Hands-on experience is an essential part of the Program in Media Studies. To understand media, students must also make media. Or they must approach media with specific, practical questions about how media production does or does not transform society—and then develop research projects that answer those questions.
On the production side, the Program in Media Studies offers courses in nearly all mediums, from film to podcasting. For applied research, the Program in Media Studies also oversees the Critical Media Lab, which brings together students in a course that operates as a research team pursuing a specific question. Topics include the empirical study of how representations of climate change affect audience perceptions and how media genres adapt to new constellations of activist discourse.
A full listing of courses that count toward this elective area are regularly updated on Rice’s General Announcements page. These courses include:
- MDIA 401: Critical Media Lab
- ARTS 238: Sound Art
- ENGL 302: Screenwriting
- ENGL 308: Introduction to Podcasting
- ENGL 386: Medical Media Arts Lab
- FILM 284: Nonfiction Film
- FILM 287: Introduction to Experimental Video and Installation Art
- FILM 327: Documentary Production
- MUSI 417: Music for Media