In fall 2010, the journalism and communication departments will be offering a new major called comparative media studies.
This major, which will begin accepting students in the fall, will function as a way for students to create their own media studies program.
"This major will allow students to look at media from a variety of different perspectives," said Ron Becker, a professor in the mass communication department. "They can look at media from a historian's perspective, or an anthropologist's perspective or a political scientist's perspective."
According to Richard Campbell, chair of the journalism department, this major was created, in large part, to accommodate a growing interest in the media by not only students, but faculty as well.
"There are a variety of people interested in this initiative," Campbell said. "Faculty from all sorts of departments; sociology, anthropology, journalism, interactive media studies, English, film studies."
Campbell also said this major will serve the copious amount of students who find themselves unable to get into a journalism or communications class.
"Students are always getting closed out of COM (communication) classes," Campbell said. "This major will accommodate students' growing interest in media."
The comparative media studies major will function like interdisciplinary studies.
"Students will work on different tracks," Campbell said. "They will sculpt their major around the areas of media they are interested in."
As of now, the major is not available for declaring, but a comparative media studies course, CMS 201, is open for registration for the fall semester. A committee chaired by Keith Tuma, associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences consisting of faculty from the College of Arts and Science (CAS) and one IMS professor has been working on this new media major for over a year. The course work for CMS 201, as explained in the syllabus, will dabble in a vast array of media issues. Some topics covered will include the definition of and history of the media, globalization and internationalization of media and media power and ideology.
Along with new courses, Miami has also introduced two new professors to work in comparative media studies; Nicole Starosielski, who is finishing up her PhD in film and media studies at UC-Santa Barbara, and Braxton Soderman, who is finishing his PhD in modern culture and media at Brown University.
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The course was posted on BannerWeb in the past week and currently has five students enrolled out of the 30 spots being held for the class.
"We expect that most of the students (that will participate in this class) will be incoming, first-year freshman," Becker said.
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