just on the transition to digital cinema in movie theaters.

So, when you go to see Avatar and some of these 3D movies at the movie theater, I'm looking at the companies who are controlling that technology and putting it in to movie theaters all over the U.S. and around the world.

When I originally began my search for institutions or universities, I'm originally from Wisconsin so I tried to keep it within the midwest.  Southern Illinois was one of the best options for me. 

Particularly, I was attracted because of the global work that's going on here.  The Global Media Research Center is here and is doing very good and creative work and I was interested in getting involved with that.

I think in particular, I really enjoyed "Media Economics," this course that I took.  It helped me to think about the ways in which media products are produced, distributed and then exhibited, or the ways in which we access them.  Whether it'd be in the movie theater or online, or elsewhere.

I received an assistantship while I was here.  When I first began, my first year, I was a teaching assistant for a course in "Contemporary Hindu Cinema."  So I got to watch a lot of Bollywood films and learn a little bit about the industry there, which was really enjoyable.

After that, after I was a teaching assistant, I became a research assistant with my current advisor.  That's when I really started to look into the organizations, like media institutions, some of the major conglomerates that produce, distribute and exhibit media products.

I think that my experience here has given me a good opportunity to present some of the work that I have been doing.

The first conference that I attended was the Global Fusion Conference, which is a joint conference of a consortium of schools including Southern Illinois University Carbondale as well as Texas A & M, the University of Texas at Austin, Temple, and Ohio University.

It's really good, it's a smaller conference but there were some really good names there and I was able to meet a lot of big name academics.

Aside from that, I was able to present my work here as a part of the MCMA Graduate Student Symposium that showcases all of the graduate student work.

I was able to get good feedback from my peers and it also gave me a good opportunity just to see what others were doing.

I speak to people on a social basis, but a lot of times you don't get to see exactly what they're doing.  So, seeing them present in one of those settings was very helpful.

In the future, I'm going to be continuing my education.  I'll be pursing my Ph.D., and I do feel like the experience I gained here at Southern Illinois has given me the opportunity to make a lot of contacts and prepare me for the upcoming Ph.D. work.