We live in a world in which we are surrounded by electronic media in the form of images and sounds. Whether printed on roadside billboards, downloaded to our phones, or broadcast into our homes via television, media greatly influence our sense of who we are and how we live. Yet so much of our exposure to the sights and sounds of film, TV, video, advertising, and new technologies is taken for grant
ed. Those sights and sounds are so pervasive, and in many cases so enjoyable, that we rarely pause to consider how we engage and interact with them. An undergraduate education in Film and Media Studies provides students with the opportunity to explore the appeal and operation of these social, historic, institutional, and textual entities we call cinema, television, and new digital technologies, and to interrogate the inter-relationships of visual media and sound and music as forms of media. degree program in Film and Media Studies trains students to read and understand the audio-visual languages of modern media and new technologies and to analyze images from socioeconomic, political, aesthetic, and historical perspectives. Learning these critical viewing skills involves learning new ways of seeing. The Film and Media Studies curriculum is systematic and comprehensive; upper-division courses have between 20 and 70 students and are typically taught by regular faculty. There are more than 300 Film and Media Studies majors enrolled at UCI. The Department of Film and Media Studies familiarizes students with the history, theory, and art of cinema, broadcast media, digital media, and other media. Courses focus on a range of topics, including directors, period styles, genres, national cinemas, the history and criticism of radio, television, sound theory and popular music, and developments in new media and digital technologies. Additional courses offer students hands-on experience in video production and screenwriting. The program provides its majors with a thorough understanding of the modern media's roles in contemporary society. Regular course offerings are complemented by film and video screenings and series. Film and Media Studies, in cooperation with other units at UCI, regularly invites scholars, digital artists, directors, producers, and screenwriters to campus to share their work and perspectives with students. Film and Media Studies at UCI is unique in its concentration on the history, theory, and criticism of cinema, television, popular music and sound, and new technologies. The faculty has published books and articles on these topics and others including fantastic cinema, avant-garde directors, ethnographic film, media and intellectual property, sound in film and media, hip-hop and cinema, television history, and theory of new technologies. Film and Media Studies students can complete professional internships in the fields of film, television, or digital media production, distribution, writing, and related areas for elective course credit. Through the Education Abroad Program (EAP), eligible Film and Media Studies students have the opportunity to study abroad and earn credit toward their degree during the school year. Students also may participate in Travel-Study offered through Summer Session. Information on these programs is available through the Film and Media Studies Office, the Education Abroad Program Office, and the Summer Sessions office.
