Film, TV, and Media

Program Description, Purpose and Strengths

Our innovative program integrates critical thinking and critical making. By approaching both traditional and emerging media as creative storytelling and grounding students in the knowledge of the history, politics, forms and industry structures of media stories, students learn to adapt to a constantly changing media landscape and how they can make a positive impact on society using their creative voices. Students take courses on storytelling in and across media forms. In writing about media stories, students develop skills in analyzing and interpreting media stories. Building on those skills, students will also learn how to tell new stories as well as identify potential audiences and venues for those stories.

The mission of the Bachelor of Arts in Film, Television and Media is to cultivate the diverse creative voices of CSU Dominguez Hills students by providing them with an understanding of the histories, forms, contexts and existing structures of where and how media stories are told. Students are prepared to contribute new and necessary stories with the potential to meaningfully represent their own communities and transform society. Upon completing the degree, students will understand the power of media stories and the impact they can have. They will have a deep understanding of what stories have been told and what is missing. They will be empowered with the skills to express their voice in places where stories can and need to be told.

Curriculum Highlights

Immediately upon beginning the degree students take introductory classes emphasizing both critical thinking and critical making. Students gain technical proficiency in Digital Toolkit and Introduction to Digital Media Production. Students also become conversant in the tools for media analysis in Genre Analysis and develop an understanding of the key forces that shape media stories in Introduction to Media Criticism. At this point, students are fully prepared for an industry internship at any point in their university career.

Upper division courses including Media Industries, Media and Representation, and the three History courses provide students with historical and cultural knowledge of the structures that impact what and whose stories are told in the media industries. In Creative Producing and Screenwriting students gain a deeper sense of how their own creative work can change the existing media landscape.

Upon completing their degree requirements, an array of elective courses allow students to tailor their degree in a number of ways. For instance, a student who wants to pursue screenwriting can take more media writing and creative producing courses, while a student who wants to work in the field of emerging media might take a handful of courses in emerging media production and transmedia storytelling. Alternately, a student who wants to emerge as a generalist can take courses across film, television, and emerging media, integrating production of both creative and scholarly work.

In their final semester, students come together in the Senior Project course to revise projects from previous coursework and complete their professional portfolio. As the capstone experience, students are positioned to develop projects that are both attuned to potential audiences and venues for distribution as well as the impact they can have in representing students, communities and transforming the industry and society.

Film, Television, & Media University Catalog

Faculty

Ryan Bowles Eagle, Ph.D. (UCSB) specializes in the areas of media activism, feminist media studies, and documentary film. She is currently the Program Coordinator for the Film, Television, and Media program. In 2020, she was awarded the Lyle E. Gibson Distinguished Teacher Award.

Virginia Todd Eames, MFA (UT Austin) specializes in the areas of screenwriting, creative producing, and film production. As a writer, director and producer, her films have played at festivals around the world, including SXSW, Tribeca, and Sundance. Before joining the faculty at CSUDH, Toddy worked as an independent film producer in Los Angeles. She continues to develop ongoing creative projects.

John Vanderhoef, Ph.D. (UCSB) specializes in digital game production, media industries, creative labor, residual media, power and resistance, and discourses around gender, race, and sexuality in media and production cultures. Vanderhoef’s current research examines the incorporation, impact, and dynamics of indie video games within the dominant video game industry. He is also a former contributor to the Carsey-Wolf Center’s Media Industries Project.

Film, Television, and Media Program Comprehensive Assessment Plan

Film, Television, and Media Program Advising Form