Media Studies Minor

Mission

The Cinema and Media Arts Department equips students to serve as observers, interpreters, creators and patrons of media. We offer students a thorough grounding in the theory, research and practices of cinema and media arts. We begin with an understanding of the ancient arts and aesthetics inherent in storytelling. Students will learn the history of their discipline, developing the research skills and critical thinking necessary to recognize their position in relationship to critical junctures in cinema and more recently, media arts. Finally, students will polish and practice a particular craft. Our graduates will see their career and calling as comparable to the art of poets, painters, sculptors, historians, and politicians. They will be empowered to celebrate the innate, precious, God-given gift of life, the person and work of Jesus Christ, and the ongoing, surprising activity of the Holy Spirit. They will work out those enduring truths in the rapidly evolving, technologically driven, highly competitive world of cinema and media arts.

Overview

In order to address the pervasiveness of media across multiple disciplines, the Media Studies Minor is intended as a compliment to any major that foresees the integration of media into their future career goals. The unconscious influences are identified and analyzed so that students are equipped with the knowledge necessary to interact with media shrewdly and purposefully regardless of their field of study.

The core courses are designed to illuminate the unconscious influences at play when we interpret and create mediated communication. This includes understanding psychological theories of perception, the impact of media technologies, the economic infrastructure of media, and the linguistic and communication theories of ideology and meaning-making. 

By exploring media's sociological, rhetorical, aesthetic, literary, and/or journalistic impact, the remaining elective classes allow for a student to examine the complex relationship between communication/media theories and a diverse set of individual, social and professional practices.  

A Media Studies Minor is offered with the completion of 18 credits.