Media Arts

Faculty

The Pacific University Media Arts Department believes that media creation is a powerful means of effective civic engagement and positive social change. Critical media consumption and the ability to create effective and ethical media in today’s media-saturated world are at the core of the curricula and classes in the Media Arts. Students in the Media Arts benefit from close faculty mentorship to develop the technical, aesthetic, and organizational skills necessary to become confident producers of media, including films/videos, interactive media, and journalism, and the skills to become informed consumers of media.

The areas of studies in the Media Arts prepare students for careers in a variety of communication and media-related fields including (but not limited to): journalism, film/video production, interactive media production, multi-media writing, communication design, broadcasting, and marketing.

In addition to courses, the department offers many opportunities for majors and non-majors to gain experience collaborating with others in media and communications-related fields. For over 120 years, the student newspaper, The Pacific Index, has provided students with real world newspaper experience. The Pacific University Media Arts student club (PUMA) provides a forum for students to interact and pursue opportunities to enhance their experiences in the department. MAPS (Media Arts Production Services) offers students an opportunity to earn money, while building their skills and resume by using their talents and skills to create videos, print media, etc. for the campus and local communities. The award-winning Pacific University Speech and Debate (Forensics) Team gives students the chance to hone their public speaking skills in the highly competitive world of intercollegiate forensics and compete in national and international competitions. Qualified media arts students are also eligible for internships in professional media outlets and organizations seeking assistance with their media-related endeavors.

Media arts students can pursue a semester abroad studying media production and theory at beautiful York St. John University in York, England.

Program Learning Outcomes

Specific departmental goals include:

Developing graduates who are capable of understanding communication, expression, and storytelling in media
Providing students with an understanding of the history, social and cultural roles of media in society, both through courses specifically focused on these topics, and by incorporating these themes into production-oriented courses
Developing an aesthetic understanding of media production and technical proficiency in areas such as video and visual production, writing and digital media development.

Communication Design

Mike Geraci

The communication design minor centers upon the design process and teaches students how design thinking and practice can be used as an important tool for communicating scholarly, creative, and research outcomes across a range of media. This minor adds value to students’ primary academic pursuits across multiple disciplines by giving them the ability to produce rich visual communications for print and electronic media — a valuable skill in today’s information-oriented culture.

This minor serves students across majors who have an interest in connecting the theories and practices of visual design, computer graphics, and digital media production to their primary area of academic study and research with the intent of enhancing the quality of the communications related to that work.

Program Learning Outcomes

Upon successfully completing the communication design minor students will:

Apply the fundamental principles of visual design to their projects in a way that enhances its communicative potential
Exhibit a thoughtful application of color and typographic design to print and electronic communications
Contribute effectively to a team or organization where the planning, design, and production of visual communications are key activities and integral parts of organizational strategy
Be capable of explaining how design aids viewers in extracting meaning from designed elements
Be more thoughtful and creative with all of their personal and professional communications
Represent relationships, patterns and results in qualitative and quantitative data sets accurately and accessibly for narrow and broad audiences alike
Communicate narratives, concepts, identities, and emotions across a variety of media

Programs

Bachelor of Arts

Minor

Courses

Media Arts