A new
major is on the horizon Tweaders! Coming to GSU in the Fall of 2014, there will
be a new Media Studies major. While this major has
vast appeal, students who may be the most interested would have a desire to
learn media production from animation to narrative media. This program focuses
on the theory behind media production in addition to providing hands-on
experience to help better prepare students for going out into the field. Students
majoring in journalism, public relations, or marketing will gain useful skills
from this program.
 |
| Professor Debbie James |
Media Studies Assistant Professor, Deborah James, and her
handpicked team of specialists created this major. It will be divided into
three concentrations: Media Industry and Production, Social Networking and
Participatory Culture, and Global Media and Information Flow.
For this degree, Professor James wanted to gather an all-star team
of faculty and administrators to assist in development. She wanted the right
balance of media production and communications as well as administrators. The
team consisted of Coordinator of Instructional Development and Full Professor, Tony
Labriola, Coordinator of Instructional Development, Yvette Brown, Communications
lecturer, Professor Rhea, Coordinator of Academic Advising and Student Support
Services, Lisa Helm, and Academic
Coordinator of Communication Programs and lecturer,
Professor Marilyn Yirku. These individuals will all be charged with instructing
most of the courses for this program.
 |
| Professor Tony Labriola |
Emmy Award-winning producer and Media Production Professor Tony
Labriola, who has worked at GSU as a senior producer and director of video for
over 30 years, has a long and colorful background in educational television and
producing. He has a Master of Fine Arts degree in Communications and Film (with
honors) from Ohio University, and has directed over 50 series for PBS, The
Learning Channel, and Mind Extension University. Professor Labriola has also
received various awards and honors, including two Emmy’s for producing The
Magic Door Television Theater. The Magic Door Television Theater is Chicago’s
oldest television program for children. According to Professor Labriola, this
may be one of the only programs to merge these three specific concentrations,
making it a “groundbreaking” and distinctive major.
 |
| Professor Yevette Brown |
Professor Yvette Brown has a Master of Arts Degree in Television
& Film Production with a focus in Journalism. Like Professor Labriola, she
has received several honors and awards, including an Emmy for producing Artbeat
Chicago. Artbeat Chicago features works of art from Chicago and all around
Illinois. In addition to writing and producing at GSU, she has also done
freelance work, like producing several segments of BET programs. In addition to
GSU, she is currently involved as a Freelance Producer, writing scripts and
producing segments about Chicago’s Arts community as well as other PBS
specials.
 |
| Professor David Rhea |
Dr. David Rhea attended the University of Missouri, earning his
Ph.D. in Communications. In addition to serving as Assistant Professor of
Communication Studies at GSU, he also has two journal publications, three
honors, and dozens of presentations on topics ranging from politics to speech
communications.
Once her team was complete, they spent a significant amount of
time focusing on the vision for the program by doing research on the students
and the region, as well as doing an environmental scan to figure out what they
were offering already, gaps that they could fill, and what will prepare
students for the future.
The Media Industry and Production concentration, headed by
Professors Labriola and Brown, really focuses on television production locally
as well as internationally. Courses within this concentration will not only focus
on traditional television production, but will also introduce theories of
transmedia[1]
production - the technique of telling a single story or story experience across
multiple platforms and formats using current digital technologies.
So courses will cover not only television production and
transmedia production, but also digital storytelling, and upper-level audio production
classes. “We’re taking students…from the beginning and preparing them for the
industry as it might be in years to come.” said Professor James.
Professor Labriola’s goal with the Media Industry and Production
concentration is that it will mesh well with the other concentrations. “We were
seeing offering production as…the point at which all of these other things
revolved around. You’d have to know something about production to be involved
with social media because you’re creating media.” The same goes for
globalization, which is sharing media across the globe.
Another concentration within the Media Studies major is the Social
Networking and Participatory Culture concentration, headed by Professor James
herself. This concentration will, as one may have guessed, have a lot to do
with social media and social networking.
The participatory culture is made up of individuals who not only act as
consumers, but also as contributors and producers in their community and the
world. In this concentration, students will discuss how the participatory
culture produces media, what they actually make, and how the excitement of
being involved with the world can be harnessed for the future. They are also looking
into gaming, interactive design, and how groups of people work together to
produce large projects. It will have students looking at new equipment and ways
in which existing equipment can be made, as well as different ways to problem
solve. For example, the Social Lab, a Capstone course, will have senior
students in that class coming together to work on different issues and come up
with a project developed at the beginning of the course on one of those issues to
be displayed by the end of the course. It’s really about creating a thinking
and functioning production team.
The final concentration within the major, the Global Media and
Information Flow concentration, is headed by Professor David Rhea, Ph.D. and focuses
on what media production means in a global context. In this concentration,
students will learn about different international media systems, particularly in
Latin America and Asia, in order to help students to function more effectively
in an international market. With such a global approach to information and media,
Professor James says that her committee is working on some international exchange
programs, which include foreign language and media systems studies in hopes
that students form an understanding of the social science of media. They are
already starting with a project in Toronto, but James could not discuss the
potential partner by name because the terms are currently in negotiations.
“I realize it’s [Toronto] not as international as some may think,
but it gives people the opportunity to do media production and team development
and build a project with folks from a different country.” said James.
Although the full major won’t go live until the Fall of 2014, a
“soft launch” is expected this Fall; with some courses beginning in August to
give people a good idea of the program.
Students will leave the program armed with
a diverse reel and practical experience that have prepared
them to compete in the media industry. They will be able to find jobs abroad
and in our neighboring media market, Chicago, the third largest in the country “What we wanted to come out with is a program that would prepare
students with the tools and the skills to be doing something that’s a hybrid
between working for somebody else, but also be entrepreneurial.” said Professor
James.
Students will also be given the unique ability to attend
conferences and apply for internships abroad. Graduates of this
program will be prepared to compete for jobs abroad and in our neighboring
media market, Chicago, the third largest in the country.
If
you’re interested in inventing media, and not just consuming it, check out the
upcoming Media Studies major and learn more about all that it has to offer. Don’t forget to leave a comment down below and check back to see
what the next featured program will be in the New Programs series.
For more information, contact:
Deborah James: (djames@govst.edu)
Tony Labriola: (tlabriola@govst.edu)
Yvette Brown: (ybrown@govst.edu)
[1] Does transmedia sound like an interesting concept?
Check out Director Lance Weiler’s storytelling project Pandemic 1.0, which is
part film, part interactive game, part sociological experiment. The experience
imagines that a mysterious virus has begun to afflict adults in a rural town.
The town's young people soon find themselves cut off from civilization,
fighting for their lives. People online work with people in the real world to
unlock a variety of hidden clues. This transmedia storytelling experience
allows viewers to not only watch the film, but also use their cell phones,
social gaming, and other online technologies to step into the shoes of the main
characters.
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