Media Studies

Choose to focus on one of three Media Studies tracks: Film/Video, Digital/Electronic Media, or Critical Studies. 

What You Will Learn

1. How to be an engaged, committed participant in community-based, local, and global media production.  
2. The relationships between Media Studies theory, history, and practice. 
3. How to create non-traditional and non-industrial forms of media production. 
4. A wide-ranging knowledge of media forms. 
5. Understand how Media Studies connects to other disciplines. 
6. How to participate and build a media arts community through curation, distribution, and community involvement. 
7. How to prepare for a life of media practice. 

The Media Studies major requires the completion of 11 courses, with a concentration in Film/Video, Digital/Electronic Media, or Critical Studies. All Media Studies majors will complete the following courses. Courses listed as fulfilling each requirement are subject to change and other courses may be counted toward those requirements with approval of the Curriculum Committee.

1. One introductory critical/theoretical course:
    
   • Introduction to Media Studies: MS 049 PZ , MS 049 PO , or MS 049 SC
   • Language of Film: MS 050 PZ , MS 050 HM , or LIT 130 CM
   • MS 051 PO – Introduction to Digital Media Studies
2. One introductory production course:
    
   • ART 020 PO – Black and White Photography
   • ART 021 PO – Foundations of 2D Design
   • ART 141 SC – Introduction to Digital Imaging   
   • ART 143 SC – Digital Color Photography
   • ART 145 SC – Beginning Photography
   • ART 148 SC – Introduction to Video
   • MS 082 PZ – Introduction to Video
   • MS 182 HM – Introduction to Video Production
3. One course in media history:
    
   • LIT 131 CM – Film History (1925-1965)
   • LIT 132 CM – Film History (1965-Present)
   • LIT 134 CM – Special Studies in Film
   • MS 045 PZ – Documentary Media
   • MS 079 PZ – Silent Film
   • MS 091 PZ – History of American Broadcasting
   • MS 100 AA – Asian Americans in Media
4. One course in media theory:
    
   • ART 181 SC – Topics in Art Theory
   • ART 181G SC – From Beauty to the Abject
   • ART 183 SC – Feminist Concepts & Strategies
   • ARHI 141B PO – Africana Cinema Through the Documentary Lens
   • ENGL 118 PO – Nature of Narrative: Fiction, Film
   • LIT 103 HM -Third Cinema
   • LIT 138 CM – Film and Mass Culture
   • MS 046 PZ – Feminist Documentary
   • MS 074 PZ – Sound Theory, Sound Practice
   • MS 110 PZ – Media & Sexuality
   • MS 147B PO – Body, Representation, Desire
   • MS 149A PO – Marxism & Cultural Studies
   • MS 197 PZ – Media Praxis
5. A senior seminar:
    
   • MS 190 JT – Senior Seminar

Each student will also complete one of the following six-course concentrations:

Film/Video

6. One intermediate or advanced film/video production class.
7. One additional course in media history, as listed above.
8. –11. Four appropriate electives, drawn from the list of all approved courses that follows (note that Pitzer MS majors must select MS 194 PZ – Media Arts for Social Justice, or MS 196 PZ – Media Internship, as one of their electives) or MS 197 PZ – Media Praxis

Digital/Electronic Media

6. An intermediate or advanced digital production course.
7. One course in 20th or 21st–century art history:
   ARHI 181 SC – Art from 1945–1989
   ARHI 184 PO – Modernism, Anti-modernism, Postmodernism: A Social History of North American Art
   ARHI 185 SC – History of Photography
   ARHI 186T PO – Art and Time
8. –11. Four appropriate electives, drawn from the list of all approved courses that follows (note that Pitzer MS majors must select MS 194 PZ – Media Arts for Social Justice, or MS 196 PZ – Media Internship, as one of their electives) or MS 197 PZ – Media Praxis

Critical Studies

6. One additional media theory course, as listed above. One of the two required media theory courses must be MS 147 A-C PO or MS 149 A-C PO Topics in Media Theory I or II.
7. One additional course in media history, as listed above.
8. –11. Four appropriate electives, drawn from the list of all approved courses that follows (note that Pitzer MS majors must select MS 194 PZ – Media Arts for Social Justice, or MS 196 PZ – Media Internship , as one of their electives) or MS 197 PZ – Media Praxis

Critical Studies: Film Studies Option

Students desiring an emphasis in Film Studies should follow the Critical Studies track, tailoring their major by selecting the following courses:

1. MS 050 PZ – Introduction to Film or LIT 130 CM – Language of Film
2. MS 082 PZ – Introduction to Video; ART 148 SC – Introduction to Video; or MS 182 HM – Introduction to Video Production.
3. MS 147 A-C PO Topics in Media Theory 1 ; or MS 149 A-C PO Topics in Media Theory II
4. One course in film theory, such as: LIT 103 HM – Third Cinema.; LIT 138 CM – Film and Mass Culture ; LIT 139 CM – Film Theory ; MS 046 PZ – Feminist Documentary; MS 074 PZ – Sound Theory, Sound Practice; MS 110 PZ – Media & Sexuality; MS 197 PZ – Media Praxis; or ARHI 141B PO – Africana Cinema Through the Documentary Lens.
5. –6. LIT 131 CM – Film History (1925–1965) and LIT 132 CM – Film History (1965–Present)
    
6. MS 190 JT – Senior Seminar
7. –11. Four appropriate film-oriented electives drawn from the list of all approved courses that follows (Note that Pitzer MS majors must select MS 194 PZ – Media Arts for Social Justice, or MS 196 PZ – Media Internship, as one of their electives) or MS 197 PZ – Media Praxis

Senior Exercise

The Senior Exercise consists of a topical senior seminar jointly taught during the fall semester by faculty from each of the concentrations. This seminar asks students to bring together the various aspects of their course of study, producing an appropriate culminating seminar project that demonstrates their command of the fields and the forms of critical and creative practice that they have studied. 

During this seminar, all senior Media Studies majors will be given the option to develop a proposal for a second-semester Senior Project. These proposals will be reviewed by the Media Studies faculty and selected students will go on to complete an independent project under the supervision of two members of the Media Studies faculty or appropriate affiliated faculty members from The Claremont Colleges. 

The Senior Project course will count toward the four electives required for the major.

Honors

Media Studies majors with at least a 3.5 cumulative GPA will be invited to have their senior project or thesis evaluated for honors. Students whose senior project receives a grade of “A” will be recommended to the Media Studies Field Group for honors.

Students must complete the requirements for both majors, including any theses or honors requirements. Normally, no more than two courses can be counted to fulfill the requirements in both fields.

For combined majors, course requirements include: 

• One introductory critical/theoretical Media Studies course
• One production course
• One media theory course
• The Senior Seminar
• Four additional Media Studies courses

The combined major must reflect a coherent integration of the two fields.

A minor in Media Studies requires completion of six graded courses, which must include the following:

• One introductory critical/theoretical Media Studies course
• One introductory media production course
• One course in media history
• One course in media theory
• One media service or media internship
• One elective in Media Studies