Media and Communications

This introductory course explores technical aspects of digital photography. Utilizing Photoshop, digital SLR cameras and apps, technical topics cover digital capture, image editing, and digital output. Students become familiar with historic and contemporary photography. Critiques are the central forum for students to develop their ability to speak about their own work and that of their peers. DSLR and (not zoom) lens- limited numbers are available- or manual camera apps are required.

This skills-based business communication course equips students to effectively make oral presentations alone and in teams, lead meetings, and write for a business audience. Students will learn how to create a sensory experience in their oral presentations, while clearly presenting information, facts and data. Students will practice writing concise summary reports and adopt acceptable business conventions for various correspondence mediums. Prerequisite: Sophomore standing.

This course covers a variety of software engineering and user experience topics through the lens of game design. Students construct several games over the course of the term, first individually and then collaboratively, putting theory into practice.

An introduction to creative writing and the writing workshop process, focusing on the genres of poetry and short fiction but also occasionally exploring other genres (such as playwriting or creative non-fiction). Includes intensive writing and discussion of the craft and process of writing. Appropriate for first-year students.

Introduces film analysis skills that focus on technical details of the cinematic medium, and how they influence narration, character and theme. Highlights important topics in film history and film theory. Offered once every three years.

Did you know that Disney's Beauty and the Beast is based on a Latin novel written almost 2,000 years ago? Or that Chuck Palahniuk's Fight Club bears a striking resemblance to Sophocles' Oedipus Rex? Each week, students will read a selection of ancient literature and pair it with a screening of modern film to assess the continued influence that ancient narratives still exert across multiple genres.

Investigates the relationship between philosophical ideas and visual narratives. Examines the philosophical foundations of various theories of film and interprets visual narratives in terms of philosophical ideas. Prerequisite: Earlham Seminar.

Provides a basic understanding of the theory, technologies, and practice of video production. Students will collaborate to conceptualize, record, and edit several video projects over the semester.

Bringing to bear written texts, music, film and other media sources, this course explores the definition and moral significance of Hip Hop as a religious and cultural phenomenon within popular culture. Specific issues explored in this course include the syncretism of religious symbols and sensibilities in Hip Hop; the racial, ethnic, sex-gendered, and class dynamics of Hip Hop; as well as the language and aesthetics of Hip Hop.

Topics determined by the instructor might consider particular filmmakers or cinematic movements and interdisciplinary or thematic concerns. It may be taken more than once with different topics.

A survey of Japanese cinema from early films to anime, comparing the development of Japanese cinema with other national contexts. Develops analytical skills that focus on technical details of films and how they inflect narration, character and theme.

This course combines traditional approaches to composing and arranging for the Western symphony orchestra with a software-based approach using MIDI and sampled acoustic instruments. Both approaches will be taught in conjunction with analyses of classic and contemporary film scoring techniques. Projects can be realized using either traditional music notation or the MIDI system. Final project will include the scoring of an original short video or a video in public domain.

Why has East Asian media 'perfected' the female gaze to the extent that it is fueling fandoms outside of the original target audiences? What conditions gave rise to BL, otoge, K- and J-drama, K- and J-pop, fanfic, shipping, shojo etc. that do not have equivalent popularity in the West. 

Video Production will create foundational skills and techniques with video equipment in both field and studio environments. This course will cover the basic utilization of post-production software to produce content. Through hands on experience students will grow their aesthetic understanding as it applies to filming and editing. During the semester students will complete a variety of individual and group projects, which may include documentary, experimental, fiction, commercial, and music video production.

Many people are filled with anxiety when even thinking about public speaking. This fear stems from the fact that communication in general, and public speaking specifically, is not something that most people naturally know how to do effectively. Introduction to Public Speaking provides students with a supportive, interactive environment in which to learn fundamental communication theory and to put theory into practice through a variety of formal and informal speaking opportunities. Each student will leave this course feeling more confident in his/her ability as a communicator and better equipped to create and present an effective oral message.

This course will introduce students to debates about the nature and effects of social media. How do online and offline worlds relate? What are the social consequences of new communications technologies? Students will learn the theories and methods that sociologists use to study online social interaction.

Examining the intersection of recent digital technologies and an intensifying social gaze on individuals, populations, spaces and activities, this seminar focuses on behavior as monitored. The course considers how surveillance practices serve as instruments of social political discipline, market competition, knowledge circulation, risk reduction, social sorting and resource management, as well as fostering new forms of social participation and individual expression.

We will read (in translation) manga and comics that depict warfare on a spectrum of speculative to journalistic. We will discuss the ethics of storytelling, faithfulness to history/reality, official vs. unofficial narratives, empathy and compassion fatigue and unrespresentable. 

This course builds on the foundations of Music Theory II. Here, we study more advanced musical concepts through score analysis and the composition of short musical exercises. Emphasis is on the techniques found in 20th and 21st century musics, including late Chromaticism, Impressionism, Mixed-Mode techniques, Post-tonal approaches, Minimalism, and the current trend towards hybrid compositions that embrace both the club and the concert hall.

This course focuses on developing multimedia software for music performance, human-machine interaction, and game design through the use of the object-oriented programming language "Max." After a thorough investigation of Max's approach to programming, students will study its use in a wide variety of new music and multimedia applications. Students will work towards a completed project in Max and, if interested, in its related programs Jitter (for video) and Gen (for algorithmic composition). This course also will explore the close relationship between Max and Ableton Live.

Introduces students to the sociological perspective and focuses on the connections between major social institutions and social inequality.

Explores contemporary social movements organized around gender, sexuality, ethnicity and place. Examines the pivotal role of culture in shaping identities and structuring relations of inequality. Explores empirical case studies of social movements and theories that have emerged to grapple with the place of these movements in creating social change. Particular attention to tensions between class-based analyses of social movements.

Primarily for Sociology/Anthropology majors. Introduces micro-social qualitative and focus group approaches in social research, preparing students to carry out original research projects in other Sociology/Anthropology courses.

A self-designed ethnographic research project is carried out during the semester, with the members of the Practicum consulting with the group about their projects. Completes one of the options for the departmental methods requirement.