Media Literacy
Minor
About this program
The Minor in Media Literacy helps you become a smart and thoughtful consumer and creator of media. You learn how media messages are made, why they exist, and how they affect people and society. You study media tools, technologies, and their social impact. You also learn how to break down messages for meaning, bias, and intent. This minor guides you toward clearer thinking about news, TV, social media, and more.
Program Curriculum and Requirements
Program Scope
This program prepares critical citizens for a world in which people are inundated by media messages coming from every aspect of their lives. Whether it is news, social media or streaming television programs, there is a lot of information being sent to consumers, much of which is inaccurate information. This program will help students understand the impact of media technology, how media is created, why it is created, who creates the messages, and the impact of those messages on the individual and society as a whole.
Program Learning Outcomes
- Recognize the impact of technologies on media communication.
- Deconstruct messages for their meaning, purpose, accuracy and intent.
- Analyze the ways media constructs a social reality and the effects on its audiences.
- Identify how messages are created for social, political, economic, historic and aesthetic purposes.
- Apply media theory to the interpretation of messages by diverse audiences.
- Be conversant in the aesthetic and symbolic language of media.