Film and Media Studies

Undergraduate Programs

Description

Film and Media Studies looks at all aspects of film and media. Students in the program explore these disciplines through aesthetic, creative, cultural, historical, technical, and theoretical perspectives. The program prepares students for careers as communicators, innovative creators of film and other media texts, and competent professionals in such fields as broadcast news, digital media, film production, or other media-related fields. 

Majors

 Program Locations Major / Total Credits
Film and Media Studies BA BA - Bachelor of Arts
  • Mankato
 58 / 120

Minors

 Program Locations Total Credits
Film Studies Minor
  • Mankato
 20

Policies & Faculty

Policies

Admission to the Major is granted by the Program Directors. Please see one of the directors for information on admission procedures. 

GPA Policy. Majors must earn a cumulative GPA of 2.5 or better in their major, in addition to the 2.0 overall GPA required by the University for graduation. A student must earn a “C” or better for a course to apply to their major; this includes the required general electives. 

P/N Grading Policy. A course leading to a Film and Media Studies major may not be taken on a P/N basis, unless it is an Internship or an Independent Study not connected to the student’s Capstone Project. 

Transfer Credit. The program accepts no more than 16 credits from other colleges and universities as transfer credits to be applied toward the major. They must be taken in courses that match or are the equivalent of courses that are offered in the program. Please consult the Program Directors on any transfer issues. 

Internships. In addition to the two-credit Internship Option for the Capstone Project, students may take additional internship credits up to a total of six internship credits. Opportunities for film and media studies internships exist on and off campus for majors who want to work in a professional setting. 

Additional Requirement. Students may not use any course in this major to meet the requirements of any other degree in the Mass Media or English departments. 

Student Advising. Students are encouraged to consult the Program Directors on a regular basis for advice about course selection and career planning. Please see the Program Director in the area that matches your career interests: Film or Media Studies. 

Contact Information

230 Armstrong Hall
Department of English 

Voice (507) 389-2117

Faculty

Program Director (Film Studies)
  • Matt Connolly, Ph.D.
Program Director (Media Studies)
  • Heather McIntosh, Ph.D.
Faculty

100 Level

Credits: 4

Promotes appreciation and understanding of cinema through the study of film style, film history, film genres, and the cultural impact of films.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-06

Credits: 4

Nature, functions, responsibilities and effects of the media in contemporary society.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-09

Diverse Cultures: Purple

Credits: 4

Study and analysis of the elements basic to a critical understanding of film: story elements; visual design; cinematography and color; editing and special effects; functions of sound and music; styles of acting and directing; and functions of genre and social beliefs.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-06

Credits: 4

Provides an introduction to storytelling and design in games through their analysis and application. Students will design their own basic game as part of the class.

Prerequisites: none

Credits: 1

This course provides practical experience in writing and editing stories for campus news entities, such as the newspaper or radio station or other communications organizations, working under the supervision of a faculty advisor. Minimum of 2 hours per week. Cannot be substituted for MASS498 Internship.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-9

Diverse Cultures: Purple

200 Level

Credits: 4

Study and analysis of the techniques, thematic conventions, and cultural and historical contexts of major film genres including the western, the musical, crime, melodrama, science fiction, and gangster. Films will include a mix of classic and contemporary examples.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-06

Credits: 1-4

Course will explore specialized topics in film; may be repeated under a different topic.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-06

Credits: 4

Studies analytical film language in several different film writing forms, including short and long-form reviews, collaborative analysis, and formal critical essays. Emphasizes social and critical contexts needed for film analysis and practice of writing in these film forms.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-06

Credits: 4

Introduces fundamentals of film production: writing, producing, directing, lighting, shooting, and editing, through lecture, critiquing the work of other filmmakers, and hands on production. By the end of this course students will be ready to puruse their own film projects.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-06, GE-11

Credits: 4

Basic techniques of gathering information and writing readable and accurate media stories.

Prerequisites: ENG 101, MASS 110

Credits: 4

Survey of current practices and problems in the field of public relations. Emphasizes successful case histories and planning techniques.

Prerequisites: none

Credits: 4

Exploration of the basic principles of visual media design, stressing the significance of images in a mass media society. Special focus on contextualizing historial and technological changes affecting image production for mass media.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-06, GE-07

Diverse Cultures: Purple

Credits: 4

This course introduces students to the history of independent filmmaking. It includes the close analysis and study of films and filmmakers in United States independent cinema and in independent cinemas across the globe. The focus is on films made outside of the Hollywood economic model of filmmaking. The student will learn how to conduct historical research in independent filmmaking and how to critically analyze independent films.

Prerequisites: none

Credits: 4

Explores social media and their impacts on society through consideration of technologies, social networks, markets, communities, politics and social movements, and major companies. Special focus on individuals' roles as users, producers, consumers, and laborers toward becoming responsible online citizens.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-06, GE-09

Credits: 1-4

Selected topics in mass media.

Prerequisites: MASS 221W or consent

300 Level

Credits: 4

Principles of the First Amendment, libel, fair trial, privacy, access to news, pornography and regulation of radio and television.

Prerequisites: none

Credits: 4

Designed for students who have prior experience and want to make an experimental, narrative and/or documentary film. Students will move from screenplay/proposal to production and post production of short films. Pre-req: ENG 217 or permission of instructor. May be repeated.

Prerequisites: FILM 217 or permission of instructor

Credits: 4

This class uses a critical and cultural approach to explore the intersections of gender, race, and media across multiple media platforms, including film, television, news, social media, and other emerging media.

Prerequisites: none

Credits: 4

Discussion of and practice in reporting about public affairs and social issues, plus examination of copy editing and headline writing for traditional and new media.

Prerequisites: MASS 221W

Credits: 4

Creation of photo, audio, video, and written content for multi-platform distribution. Includes critical consideration and application of content creation tools, social media management tools, and legal and ethical issues.

Prerequisites: MASS 221W

Credits: 4

Introduces students to film from a variety of world cultures. Designed to increase knowledge of world cultures and appreciation and understanding of cultural differences in representation. Emphasizes history of national cinemas, film analysis, and writing.

Prerequisites: none

Diverse Cultures: Purple

Credits: 4

Planning, writing and delivering of broadcast news.

Prerequisites: MASS 221W

Credits: 4

This course introduces students to the concepts, approaches and tools for gathering and analyzing information in mass media research. Students will become acquainted with and effectively use the terminology and concepts used in mass media research.

Prerequisites: none

Credits: 4

This course introduces students to the close study of performance in the cinema. Through close analysis, we will challenge ourselves to think carefully about the creative contributions of actors to film narratives. Students will be taught how to closely describe, read, and interpret film performances, and will be introduced to critical frameworks for analyzing film acting in its various historical, aesthetic, and socio-cultural contexts. The focus in the course will be primarily on performance in U.S. cinema, although some case studies will also look at performance in international film.

Prerequisites: none

Credits: 4

Instruction in the fundamental concepts, terminology, techniques and applications of digital imaging in mass communication. Development of the basic skills necessary to design, create, manage and distribute photographic and video digital images in mass communication.

Prerequisites: none

Credits: 4

Addresses the principles and practices of advertising, emphasizing creative media strategies; strategic decision-making; and historical, social, legal, and economic influences. Students will research and develop an advertising implementation plan.

Prerequisites: none

Credits: 4

Practicum in typography, design, layout and production processes, including job budgeting and estimating, for newspapers, magazines, newsletters, brochures, posters, annual reports, direct mail and related print materials used public relations and journalism. Emphasis on graphic design software.

Prerequisites: none

Credits: 4

Explores and analyzes theories of game studies through examination of games, their development, history, representation, study, and industry toward considering their impacts on society.

Prerequisites: none

Credits: 0

Curricular Practical Training: Co-Operative Experience is a zero-credit full-time practical training experience for one summer and an adjacent fall or spring term. Special rules apply to preserve full-time student status. Please contact an advisor in your program for complete information.

Prerequisites: MASS 221W. At least 60 credits earned; in good standing; instructor permission; co-op contract; other prerequisites may also apply.

400 Level

Credits: 4

This course examines the major films, filmmakers, movements, and trends that defined cinema throughout its first 65 years as a medium. It utilizes a range of historical lenses--aesthetic, industrial, technological, sociocultural--to offer a fuller understanding of film's development across varying temporal and geographic contexts. To encourage engagement with the construction of cinematic history, the course both engages with primary documents and analyzes scholarly historical work on film's creation and expansion. Ultimately, the class seeks to foster both knowledge of early cinematic history and appreciation for film history as a mode of research and writing.

Prerequisites: none

Credits: 4

Study, analysis and criticism of the mass media, their ethics and performance.

Prerequisites: none

Credits: 4

This course examines the major films, filmmakers, movements, and trends that have defined cinema from the early 1960s to the present. It utilizes a range of historical lenses--aesthetic, industrial, technological, sociocultural--to offer a fuller understanding of film's development across varying temporal and geographic contexts. Utilizing primary documents alongside scholarly historical accounts, it also allows students to conduct research into contemporary titles and make an argument for how they reflect and/or challenge larger historical patterns. Ultimately, the course explores how the state of modern cinema can be contextualized and understood through an engagement with the (relatively) recent filmic past.

Prerequisites: none

Credits: 4

The course provides explanations and analysis of the historical evolution of American mass communication from the colonial period of the 1600s to the present. Students will study media history within the broader contexts of American social and cultural history. Developing a deeper understanding of how mass media evolved will lead to a deeper and more effective comprehension of the roles and effects of mass communication in today's society.

Prerequisites: none

Credits: 4

Trends in film theory and criticism. Practice in critical analysis. Pre-req: 329 or permission of instructor.

Prerequisites: FILM 402 or FILM 412

Credits: 2-4

This course provides a framework for students to learn about professional media practice off-campus. Students will travel off-site to explore, find, and report original stories across multiple media platforms.

Prerequisites: none

Credits: 4

Marketing and writing of non-fiction articles for contemporary print and electronic magazines.

Prerequisites: MASS 221W

Credits: 4

Practical skill in the development of public relations writing including news releases, brochures, public service announcements, pitch letters, annual reports.

Prerequisites: MASS 233 

Credits: 4

In this advanced nonfiction writing course, students will analyze examples of professional media writing and employ techniques to create a portfolio of persuasive, informative, and personal writing for a variety of media markets.

Prerequisites: MASS 221W

Credits: 4

Exploration of historic and contemporary examples of strategic public relations successes and failures. Analysis of public relations practices related to these cases, including planning, communication, evaluation exercises and management responsibilities.

Prerequisites: none

Credits: 4

Trains students in mass communication production within the contexts of agriculture, food, and life sciences to create multimedia content about science, technology, and other complex agricultural issues. Drawing on interviews, research, and theories, students will create targeted, multimedia campaigns for expert and general audiences.

Prerequisites: none

Credits: 4

This course focuses on the theory and criticism of mass communication in global contexts. It trains students to analyze and evaluate global media in cultural contexts toward becoming media literate consumers and producers. Course is taught in English.

Prerequisites: none

Credits: 4

Film Authorship teaches the study of authorship in cinema and other forms of moving-image media. The course focuses on the concept of authorship throughout the history of film studies by looking at the career of one or more film directors. The course explores the careers of the selected director(s) in their varying historical, cultural, ideological, theoretical, and aesthetic contexts. The course may be repeated for credit if the particular director(s) under discussion differ from the previous course the student has taken. The director(s) studied will be listed under Notes in the course schedule whenever the course is offered.

Prerequisites: none

Credits: 4

Hands-on production of interactive documentary content for online audiences. Special focus may include web series, docu games, interactive documentary, and virtual and augmented reality.

Prerequisites: none

Credits: 4

Examines serious game theory and design principles in training simulations, persuasive games, and news games. Using these theories and principles, students will research, develop, test, and evaluate their own serious game.

Prerequisites: none

Credits: 4

Hands-on development, implementation, analysis, and evaluation of a digital advocacy campaign. Special focus on brandraising, network analysis, and social media analytics toward creating messages and determining campaign effectiveness.

Prerequisites: MASS 221W

Credits: 1-4

Topic-oriented course in film studies. May be repeated with change of topic.

Prerequisites: none

Credits: 1-4

Discussion and hands-on experience involving mass media activities. Topic varies.

Prerequisites: MASS 221W

Credits: 1-6

On-site field experience, the nature of which is determined by the specific needs of the student's program option. May be repeated with change in topic. Pre: Consent of Instructor

Prerequisites: Consent of instructor

Credits: 2-4

.

Prerequisites: MASS 221W, MASS 312, and MASS 411, plus two additional 300/400 level MASS courses, one of which must be MASS 325, MASS 330, MASS 334, MASS 431, MASS 434 or MASS 436

Credits: 1-4

Extensive reading, research, writing and/or film production in an area for which the student has had basic preparation. May be repeated with change in topic. Pre: Consent of instructor

Prerequisites: Consent of instructor

Credits: 1-2

Directed research on a mass media topic chosen by the student.

Prerequisites: MASS 221W