• What is media studies?

• Why study media studies at SDSU?
• Careers in media studies

What is media studies?

Media studies provides cutting-edge preparation for students seeking non-traditional careers in mediated communication. Changes in communication technologies and media industries have led to the emergence of career opportunities that did not exist a few years ago. Although technology created the need for this degree program, instruction is not solely technology-based. Rather, instruction focuses on the processes and effects of mediated communication, as well as the intellectual tools to help graduates excel in an ever-changing technological and organizational environment.

Why study media studies at SDSU?

Students in the media studies emphasis, part of the School of Journalism & Media Studies, will learn:

• Established and emerging theories of mass communication effects
• Structure and concentration of media ownership
• Tools required to become a sophisticated and critical consumer of media content
• Processes and effects of mediated communication across nations and cultures
• Convergence of traditional media organizations/industries into hybrid structures
• Emerging media industries and job opportunities

Students in the media studies emphasis begin with a survey course that reviews the processes, effects and industries in mass/mediated communication. Students learn contemporary theories about how media content and channels affect audiences. In the second semester, media studies students study personal empowerment as media consumers and mediated communication across different nations and cultures. The program culminates in the third semester with a course on the convergence of media industries into new hybrid models that transform the structure and function of traditional media.

Careers in media studies

More so than careers in journalism, advertising or public relations, careers in media studies are eclectic, diverse, uncertain and in flux. The media studies emphasis is ideally suited for entrepreneurial individuals comfortable with the ambiguity of rapidly changing technologies, industries and career paths. Graduates of the media studies emphasis likely will pursue several distinct career paths in the course of their professional lives, sometimes “inventing” new jobs for themselves as technologies and industries change.

On this page: The pedestrian bridge that crosses College Avenue connects the SDSU main campus with student housing, dining and parking lots. Completed in September 2003, it is 230 feet long and the arches reach 45 feet above the walkway at their highest point. Photo by Sam Hodgson.