Oct 10, 2024  
2024-2025 Undergraduate Catalog 
    
2024-2025 Undergraduate Catalog

Department of Film, TV, Games and Interactive Media


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Game and Emerging Media

KAREN SCHRIER, Ed.D., Director

MISSION:

The Games and Emerging Media major provides a strong practical and theoretical understanding of game design, development, and writing, as well as an understanding of the history, culture, and business of games. In addition, we research, develop, and design other emerging forms of media-including virtual reality, 3-D environments, and mobile applications-as well as media that have yet to be imagined. Depending on their interests, students develop a wide variety of skills, such as in design, programming, writing, production, art, animation, prototyping, public speaking, and research. Our interdisciplinary approach to games encourages creativity, innovation, exploration, and empathy.

Students choose between two concentration areas: (1) Technical Development & Programming and (2) Design, Writing, & Culture. All students begin the program with a shared interdisciplinary foundation in game design, production, and development, and then concentrate in their respective specializations. Within each concentration there is additional flexibility. Students spend their final year working in teams to develop a portfolio of games and other media. Students also have the opportunity to join the Play Innovation Lab, where they can develop and research games and other media, and participate in game-related events, workshops, and career preparation activities.

Media Studies and Production

JAMES G. SNYDER, Ph.D., Interim Chairperson, Film, TV, Games, and Interactive Media Department

MISSION:

The B.A in Media Studies and Production fosters critical thinking, strong hands-on skills, and creativity in the study and production of media. Drawing from a strong liberal arts foundation, Media Studies and Production integrates the history, theory, and analysis of visual culture with production experience and internship opportunities in the areas of television, film, interactive media, and game design. It prepares students for fulfilling careers in a wide-range of media industries.

The program offers concentrations in Film & Television and Interactive Media & Game Design, as well as three minors in Digital Video Production, Interactive Media, and Cinema Studies.

Opportunities for internships are readily available. The strong alumni network of the School of Communication and the Arts ensures that students intern in some of the top media organizations in the Northeast, including the major television networks, film studios, public relations firms, radio stations, game studios, design firms, technology companies, nonprofit and human-service agencies, and Fortune 500 companies. This on-the-job training prepares graduates to enter this exciting and ever-changing profession.

OBJECTIVES:

The goals and objectives of the B.A. in Media Studies and Production are:

  1. To develop students’ understanding of media theory and the ability to translate this knowledge successfully into practice through the gathering, evaluating, and synthesizing of information from various sources.
  2. To develop students’ ability to communicate effectively in writing and through various forms of media technologies.
  3. To develop students’ creative, innovative, aesthetic, and critical skills in producing visual, audio, and/or written works of excellence.

MINORS

The program also includes minors in Digital Video Production, Interactive Media, and Cinema Studies for students outside Media Studies and Production who are interested in combining the study or the production of media with other disciplines. Students in Media Studies and Production cannot complete these minors. Students can, however, declare a double concentration in Film & Television and Interactive Media & Game Design.

ACADEMIC REQUIREMENTS:

  • Completion of 60 credits
  • 2.5 G.P.A.
  • Meet in person with Internship Director prior to start of the semester of the internship.

Programs

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