MCS 501 Introduction to Media Studies (4 hours) Lecture.

Enrollment maximum: 30

This course introduces students to the field of media studies.  In addition to a broad historical overview, students are introduced to media studies traditions in the social sciences and humanities including mass communications, media effects studies, political economy, media policy and textual/content analysis.  Students learn the historical trajectory of these media studies disciplines and how they have shaped the field of study as well as historiographic methods for understanding and writing about media history.

MCS 502 Media and Cultural Studies (4 hours) Lecture

Enrollment maximum: 30

This course provides students with a theoretical and methodological background in the interdisciplinary field of cultural studies, which considers media and culture as sites for the construction and contestation of race, class, gender, ethnicity, sexuality and nation.  The course provides a foundation in critical cultural studies, ideology critique, critical race and gender studies, transnational media studies and active audience studies.

MCS 503 Global Media (4 hours) Lecture

Enrollment maximum: 30

This course surveys a number of frameworks for understanding the global dynamics that constitute particular media cultures around the world.  We will examine historical perspectives and debates concerning the processes of globalization and the media’s constitutive role in impacting our conceptions of space and time across local, national and transnational terrains.  Students will interrogate how the actions of nation states, civil society and transnational corporations impact media industries and ask how media representations are contested across registers of nation, region, citizenship, class, religion, labor, gender, Diaspora, race, migration and ethnicity.

MCS 520 Topics in Media Studies (4 hours) Seminar

Enrollment maximum: 27

This is a seminar that focuses on a particular area of media studies including, but not limited to, topics such as the contemporary media industries, kids media culture, television studies, music cultures, digital divide, race and media, celebrity culture, radio studies, war and media, gender and media, global television, new media studies and sexuality and media.  Students may take this seminar repeatedly in different topic areas.

MCS 521: Topics in Cinema Studies (4 hours) Seminar

Enrollment maximum: 27

This is a seminar-level course that provides in-depth examinations of Cinema

Studies topics.  Topics vary from quarter to quarter and may include studies

of film genres, film authorship, national cinemas, global cinema, gender in

cinema, animation, film theory, early cinema, film aesthetics, race and

representation, film sound studies or other rotating topics.

MCS 530 New Media and Culture (4 hours) Seminar

Enrollment maximum: 27

This seminar considers the cultural ramifications of new media in shaping life experience and opportunity.  As interactive digital media technologies expand opportunities for social networking, text and instant messaging, file sharing, collaborative authoring, blogging, podcasting and mobile communication, this seminar asks how these new technologies impact identity formation, creative participation and concepts of public culture.  Issues of concern include race, gender, class, sexuality, cultural citizenship, fandom, subcultures and democratic participation.

MCS 531 Media Policy (4 hours) Seminar

Enrollment maximum: 27

This seminar considers the regulatory policies that have shaped media culture including those governing ownership, content, labor and intellectual property.  The focus is on how citizens, industries, governments and social movements have sought to impact the role of media in public and private life including issues such as civil rights, media conglomeration, sex and violence, free speech, public access, children’s media, public radio/TV, fair use in copyright, international governance, commercialization and equal opportunity.  Students engage with these issues through investigating historical and contemporary case studies within local and global contexts.

MCS 532 Asian Cinema/Media (4 hours) Seminar

Enrollment maximum: 27

This seminar examines the cultural, social and economic contexts to Asian cinema/media.  The course focuses on national and regional cinema/media industries and their transnational contexts of production, circulation and reception.  Students consider questions of identity and cultural difference, particularly in relation to immigration, Diasporas, transnationalism, youth culture, class, gender, sexuality, race and ethnicity.  As well as an historical survey, the course considers recent develops as digital technologies impact Asian media cultures.

MCS 533 Latin American Cinema/Media (4 hours) Seminar

Enrollment maximum: 27

This seminar examines the production, distribution and impact of cinema and media in the Latin American context.  We will view a range of works from major and minor industries and investigate how social, economic and political forces have shaped or are presently influencing and transforming national cinemas and their industries.  Questions of identity and cultural difference, particularly in relation to immigration, diasporas, transnationalism, youth culture, class, gender, sexuality, race and ethnicity are central to the discussions.  We will consider the diversity of styles and topics as much as the discursive and theoretical frameworks that in the past defined, or those that are now redefining, the cinema and media of the region.

MCS 534 Documentary Studies (4 hours) Seminar

Enrollment maximum: 27

This course examines the rise and growth of documentary forms, including audio, film, television, photography and literary journalism.  Students will study representative works from each documentary approach and learn to analyze the techniques of observation and representation at use in these pieces.  Students will become familiar with the social, aesthetic and historical discourses of documentary and understand major theoretical and critical approaches of analyzing documentary forms.  Students will become aware of the convergent and divergent qualities that are features of qualitative research, journalism and documentary practice.  Students will learn how documentary functions as a witness to personal and public histories.

MCS 541 Audio Documentary (4 hours) Seminar

Enrollment maximum: 27

Through practical application and the exploration of cultural reporting and documentary approaches to communication, we will consider questions that surround the interpretation and representation of cultural experience.  We will analyze and create audio documentaries in an effort to understand better a significant form of storytelling.  There are three central learning objectives that will guide us through the course: (1) we will develop an understanding of the techniques people use to observe, (2) we will develop an understanding of the aesthetic and structural choices people make to explain what they do, and (3) we will use this knowledge to inform the production of our audio documentary projects.

MCS 542 Topics in Production (4 hours) Seminar

Enrollment maximum: 27

This course allows students to take production courses from across the university including, but not limited to, Advanced Sound Design, Advanced Non-linear Editing, Documentary Production, Advanced Cinematography, Document Design, Online Documentation, Writing and Technology, Web Design I and Web Design II.

MCS 592 Independent Study (4 hours)

Students who select the Thesis or Project Option take this course to conduct research for their thesis/project in consultation with a faculty member of their choice.  Other students may also use this course to work with a faculty member on an independent study.  Students can take only one Independent Study.

MCS 599 Thesis/Project Supervision (4 hours)

Students who select the Thesis or Project Option must take this course while they write their thesis or finish their project.  Students work closely with their chosen advisor in completing their thesis/project.

CMN 591  Internship