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Graduate Program:
Degree Requirements
Students normally take three subjects per semester, for
a total of twelve subjects. All students will take the required
proseminars,
CMS.800 (Theories of Media) and CMS.801 (Media in Transition)
during their first year, and CMS.802 (Research Methods)
their second year. Students are required to take two workshop
courses, CMS.950 and CMS.960, which provide students with
hands-on experience in media. Students will be asked to
serve as technical advisors for these subjects during their
second year in the program. Students are asked to demonstrate
their technical competency by completing the technical
tool requirement. Students will have the opportunity
to take five elective courses, two during their first year
and three during their second year. These elective
subjects are drawn from three categories: Theory
and Criticism; History, Society, Politics; Case Studies.
Each student must also take a minimum of three subjects
in one category, which will constitute their area of concentration.
The required thesis
may take a variety of forms, including traditional expository
prose, but students are encouraged to choose projects that
exploit other appropriate media. Students are also required
to attend weekly colloquia meetings.
Courses
Proseminars
CMS.800 Theories of Media
Examines the nature of media and their impact on social
and cultural life, addressing such issues as audience, authorship,
interactivity, democracy, globalization, and virtual community.
Readings in literary, cultural, film, and digital theory.
CMS.801 Media in Transition
Centers on historical eras in which the form and function
of media technologies were radically transformed. Includes
consideration of the "Gutenberg revolution," the rise of
modern mass media, and the "digital revolution," among other
case studies of media transformation and cultural change.
Readings in cultural and social history and historiographic
method.
CMS.802 Research Methods
Required in the second year of all students preparing theses.
Aims to stimulate practical discussion of problems in media
research and to fortify students' understanding of research
methodologies, ranging from ethnography and historical research
to quantitative and empirical approaches.
Workshops
During their first year, students are required to enroll
in two workshop courses. In the first semester they will
work with a faculty member in an area determined by the
student and the student's main advisor. In the second semester,
students are offered more opportunities. Some may continue
to work on the same project, others will begin to develop
their own projects. In conjunction with these workshops,
students are requires to attend monthly seminar sessions
devoted to the discussion of the critical, methodological,
and theoretical issues that emerge from their hands-on experience.
Students will be asked to make presentations of their work,
which will give them hands-on practice in demo-ing digital
technologies and conveying often complex ideas to an audience.
CMS Workshop Requirement
The year-long workshop sequence provides an opportunity
for a hands-on project development experience and emphasizes
intellectual growth as well as the acquisition of technical
skills.
These workshops are designed to provide additional practical,
hands-on experience, to correspond with the theoretical
and studies work learned in other areas. Many students will
come with previous technical experience. For those students
who find they need basic skills in programming and or computer
science to work on the projects, additional coursework will
be required. A two-term workshop requirement the first year
will ensure that students have direct experience working
with media and can reflect on their production experience.
CMS.950 Workshop I
In CMS.950 (first semester), each student will participate
in an ongoing project selected in consultation with a CMS
faculty member. This workshop provides an opportunity for
a hands-on project development experience and emphasizes
intellectual growth as well as the acquisition of technical
skills. Students will attend regular meetings to present
and critique their work and discuss its implications.
CMS.951 Workshop II
In the second semester, each student will work on a project
of his/her own that can be presented for review as a portfolio.
The portfolio can be a new project or an extension of work
begun in the first semester. Students will attend regular
meetings to discuss their work.
Technical Tool
Requirement
To fulfill the Technical Tool Requirement, a student will
demonstrate technical proficiency in a particular communications
tool, as well the skills to apply this knowledge and an
understanding of the resources available to expand his/her
proficiency. Students can fulfill this requirement through
successful completion of the program's second workshop course
CMS.960. If the student does not adequately fulfill the
tool requirement through the workshop, s/he may be required
to take seminars or practicums that are offered on campus.
In addition, the second-year student must serve as technical
advisor on a particular communications tool to a first-year
student, and make a presentation on a specific hardware
or software application at one of the first-semester workshop
meetings.
Elective Subjects
and Courses
During the two years students will take five elective courses
(two during their first year and three during their second).
Students must take at least one subject from each category--Theory
and Criticism; History,
Society, Politics; and Case
Studies. Each student must also take a minimum
of three subjects in one category, which will constitute
their area of concentration.
Theory and Criticism
Examines concepts, philosophical premises, and analytic
procedures employed in the study of media.
CMS.830 Studies in Film (meets with 21L.706)
CMS.835 Photography and Truth (meets with 21A.348)
CMS.840 Literature and Film (meets with 21L.435)
CMS.845 Interactive Narrative (meets with 21L.489J/21W.765J)
CMS.851 Feeling and Imagination in Art, Science,
and Technology (meets with 24.262)
History, Society,
Politics
Focuses on the historical and cultural contexts of media,
including economic and institutional structures and the
role of media in political processes.
CMS.871 Media in Cultural Context (meets with 21L.715J/SP.493J)
CMS.872 International Studies in Media (meets with
21F.015)
CMS.875 Alternative Cinema: Male Same-Sex Desire
in International Film (meets with 21F.016)
CMS.880 Erasmus to E-mail: Technologies of the Word,
1450-2000 (meets with 21H.418)
CMS.888 Advertising and Popular Culture: East Asian
Perspectives (meets with 21F.036)
Case Studies
Provides the opportunity for in-depth study of a particular
medium or theme, including investigations of specific genres,
aesthetic movements, and periods as well as more general
examinations of a medium's development and use.
CMS.910 Technologies of Humanism (meets with 21L.708)
CMS.915 Understanding Television (meets with 21L.432)
CMS.917 Documenting Culture (meets with 21A.337)
CMS.920 Popular Narrative (meets with 21L.430)
CMS.925 Film Music (meets with 21M.284)
CMS.930 Media, Education, and the Market Place (meets
with 21F.034)
CMS.935 Documentary Photography and Photo Journalism:
Still Images of a World in Motion (meets with 21W.749)
Supplementary Coursework
Supplementary coursework may be arranged on an individual
or group basis with consultation with major advisor and
program officer. In addition, students may petition for
elective credit for participation (with additional assignments)
in an undergraduate subject, with permission of instructor.
CMS.995 Research in Comparative Media
CMS.998 Topics in Comparative Media
CMS.999 Topics in Comparative Media
Thesis
Students choose a thesis topic during the first semester
of their second year. The thesis may take a variety of forms,
including traditional expository prose, or more experimental
projects that utilize additional media formats appropriate
to their topic.
CMS.980 Thesis
Thesis topics have included:
"Collaborative News Networks: Distributed Editing, Collective Action, and the Construction of Online News at Slashdot.org."
"The Construction of Photojournalism: Visual Syle and Branding in the Magnum Photo Agency"
"'Stepping Up to the Mic': Le Tigre Strategizes Third Wave Feminism through Music and Performance"
"Ceremony of Innocence: A Case Study in the Emergent Poetics of Interactive Narrative"
"The Commoditable Block Party: Electric Signs in Manhattan, 1881-1917"
"Moving Images and Bearing Witness: Religious Projection and the 'JESUS' Film in Guatemala"
"The Medium Still Isn't the Message: Revisiting the Questionable Link between Determinant Technology and Political Liberalization"
"Negotiating Realists: The Sixth Generation of Chinese Filmmakers"
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