The Media Studies major integrates perspectives from liberal arts, social sciences, and humanities and offers an interdisciplinary framework to understand the essential role that media plays in economic, social, political, and cultural life. It weds traditions from communication, history, anthropology, sociology, political science and more with critical theories and cultural studies to analyze the role and meaning of media in our societies. Our emphasis in this major is historical and theoretical, examining media systems, institutions, technologies, policies, and practices. We offer students the analytical tools available to investigate media—old and new, local and global—across the diverse media landscape. The Media Studies major offers three areas of concentration: Digital Studies, Global Cultural Studies, or Media Law and Policy.
Declaring the Major
Students planning to declare a major in Media Studies are advised to read the Media Studies website in its entirety and then contact a student academic advisor as early as possible to discuss their academic program plans. Visit the program's website for application instructions and deadlines.
First-Year Students Who Started Spring 2023 or Before and New Transfer Students: Students who wish to declare the major in Media Studies:
Must have completed at least 30 units of college coursework before applying to the program.
Must have completed at least three of the major prerequisites, including MEDIAST 10 or MEDIAST W10.
Must be currently enrolled in any remaining prerequisites at the time of application (see the list of approved major prerequisites on the Major Requirements tab).
Must have a minimum grade point average (GPA) of 3.2 in courses relevant to the major. This includes the lower division prerequisite courses and the equivalency of transferred coursework as well as any lower or upper division courses already completed for the major.
Must have earned a grade of B- or better in MEDIAST 10 or MEDIAST W10. (Beginning fall 2020, Media Studies 10 or W10 must be taken at UC Berkeley.)
Should declare the major no later than the semester in which they complete the 70th unit if they were admitted to Berkeley as a freshman. Junior transfers should declare the major no later than their second semester at Berkeley and should contact a Media Studies student academic advisor concerning their eligibility and the equivalency of transferred coursework.
When applying to the major, students will need to note their area of concentration–Digital Studies, Global Cultural Studies, or Media Law & Policy–on their application. See the Major Requirements tab for areas of concentration information.
Students who meet the above criteria are eligible for admission to the major. Students who do not meet the above criteria but wish to declare Media Studies as their major should submit a letter of appeal with a completed application during designated application periods in the fall and spring.
To be admitted to the honors program, a student must have attained at least a 3.5 grade-point average (GPA) overall in the University and a 3.5 GPA in the major. In order to be granted honors, a student must write a thesis which in the judgment of the thesis adviser is characterized by superior distinction. The honors program includes two courses: MEDIAST H194 and MEDIAST H195. For further information on the honors program, please see theprogram's website.
In addition to the University, campus, and college requirements, listed on the College Requirements tab, students must fulfill the requirements specific to their major program.
General Guidelines
All courses taken to fulfill the major requirements below must be taken for graded credit (letter grade).
Students must complete a minimum of 28 upper-division units in approved courses for the Media Studies major.
Students may not take more than two upper-division courses from any single outside department or program for the Media Studies major. This includes any combined courses which are counted as an elective taken simultaneously from all sponsoring departments or programs.
No more than one upper-division course may be used to simultaneously fulfill requirements for a student's major and minor programs.
No more than two upper-division courses may be used to simultaneously fulfill requirements for major requirements for a double major or simultaneous degree.
A minimum grade point average (GPA) of 2.0 must be maintained in both upper- and lower-division courses used to fulfill the major requirements.
For information regarding residence requirements and unit requirements, please see the College Requirements tab.
Summary of Major Requirements
Course List
Code
Title
Units
Prerequisites: four courses
Media Studies Core Courses: four courses
Area of Concentration Electives: three courses
Additional Electives from Any Concentration: two courses
Media Studies 10 or W10 must be taken at UC Berkeley beginning fall 2020. Other prerequisites footnoted may be taken at a California community college. Visit assist.org for a list of approved prerequisite equivalent courses.
Students must complete one of the three areas of concentration: Digital Studies, Global Cultural Studies, or Media Law and Policy. Students must take three courses in each area of concentration. The two additional upper-division electives can come from any concentration. The chosen area of concentration must be noted on the application to the major.
Digital Studies
Digital Studies is an intersection between humanities, social sciences, art, and computer sciences. This area offers courses on a variety of digital, social, and creative media as a means of exploring networked connectivity as the sum of technologies, industries, and user practices. It also examines how various areas of scholarship are reshaped by new technologies, behaviors, and data-driven inquiries.
Choose one course from each elective category: Research Methodologies, Virtual Communities and Social Media, and Digital Projects and Digital Storytelling.
Course List
Code
Title
Units
Research Methodologies - Choose one of the following:
Global Cultural Studies
Global Cultural Studies explores how textual, audio, and visual cultures as well as representational practices are produced and circulated within and across local, national, regional, and global social fields. This area examines a broad spectrum of concerns including global communication, postcolonialism, diaspora, consumerism, identity and community, and public cultures.
Choose one course from each elective category: Research Methodologies, Visual Culture, and Popular Culture.
Course List
Code
Title
Units
Research Methodologies - Choose one of the following:
Media Law and Policy
Media Law and Policy recognizes it would be impossible to understand law and politics without appreciating the significance of media. This area uses media to study a wide range of legal, regulatory, political, and activist concerns, including the First Amendment, privacy and surveillance, cyberlaw, and intellectual property as well as social movements, social justice, and political transformation.
Choose one course from each elective category: Research Methodologies, Institutions, and Citizenship.
Course List
Code
Title
Units
Research Methodologies - Choose one of the following:
Additional Electives from Any Area of Concentration
Students must take two upper-division electives (courses numbered 100 - 199 or 200 and above) from any of the above areas of concentration. See the following categories in the elective course lists above:
Digital Studies: Research Methodologies (not courses numbered 1 - 99)
Digital Studies: Virtual Communities and Social Media
Digital Studies: Digital Projects and Digital Storytelling
Global Cultural Studies: Research Methodologies (not courses numbered 1 - 99)
Global Cultural Studies: Visual Culture
Global Cultural Studies: Popular Culture
Media Law and Policy: Research Methodologies (not courses numbered 1 - 99)
Media Law and Policy: Institutions
Media Law and Policy: Citizenship
Each term the Media Studies Program publishes semester-specific course lists that include special topics courses and new courses. Visit the Media Studies website and look under Courses for the current list.
Transfer Students
Media Studies 10 or W10: Introduction to Media Studies MUST be completed at UC Berkeley beginning fall 2020. Students may take Media Studies W10 during the summer when it is offered.
Transfer students are encouraged to take other major prerequisite courses before arriving on campus. For approved equivalent prerequisite courses offered at California community colleges, see assist.org. Transfer students who attended four-year schools. other out-of-state community colleges or California community colleges and took courses not on assist.org are encouraged to submit possible prerequisite courses for review by completing an Intended Majors Course Substitution Form. See Applying: Overview and Applying: Prerequisites on the Media Studies website for additional information.
College Requirements
Undergraduate students must fulfill the following requirements in addition to those required by their major program.
For detailed lists of courses that fulfill college requirements, please review the College of Letters & Sciences page in this Guide. For College advising appointments, please visit the L&S Advising Pages.
All students who will enter the University of California as freshmen must demonstrate their command of the English language by fulfilling the Entry Level Writing requirement. Fulfillment of this requirement is also a prerequisite to enrollment in all reading and composition courses at UC Berkeley.
The American History and Institutions requirements are based on the principle that a US resident graduated from an American university, should have an understanding of the history and governmental institutions of the United States.
All undergraduate students at Cal need to take and pass this course in order to graduate. The requirement offers an exciting intellectual environment centered on the study of race, ethnicity and culture of the United States. AC courses offer students opportunities to be part of research-led, highly accomplished teaching environments, grappling with the complexity of American Culture.
College of Letters & Science Essential Skills Requirements
The Quantitative Reasoning requirement is designed to ensure that students graduate with basic understanding and competency in math, statistics, or computer science. The requirement may be satisfied by exam or by taking an approved course.
The Foreign Language requirement may be satisfied by demonstrating proficiency in reading comprehension, writing, and conversation in a foreign language equivalent to the second semester college level, either by passing an exam or by completing approved course work.
In order to provide a solid foundation in reading, writing, and critical thinking the College requires two semesters of lower division work in composition in sequence. Students must complete parts A & B reading and composition courses in sequential order by the end of their fourth semester.
College of Letters & Science 7 Course Breadth Requirements
The undergraduate breadth requirements provide Berkeley students with a rich and varied educational experience outside of their major program. As the foundation of a liberal arts education, breadth courses give students a view into the intellectual life of the University while introducing them to a multitude of perspectives and approaches to research and scholarship. Engaging students in new disciplines and with peers from other majors, the breadth experience strengthens interdisciplinary connections and context that prepares Berkeley graduates to understand and solve the complex issues of their day.
Unit Requirements
120 total units
Of the 120 units, 36 must be upper division units
Of the 36 upper division units, 6 must be taken in courses offered outside your major department
Residence Requirements
For units to be considered in "residence," you must be registered in courses on the Berkeley campus as a student in the College of Letters & Science. Most students automatically fulfill the residence requirement by attending classes here for four years, or two years for transfer students. In general, there is no need to be concerned about this requirement, unless you go abroad for a semester or year or want to take courses at another institution or through UC Extension during your senior year. In these cases, you should make an appointment to meet an adviser to determine how you can meet the Senior Residence Requirement.
Note: Courses taken through UC Extension do not count toward residence.
Senior Residence Requirement
After you become a senior (with 90 semester units earned toward your BA degree), you must complete at least 24 of the remaining 30 units in residence in at least two semesters. To count as residence, a semester must consist of at least 6 passed units. Intercampus Visitor, EAP, and UC Berkeley-Washington Program (UCDC) units are excluded.
You may use a Berkeley Summer Session to satisfy one semester of the Senior Residence requirement, provided that you successfully complete 6 units of course work in the Summer Session and that you have been enrolled previously in the college.
Modified Senior Residence Requirement
Participants in the UC Education Abroad Program (EAP), Berkeley Summer Abroad, or the UC Berkeley Washington Program (UCDC) may meet a Modified Senior Residence requirement by completing 24 (excluding EAP) of their final 60 semester units in residence. At least 12 of these 24 units must be completed after you have completed 90 units.
Upper Division Residence Requirement
You must complete in residence a minimum of 18 units of upper division courses (excluding UCEAP units), 12 of which must satisfy the requirements for your major.
Student Learning Goals
Mission
Media Studies at the University of California, Berkeley is an undergraduate interdisciplinary group major in the Office of Undergraduate and Interdisciplinary Studies (UGIS). We offer students the analytical tools available to examine media—old and new, local and global—including media consumption and meaning-making processes. Courses taught by core faculty in Media Studies cover media history and theory, emphasizing media systems, institutions, policies, and practices. Additionally, faculty from many departments across campus bring the perspectives and methods of their fields to bear on media analysis in a variety of elective courses.
Our four core courses examine media history, theory, institutions/policy, and globalization. In addition to these, students must complete five electives. Three will be in service of one of our areas of concentration: Digital Studies, Global Cultural Studies, or Media Law and Policy. Students are free to take the remaining two electives from any area of concentration. Core courses and electives offered by the Media Studies program—whether examining popular culture and entertainment, advertising, or news and information viewed on cinema, television, computer, or mobile phone screens—ask students to develop critical thinking and analytical skills.
Major Maps help undergraduate students discover academic, co-curricular, and discovery opportunities at UC Berkeley based on intended major or field of interest. Developed by the Division of Undergraduate Education in collaboration with academic departments, these experience maps will help you:
Explore your major and gain a better understanding of your field of study
Connect with people and programs that inspire and sustain your creativity, drive, curiosity and success
Discover opportunities for independent inquiry, enterprise, and creative expression
Engage locally and globally to broaden your perspectives and change the world
Reflect on your academic career and prepare for life after Berkeley
Use the major map below as a guide to planning your undergraduate journey and designing your own unique Berkeley experience.
Terms offered: Fall 2024, Summer 2024 8 Week Session, Fall 2023
The objective of this class is to enhance students' knowledge of media's industrial and cultural functions by introducing them to key perspectives and methods of study that stress a) how media systems have and continue to develop in the United States and across the globe as well as b) how we use and make meaning with media as part of our everyday lived experiences. To consider media's social, economic, political, and cultural impact, the course will investigate a number of ways of understanding its production, form, reception, and influence, being careful to recognize how these approaches relate to each other and to a wide array of diverse case studies in television, film, recorded music, print, video games, and online. Introduction to Media Studies: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Credit Restrictions: A deficient grade may be removed by taking Media Studies 10 or Media Studies N10.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture and 2 hours of discussion per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Media Studies/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Summer 2018 First 6 Week Session, Summer 2017 8 Week Session, Summer 2016 8 Week Session
The objective of this class is to enhance students' knowledge of media's industrial and cultural functions by introducing them to key perspectives and methods of study that stress a) how media systems have and continue to develop in the United States and across the globe as well as b) how we use and make meaning with media as part of our everyday lived experiences. To consider media's social, economic, political, and cultural impact, the course will investigate a number of ways of understanding its production, form, reception, and influence, being careful to recognize how these approaches relate to each other and to a wide array of diverse case studies in television, film, recorded music, print, video games, and online. Introduction to Media Studies: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Credit Restrictions: A deficient grade may be removed by taking Media Studies 10 or Media Studies N10.
Hours & Format
Summer: 6 weeks - 10 hours of lecture per week 8 weeks - 8 hours of lecture per week 10 weeks - 6 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Media Studies/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022
This class enhances your knowledge of media’s industrial and cultural functions by introducing you to key perspectives and methods of study that stress the impact of media systems and practices at both the societal and individual levels--and vice versa. To consider media’s social, economic, and political significance, we will investigate a number of ways of understanding its production, form, reception, and influence, being careful to recognize how these approaches relate to each other and to a wide array of diverse case studies. Introduction to Media Studies: Read More [+]
Terms offered: Fall 2019, Spring 2019, Fall 2018
The Freshman Seminar Program has been designed to provide new students with the opportunity to explore an intellectual topic with a faculty member in a small seminar setting. Freshman seminars are offered in all campus departments, and topics vary from department to department and semester to semester. Enrollment limited to 15 freshmen. Freshman Seminar: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit when topic changes.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 1 hour of seminar per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Media Studies/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: The grading option will be decided by the instructor when the class is offered. Final Exam To be decided by the instructor when the class is offered.
Terms offered: Prior to 2007
Freshman and sophomore seminars offer lower division students the opportunity to explore an intellectual topic with a faculty member and a group of peers in a small-seminar setting. These seminars are offered in all campus departments; topics vary from department to department and from semester to semester. Freshman/Sophomore Seminar: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit when topic changes.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 1.5-2 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Media Studies/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: The grading option will be decided by the instructor when the class is offered. Final Exam To be decided by the instructor when the class is offered.
Terms offered: Fall 2017, Spring 2016, Fall 2010
Sophomore seminars are small interactive courses offered by faculty members in departments all across the campus. Sophomore seminars offer opportunity for close, regular intellectual contact between faculty members and students in the crucial second year. The topics vary from department to department and semester to semester. Enrollment limited to 15 sophomores. Sophomore Seminar: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: At discretion of instructor
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit when topic changes.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 5 weeks - 3-6 hours of seminar per week 10 weeks - 1.5-3 hours of seminar per week 15 weeks - 1-2 hours of seminar per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Media Studies/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: The grading option will be decided by the instructor when the class is offered. Final Exam To be decided by the instructor when the class is offered.
Terms offered: Spring 2024, Fall 2019, Spring 2019
Our highly mediated culture provides an ever-intensifying richness of visual information. Using a mix of film, television, photography, advertising, and/or the internet, this class will explore cultural and social theoretical approaches to critically analyzing visual media and viewing practices from a Media Studies perspective. The course is designed to foster a critical understanding of media images, inviting students to question and critique the many and multiple messages at work within visual culture. Visual Culture: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Media Studies major or consent of instructor
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3-4 hours of lecture and 2-0 hours of discussion per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Media Studies/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Spring 2018, Spring 2017
In this course, students learn why sound journalism is so important to a healthy, working democracy. Journalism is rapidly changing. The class will give a context to those changes and provide an overview of comtemporary journalistic institutions. Students will examine how news is made, who decides what news is, who makes it, who profits by it, and what rules guide how reporters and editors work. Central issues affecting journalism, such as bias and professionalism, will be discussed. The class is not specifically intended for future journalists, but students will learn why pursuing a career in journalism can be so fulfilling and thrilling, as well as becoming better consumers of the news. Understanding Journalism: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Media Studies major or consent of instructor
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3-4 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Media Studies/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Spring 2020, Spring 2019, Spring 2018
The course considers the history and contemporary meaning of the First Amendment guarantees of freedom of speech and the press. Emphasizing the real world implications of major Supreme Court decisions, the course examines restrictions on speech and press imposed by national security, libel, injurious speech, and privacy, as well as issues of access to information and government regulation of new media. Freedom of Speech and the Press: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Media Studies major or consent of instructor
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3-4 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Media Studies/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Fall 2023, Spring 2021, Spring 2019
The history of journalism is a broad subject--far broader than can comprehensively be covered in a single course. So necessarily, this course takes an idiosyncratic approach. This course examines how news has been defined, discovered, and communicated from its early modern origins to the present. It will also focus on particular areas of journalism. The class will take a critical look at how wars get reported on, including the current war in Iraq. The class will examine the role of journalists in the rise of the Cold War more than half a century ago. It will also examine the importance of media barons, by studying two highly readable biographies, one of William Randolph Hearst, the other of Katherine Graham. And finally, the class will look at the role journalists played in unseating President Nixon. The History of Journalism: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: 10 or consent of instructor
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Media Studies/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Fall 2022, Fall 2021, Fall 2020
This course examines issues of privacy in contemporary society, with an emphasis on how privacy is affected by technological change. After an introduction to features of the American legal system and the theoretical underpinnings of privacy law, we will consider privacy in the context of law enforcement and national security investigations; government records and databases; commercial enterprises; and the freedoms of speech and press. Privacy in the Digital Age: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Media Studies/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
This course will examine the history of online news beginning with the earliest experiments with news delivered via dedicated terminals. From there, we’ll look at the impact of the personal computer’s growth and the rise of proprietary dial-up online services. The open, Wild West nature of the early Web brought new possibilities but also the beginning of debates about credibility, free vs. paid content and competitive challenges that continue to this day. We’ll focus on key figures in technology and journalism who shaped the new medium, and trace how its growth undermined traditional economic models even as it enabled the rise of new ones, continuing through today’s world of mobile apps, aggregators and social media. History and Development of Online News: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Media Studies major or consent of instructor
Credit Restrictions: Students will receive no credit for Media Studies 104E after taking Media Studies 190: Special Topics: History and Development of Online News.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Media Studies/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Alternative to final exam.
Terms offered: Spring 2021, Fall 2020, Spring 2020
This is a lecture-format survey course on the history of media forms, technologies, institutions, and regulation—from the origins of writing, invention of print technology, through the development of digital media. Attention to the specific characteristics of individual media, the changing role of media as a force in culture along with the hopes as well as anxieties they provoke, and the continually transforming institutions and business of media will all be touched on. The role of media forms in the creation of public discourse and the social controls on media through censorship, legal constraints, and economic policies will also be examined. Media History: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Media Studies 10, Media Studies major or consent of instructor
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture and 2 hours of discussion per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Media Studies/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
This course covers the modern global history of textual and digital media forms, with a focus on interactions between emerging media technologies and emerging modern power structures. We will examine how and why historical agents responded to, made use of, and tried to regulate new information technologies such as the printing press, documents and forms, newspapers, the postal service, the telegraph and teletype, filing and punch-card systems, electro-mechanical and electronic computers, networked databases, and the internet. Lectures will consider the impact of specific media technologies on the historical development of state administrations, colonial empires, ideological movements, and modern global business. Text and Data Media History: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Media Studies 10, Media Studies major or consent of instructor
Credit Restrictions: Students will receive no credit for MEDIAST 111B after completing MEDIAST 111.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 4 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Media Studies/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022
This course covers the modern global history of audiovisual media forms, with a focus on interactions between new media technologies and emerging modern power structures. We will examine how and why historical agents responded to, made use of, and tried to regulate emerging representational technologies such as painting, printed images and etchings, maps, the theater, panoramas, photography, the telephone, phonography, radio, television, MP3s, JPGs, and digital video. Lectures will consider the impact of specific media technologies on the historical representation and mobilization of religion, race, class, and nationality, as well as the branding and advertisement of consumer commodities. Audio-Visual Media History: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Media Studies 10, Media Studies major or consent of instructor
Credit Restrictions: Students will receive no credit for MEDIAST 111C after completing MEDIAST 111.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 4 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Media Studies/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Fall 2024, Spring 2024, Fall 2023
This course will familiarize you with the often-contentious history of media theory. At issue among scholars working within different theoretical and research traditions are core disagreements about what should be studied (institutions, texts, audiences, and/or technologies) and how media should be studied (for applied, “practical” purposes or with an eye that is critical of power and institutional structures). Course readings and lectures stress an understanding of these various research traditions by focusing on the cultural, historical, political, and social contexts surrounding them, the research models and methods used, and the findings and conclusions reached. Media Theories and Processes: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Media Studies 10, Media Studies major or consent of instructor
Credit Restrictions: Students will receive no credit for Media Studies 112 after taking Media Studies 102 or Mass Communications 102.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture and 2 hours of discussion per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Media Studies/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Fall 2024, Spring 2024, Fall 2023
An interdisciplinary examination of the role and power of media for civic engagement and state-public interactions. Media and Democracy: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Media Studies 10, Media Studies major or consent of instructor
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture and 2 hours of discussion per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Media Studies/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Fall 2024, Spring 2024, Spring 2023
This course offers an introduction to media and globalization. We will examine global media industries (film, television, music, news, advertising, diplomacy, new media, etc.), and explore content produced within these industries through specific case studies. Topics include Bollywood, Hallyu, television format sales, nonwestern news, media imperialism, the globalization of popular cultures, diasporic communities, and global representation. The class reviews theories and histories of media globalization before turning to case studies to learn about the political and cultural roles of media in globalization processes. Media and Globalization: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Media Studies 10/W10, or Media Studies major or consent of instructor
Credit Restrictions: Students will receive no credit for MEDIAST 114 after completing MEDIAST 160.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture and 2 hours of discussion per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Media Studies/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Spring 2023, Fall 2020, Fall 2019
This course is intended to familiarize students with some of the primary quantitative and qualitative research methods used to study media texts and audiences. In addition to reading and critiquing prior research employing various methodologies, students will gain practical hands-on experience using these methods in sample research projects. Research Methods in Media Studies: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: 10 or permission of instructor
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 4 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Media Studies/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Spring 2024, Fall 2022, Fall 2021
This course introduces students to Cultural Studies research methodologies (concepts, theories, and methods) to critically examine the global circulation of media that contribute to the production of transnational identities and cultures. It offers an opportunity to research culture to gain a deeper understanding of contemporary structural crises of democracy, health, and economy.
Terms offered: Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022
This course introduces students to approaches in the study of digital media, giving
practical grounding in digital methodologies and tools for social, cultural and media
analysis. Students learn how to develop a conceptual framework; integrate the
framework and the method; and identify digitally-centred topics, objects, or subjects for
study. Through group collaboration and shared knowledge activities, students consider
how knowledge is created within research practice, and in relation to the
interdisciplinary study of technology, social media, and digital worlds. Students will use
methods in context; engage in weekly activities like methods games, active peer review,
and media analysis; and select specific methods they want to learn about. Researching Digital Media: Methods and Methodologies: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of seminar per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Media Studies/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Alternative to final exam.
Terms offered: Summer 2024 First 6 Week Session
This course explores the history, theory, and aesthetics of ethnographic and documentary film and related forms of reality based media as they intersect with ethnographic and other forms of qualitative research. In addition to canonical and historically groundbreaking works we will consider recent innovations, across a range of media platforms, that push and pull at the conventions of ethnographic and documentary realism and that make aesthetic exploration central to knowledge production. Students in the course are not expected or required to have any background in film studies, nor is prior exposure to documentary, ethnographic film, or anthropology a prerequisite.
Terms offered: Fall 2016, Spring 2015, Spring 2014
This course examines the interactions of media and politics. The dynamics of media (print, broadcast, digital) and political engagement (local, national, international) are studied through one or a combination of the following lenses: campaign messaging, news and political coverage, social movements, protest and resistance, social media platforms, satire and other entertainment forms. Media and Politics: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Junior or senior standing in the Media Studies major
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 4 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Media Studies/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Fall 2012, Fall 2009
Topics in film employs theory to examine different film genres, historical periods, and topics. Topics in Film: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: 10 or consent of instructor
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit without restriction.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 4 hours of seminar per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Media Studies/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Spring 2021, Spring 2020, Spring 2019
This course offers an introduction to international communication and globalization theory, examines media industries abroad (focusing on one or more of the following: film, television, music, news, magazines, advertising, and/or new media), and explores content produced within those industries through specific case studies. Possible topics include alternatives to Hollywood film (Bollywood and Nollywood), television format sales and programming, the globalization of popular cultures (e.g., Korean Wave and Swedish music), diasporic communities, and global networks and fandoms. International Media: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Media Studies major or consent of instructor
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit when topic changes.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 4 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Media Studies/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Spring 2023, Spring 2021, Spring 2020
This class uses the approaches of media studies and cultural studies to critically consider how historical and emerging new media technologies—as well as the behaviors and forms of cultural production associated with them—influence and are themselves influenced by our everyday practices and lived experiences. It focuses particularly on concerns of identity, community, access, citizenship, industry, and regulation as these relate to social networking, collective endeavor, and public speech. Internet and Culture: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Media Studies major or consent of instructor
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 4 hours of seminar per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Media Studies/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022
How have the realities and representations of digital media affected how we think, feel, and interact? What impulses, events, and personalities gave rise to the relentless digitization of information, choice, and even life itself? In this interdisciplinary course, we will attempt to answers these questions together by reading, discussing, and writing about histories and theories of cybernetics and cybercultures. We will consider competing cybernetic models of the mind, human behavior, ecological environments, and complex immersive virtual worlds. We will also survey the vast range of visionary, skeptical, and delightfully eccentric responses to the promises and perils of a cybernetic future. Cybernetics and Cybercultures: The Psychosocial Impact of Digital Media: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 4 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Media Studies/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2022, Fall 2021
This course examines the place and impact of advertising in the rise of consumer culture within the United States from the late 19th century to present. The course explores the functions and purposes of advertising and employs rhetorical/visual analysis and semiotic theory to analyze advertising themes and images from different historical periods.
Terms offered: Spring 2024, Fall 2022
This course takes a Postcolonial Feminist Cultural Studies approach to examine the changing meanings of gender, race and national identity in popular cultures across the globe. The key question for this course is, “What is the role of the media in establishing and sometimes challenging gendered and racial ideologies in everyday practices of global and local cultural meanings?” We will interrogate racial representations and stereotypes of Black, Latinx and Asian American minority communities by focusing on case studies, such as, Latin American telenovelas, American Hip hop and Korean wave.
Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
This course examinines contemporary approaches to the study of television, investigating televison's social, political, commercial, and cultural dimensions. Readings and assignments require students to apply critical perspectives to television programming and to the analysis of individual television texts. Television Studies: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Media Studies major or consent of instructor
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit when topic changes.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 4 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Media Studies/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Summer 2019 Second 6 Week Session
This course examines contemporary approaches to the study of television, investigating television's social, political, commercial, and cultural dimensions. Readings and assignments require students to apply critical perspectives to television programming and to the analysis of individual television texts. Television Studies: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Credit Restrictions: A deficient grade may be removed by taking Media Studies 180 (4 units) or Media Studies N180 (3 units).
Hours & Format
Summer: 6 weeks - 7.5 hours of lecture per week 8 weeks - 6 hours of lecture per week 10 weeks - 4.5 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Media Studies/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Fall 2024, Summer 2024 8 Week Session, Spring 2024
Normally open only to Media Studies majors who have already completed 12 units of upper division work in the major. Advanced study in Media Studies with topics to be announced each semester. Special Topics in Media Studies: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Media Studies major or consent of instructor
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit without restriction.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 2-4 hours of lecture per week
Summer: 3 weeks - 10-20 hours of lecture per week 6 weeks - 5-10 hours of lecture per week 8 weeks - 3.5-7.5 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Media Studies/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
This course is designed to guide you through the preliminary steps and stages of writing a successful honors thesis. The course will assist you in writing appropriate research questions and research proposals as well as developing strategies for taking useful notes and summarizing relevant scholarship. We will review relevant quantitative and qualitative research methods used in Media Studies as a means of helping you identifying the most appropriate research method(s) to answer your research question(s). The course culminates in the completion of the literature review for your honors thesis. Successful completion of Media Studies H194 (or instructor permission) is a prerequisite for Media Studies H195. Honors Thesis Preparation: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Media Studies major and meets honors GPA requirements
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 2 hours of colloquium per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Media Studies/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Alternative to final exam.
Terms offered: Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022
Under the supervision of the instructor, students will work toward completion of scholarly theses in the field. Honors Seminar: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Media Studies major and meets honors GPA requirements plus Media Studies H194 or consent of instructor
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of seminar per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Media Studies/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Alternative to final exam.
Terms offered: Fall 2024, Spring 2024, Fall 2023, Spring 2023, Fall 2022, Fall 2021, Spring 2021, Fall 2020, Spring 2020, Fall 2019, Spring 2019, Fall 2018, Fall 2016, Spring 2016, Spring 2015, Spring 2014, Spring 2013, Fall 2012, Spring 2012
This course is the UCDC letter-graded core seminar for 4 units that complements the P/NP credited internship course UGIS C196B. Core seminars are designed to enhance the experience of and provide an intellectual framework for the student's internship. UCDC core seminars are taught in sections that cover various tracks such as the Congress, media, bureaucratic organizations and the Executive Branch, international relations, public policy and general un-themed original research. UCDC Core Seminar: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: C196B (must be taken concurrently)
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit when topic changes. Students may enroll in multiple sections of this course within the same semester.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of seminar per week
Summer: 10 weeks - 4.5 hours of seminar per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Media Studies/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam not required.
Terms offered: Fall 2024, Spring 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Fall 2021, Spring 2021, Fall 2020, Spring 2020, Fall 2019, Spring 2019, Fall 2018, Fall 2016, Spring 2016, Spring 2015, Spring 2014, Spring 2013
This course provides a credited internship for all students enrolled in the UCDC and Cal in the Capital Programs. It must be taken in conjunction with the required academic core course C196A. C196B requires that students work 3-4 days per week as interns in settings selected to provide them with exposure to and experienc in government, public policy, international affairs, media, the arts or other areas or relevance to their major fields of study. UCDC Internship: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: C196A (must be taken concurrently)
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 20 hours of internship per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Media Studies/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Offered for pass/not pass grade only. Final exam not required.
Terms offered: Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022, Spring 2021, Spring 2020, Spring 2019, Fall 2016, Spring 2016, Fall 2015, Spring 2015, Fall 2014, Spring 2014, Spring 2013
Students work in selected internship programs approved in advance by the faculty coordinator and for which written contracts have been established between the sponsoring organization and the student. Students will be expected to produce two progress reports for their faculty coordinator during the course of the internship, as well as a final paper for the course consisting of at least 35 pages. Other restrictions apply; see faculty adviser. Special Field Research: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Consent of instructor
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit up to a total of 12 units.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of seminar and 25 hours of internship per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 7.5 hours of seminar and 60 hours of internship per week 8 weeks - 6 hours of seminar and 50 hours of internship per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Media Studies/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam not required.
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