Interactive Media

Can Artificial Intelligence Help Journalists?

By Barbara Gutierrez Lindsay Grace, an associate professor at the School of Communication, and a team of fellow academics have developed an AI-generated tip sheet that can help news organizations by scouring information and providing leads to pursue. For many journalists, the idea of sharing space with artificial intelligence  is threatening. As it is, the news business is in a steep decline, with U.S. newsroom employment down 26 percent since 2008, according to the Pew Research Center. A combination of factors has contributed to this decline but new technologies are also [...]

2022-07-06T11:16:38-04:00July 6, 2022|Interactive Media|

Student-Produced Shows Nominated for College Television Awards

By Barbara Gutierrez UMTV’s SportsDesk and NewsVision—along with the 15 students who worked on the shows—have been nominated for Television Academy Foundation awards.Two University of Miami television shows have received nominations for the Television Academy Foundation’s 41st College Television Awards, which recognize excellence in student-produced programs from colleges and universities nationwide. The competition, considered the Emmys of college productions, will announce winners at the awards ceremony on March 26. The University’s nominations are in the “News and Sports” category for NewsVision and SportsDesk, two student-produced shows on UMTV. NewsVision is a [...]

‘Black Game Studies’ Examines Contributions of Black Game Makers to the Industry

By Karina Valdes Realizing a need for a reference of African American and African diaspora game makers, Lindsay Grace, associate professor and Knight Chair in Interactive Media, recently released Black Game Studies, an academic and historical book on the contributions of Black game makers to the field of analog and digital games. “There was a shortage of information about people of the African American and African diaspora and the kinds of games they make. What I did at the start of last year was to solicit stories and aggregate all [...]

2022-02-11T14:00:05-05:00February 11, 2022|Interactive Media, School of Communication|

University Community Leaps into the ‘Metaverse’

By Janette Neuwahl Tannen Four years into the XR Initiative, University of Miami students and faculty and staff members conceive new ways to solve problems and improve education by using immersive technology to connect in a network of virtual worlds. Léa Dorne still vividly remembers visiting a Syrian refugee camp and standing inside a family’s United Nations trailer in Jordan. But she wasn’t actually in the Middle East. Dorne observed the family’s reality through an Oculus Quest headset while watching a film shot in virtual reality (VR). “It’s very different [...]

2022-01-21T15:01:35-05:00January 21, 2022|Interactive Media|

Interactive Media Graduate Student Lands Co-Op at Motorola Solutions

By Bianca De Paz Allie Packard, a School of Communication Interactive Media M.F.A. graduate, recently accepted a User Experience Design Co-Op with Motorola Solutions, where she will be applying her skills on how to use video in multiple facets of public safety. Through her graduate UX courses and as a UX research assistant in the University of Miami’s Interactive Media User Experience Lab (UX), Packard cultivated a passion for the process of design. There, she benefited from working alongside Barbara Millet, director of the UX Lab and assistant professor, who [...]

2021-09-29T10:52:37-04:00September 23, 2021|Interactive Media|

Graduate Student Shares Her Unique Experiences in the IMFA Program

By: Karina Valdes A first-year Interactive Media MFA (IMFA) student recently had a unique experience sharing the virtual main stage with her professor during this year’s Games for Change Festival. Katy Huang, IMFA student and graduate assistant at the University of Miami School of Communication, and Lindsay Grace, associate professor, presented their in-depth analysis of social impact games at the festival. “As a first-year graduate student, I feel my skillset expanded greatly within the first year of being a student. My knowledge on games previously is just on games for [...]

2020-08-26T14:18:11-04:00August 25, 2020|Interactive Media|

Are Automated Software Applications Efficient or Malicious Malware?

Two technology experts with the University of Miami explain the origins of “bots” and their role on the internet today. By: Janette Neuwahl Tannen Bots. They’ve been blamed for influencing public opinion during recent elections or simply annoying users who are scrolling through their chosen social media feed. So, what are they? University of Miami computer scientist Ching-Hua Chuan, a research associate professor in the School of Communication’s Interactive Media Department, said bots are simply software programs designed to complete a specific task. Some of the first bots were web [...]

2020-07-06T15:21:09-04:00July 6, 2020|Interactive Media|

Knight Chairs Pen Open Letter Regarding Arrests & Violence Directed at Journalists During Protests Demanding Racial Justice

Twenty-three Knight Chairs from across the country, including two from the University of Miami School of Communication, penned an open letter bringing attention to violence directed at journalists covering the protests against police brutality. Alberto Cairo, Knight Chair in Visual Journalism, and Lindsay Grace, Knight Chair in Interactive Media, both signed the letter condemning the attacks on members of the press. Below is the letter in its entirety. AN OPEN LETTER REGARDING ARRESTS AND VIOLENCE DIRECTED AT JOURNALISTS DURING PROTESTS DEMANDING RACIAL JUSTICE In recent weeks, the latest killings of [...]

Cinematic Voyage Across the Globe’s Oceans Captivates and Educates

By: Kelly Montoya The Ocean Health Voyage, an online educational platform produced by a University of Miami professor and award-winning filmmaker, is now offered to members of the Hemispheric University Consortium. For two years, Ali Habashi, an award-winning filmmaker and assistant professor at the University of Miami School of Communication, set off to meet with 10 world-renowned marine biologists in 10 remote locations around the globe in order to unearth stories about the health of the world’s oceans. Even as Habashi moved from country to country, through thrilling helicopter rides [...]

Joining Forces to Give Back: SoC Graduate Student And Professor Make Masks And Face Shields For Frontline Workers

By: Isabella Vaccaro It all began with Lorena Lopez, a UM graduate student pursuing an M.F.A. in Interactive Media, and some leftover materials she had laying around her home. Lopez, a long-time seamstress and costume designer, said after a few days in quarantine during the COVID-19 pandemic, she noticed a dire need for masks around the world and various groups coming together to make them. “If people are requesting them, and I can make them, there’s no reason for me not to, especially if I have all the materials at [...]

2020-04-22T12:19:10-04:00April 22, 2020|Interactive Media, School of Communication|