Digital Media and Journalism Minor

Description. This interdisciplinary minor engages students in the study, critique, and production of media across a variety of platforms, with a special emphasis on digital content. Students can choose a flexible path of courses related to journalism, film and video, photography, social media and other forms of communication, with digital and information literacy threaded throughout the curriculum. In today’s world, media is power.  Learn how to analyze and harness that power in a manner that engages, informs, and advances justice.

Learning Outcomes. Students will:

• Research Skills: Identify, evaluate and effectively use legitimate information from a range of sources.

• Knowledge Acquisition: Understand the structures and conventions that shape mass communication in the Digital Age.

• Analytical Skills: Analyze and assess a variety of contemporary media forms in their social, cultural, and political contexts. 

• Critical Thinking Skills: Compare and critique various media with a focus on how messages are shaped in order to inform and influence audiences. 

• Writing and Production Skills: Conceive, create, publish and promote a variety of media for different audiences.

Rationale. Students of all disciplines can benefit by learning about the power of media and by developing the most responsible, effective ways to wield such power. As technology democratizes media access and multiplies public voices exponentially, students need the information literacy and critical thinking skills to navigate among the chaos as consumers and cultivate their own voices as producers.

Credits. 18-19

Minor coordinators. Professors Lyell Davies (212.237.8360, ldavies@jjay.cuny.edu) and Devin Harner (dharner@jjay.cuny.edu, 646.557.4604), Department of English

Requirements. A maximum of two courses can overlap with a student’s major, other minor or program.

Additional information. Students who enrolled for the first time at the College or selected this minor in September 2016 or thereafter must complete the minor in the form presented here. Students who enrolled prior to that date may choose the form shown here or the earlier version of the minor. A copy of the earlier version may be obtained in the 2015-16 Undergraduate Bulletin.

Total Credit Hours: 18-19