The new Media Studies major officially launched Monday night with a speech from Henry Jenkins, a media scholar from the University of Southern California.
The new Media Studies major, part of the Film and Media Studies department, is an addition to the already-existing Media Studies minor that was launched in 2010.
Senior Lecturer and Media Studies Major and Minor Advisor Amy Aidman wrote in an email to the Wheel that when the minor was launched in 2010, she and her colleagues believed that a major would likely be a next step, depending on student interest.
"The [Media Studies] minor has been popular with students and ... the vast changes going on in media in recent years make this an area worthy of extensive study," Aidman wrote.
The new major provides an interdisciplinary experience focused on old and new media and brings together courses taught by professors from across campus addressing a range of topics in media arts and studies. For example, Media Studies will be partnering with the Goizueta Business School in their concentration in Film and Media Management, which gives students a knowledge of and skill set to enter the entertainment industry.
Given the dynamic and influential nature of the media environment today, Aidman believes this major is a vital addition to the department.
"The ways in which we communicate using media have profound implications for societies, politics, culture, art and economics," Aidman wrote. "Students are immersed in media, and it is important for all of us to bring a critical eye to media texts, technologies and uses to help us manage the flow of information and stories we encounter on a daily basis."
According to College senior Brittney Walker, Media Studies is a much-needed program mainly because of the ubiquitous presence of media in our everyday lives but also because, "it is a program that ultimately connects the 'respected' disciplines."
Walker noted that Media Studies incorporates business, including marketing, communication and advertisement classes; law, including classes on the ethics of what is visually acceptable and what is not; and even a medical side. Some classes within the curriculum include an ethnographic context in which health proves to be an important theme, such as the media's coverage of Ebola, according to Walker.
"To not have a program to facilitate [discussion and development of media] at a top university is ridiculous," Walker wrote in an email to the Wheel.
Aidman wrote that both the Film Studies and Media Studies majors are geared toward developing media literacy and the ability to think critically about the ways in which images, sounds and technologies create ideas.
According to Assistant Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies of Media Studies Daniel Reynolds, the Media Studies major differs from the Film Studies major in that Media Studies is "a bit of a communications studies paradigm," citing that the new major has more of a social scientific approach while Film Studies takes more of a humanities approach. He also said that the new major looks at media beyond film, taking an increasingly cross media approach.
College junior Kelsie Smith, who wanted to study journalism, was never able to declare the major when the University announced the closing of the Journalism Program in 2012, during her freshman year. Because of its cancellation, she decided to major in English and a minor in Media Studies. With the official launch of the Media Studies major, she is now double majoring in English/Creative Writing and Media Studies.
Smith wrote in an email to the Wheel that her Media Studies courses have inspired her to pursue a career in media.
"After learning about the relation- ship between media and society/culture, I want to have a hand in crafting the influential messages that media conveys to society," Smith wrote. "And I hope to impact that message in a positive way."
Smith wrote that in retrospect, she thinks it's better that she's majoring in Media Studies than Journalism because media is constantly changing and "digital media is becoming the future for media."
Monday's kickoff event, a lecture by Jenkins titled "Could This Be What Democracy Looks Like?: Participatory Politics, Transmedia Mobilization and The Civic Imagination," delved into many of the stated themes for the Media Studies major. Jenkins spoke about the role of media and social media activism, and how they contribute to a more participatory culture in a democratic society. He encouraged the audience to think about mobilizing social media politically in the future.
According to Aidman, almost 200 people came to hear Jenkins' talk on Monday night.
Reynolds felt that Jenkins gave a very progressive lecture.
"He was talking about a few movements in social media ... but always with the kind of eye toward with how we can learn lessons from these and how we can think about mobilizing social media politically in the future," Reynolds said. "Hopefully [this event] is kind of exemplary of one of the directions that the major is going to be able to take scholarship and public events on campus."
– By Annie McGrew, Staff Writer
