Media Arts Degree Programs in Chicago, IL

Columbia College Chicago : School of Media Arts:
Columbia College Chicago's School of Media Arts caters for students who have a passion for media arts and are striving for a real education with a real future. Columbia College Chicago is the largest and most diverse private arts and media college in the nation. To date the School of Media Arts offer a diverse range of creative academic undergraduate and graduate degree programs in subject areas that include Journalism, Radio, Film & Video, Marketing, and other fields of study.

Undergraduate Degree Programs:
Columbia College Chicago School of Media Arts is offers a diverse range of undergraduate degree courses including:

Audio Arts and Acoustics BA Degree
As practitioners of sound arts and sciences, the faculty members of the Department of Audio Arts and Acoustics at Columbia College are committed to advancing the foundation, practice, and aesthetic criteria necessary to maintain a discipline that serves one of the principal mediums of communication and personal expression.We are committed to offering our students the tools and the opportunities to build, reinforce, and maintain the fundamental knowledge and skills that are required for a successful career in a technologically intensive environment.

Marketing Communication
As a student majoring in Marketing Communication, you will be “cross-trained” in the basics of Advertising, Marketing, and Public Relations. We have found that this cross-training will make you more desirable as a "hire" in the marketing communications field, where professionals want well-rounded students who have integrated knowledge as well as the skills in their specialized concentrations.

Interactive Arts and Media
The Interactive Arts and Media Department is home to the Interactive Arts and Media Major, the Web Development minor and the Game Design major. In the Interactive Arts and Media Department students learn to create interactive art, media, and games that are innovative and compelling. They work with faculty who are accomplished professionals to achieve several goals: thinking critically, solving problems creatively, and developing an individual and imaginative voice in their work. Students study aesthetics, theory, technology, cultural and ethical issues in preparation for entering diverse and successful careers in interactive arts, multimedia, web design, interaction and interface design, and game design.

Broadcast Journalism
Broadcast Journalism is an interdisciplinary program, taught in cooperation with the Television and Radio departments. Students learn to report, write and produce television and radio news. Student-produced news programs, such as "Metro Minutes," a TV news update show, and "Newsbeat," a live TV newscast, are highlights of the program. Radio news students get hands-on training at Columbia's radio station, WCRX, 88.1 FM. Internships are a vital part of Columbia's journalism major. Students are encouraged to take one or more internships in print, broadcast and online media.

Magazine Writing and Editing
The Magazine Program is designed to prepare students for a variety of editorial positions on consumer or trade magazines. Magazine majors take specialized courses in magazine article writing, magazine editing, visual journalism and trade magazine writing. Students in the College Magazine Workshop write, edit and design Echo, an award-winning, four-color magazine that focuses on topics of interest to students in Chicago.

News Reporting and Writing
News Reporting and Writing focuses on reporting and writing about public affairs for print and online news media. Students take advanced courses in community news, feature writing, interpretive reporting and investigative journalism, and in specialized "beats," such as courts, business, urban affairs, and science and medicine. A Sports Reporting Emphasis is available to News Reporting and Writing majors. Students in the College Newspaper Workshop produce the award-winning Chronicle, the College's weekly student newspaper, and its companion web site, while students taking Commumity News and other advanced reporting courses can have their work published at ChicagoTalks.org.

Reporting on Science, Health and the Environoment
Reporting on Science, Health and the Environment, taught in conjunction with the Science and Mathematics Department, addresses a growing need for journalists who can bridge the gap between the medical/scientific community and the general public. This unique program features a yearlong sequence in science writing and reporting, taught by a Pulitzer Prize-winning science journalist. In addition to careers in print and electronic media, there are jobs for science communicators in government, industry and academia.

Radio
The Radio Department offers a program that provides each student with a comprehensive overview of the art and business of radio broadcasting while developing in-depth knowledge and skills in on-air talent and show hosting, production, programming and producing for commercial and public radio formats including satellite radio, podcasting and webcasting.

Television BA Degree
To earn the Bachelor of Arts degree, students must complete both the Liberal Arts and Television Core required classes that establish the foundation for learning. Once the Core requirements have been met, students choose one of our four concentrations for in-depth study.

Graduate Degree Programs:

Film and Video MFA Degree
The Graduate Program in Film & Video offers a Masters of Fine Arts Degree in Production. The program is dedicated to developing screen storytellers by fostering the individual filmmaker’s personal voice and vision and cultivating the leadership role of the director. This writer/director program teaches authorship by asking the student filmmaker to create work that is authentic, diverse, and invokes the human experience. Each student creates a body of work in a collaborative environment that will help prepare for a career in the film and video profession.

Interdisciplinary Arts MA Degree
The new MA in Interdisciplinary Arts can help art teachers who want to expand their repertoire of techniques, as well as assist practicing artists in expanding their practice to include new media. Our restructured MA retains its immersion in the five traditional art media that make up the heart of the program: visual art, movement, sound, writing, and drama. In addition, students take 6 hours of History and Theory, 3-6 hours of elective classes, and have a cumulative experience of the arts in the ground-breaking class Connected Images. The degree culminates in a capstone course in which students learn professional art practices and develop a portfolio of their work. Faculty are drawn from some of the most creative artist-teachers in the Chicago area.

Book and Paper Arts MFA Degree
The Interdisciplinary MFA in Book and Paper enables students to participate in the contemporary art world by encouraging them to consider book and paper as a site for interdisciplinary practice. We promote the understanding of hand papermaking and the book arts as artistic media with applications in cultural discourse, community building, and collaborative practice. We seek students who want to pursue a course of study that integrates experimentation with both technical and conceptual considerations in these media. With access to some of the finest bindery, papermaking, and printing equipment and facilities in the country, students pursue their course work in collaboration with media, performance, and installation.

Interdisciplinary Arts and Media MFA Degree
The MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts and Media fosters an innovative dialog between the fine, performing and media arts. This is a graduate program for traditional and performing artists who want to incorporate media into their artistic practice and for media artists who want to expand into areas such as performance, installation, interactive, and relational art forms. We seek students who are committed to making art, who want to pursue a course of study that integrates experimentation and collaboration, who are flexible and willing the be self-reflexive in their art practice, and who can engage art from the hands-on practical to the meta-level.

Journalism MA Degree
The Master of Arts program in Journalism (36 hours) is a carefully designed professional course of study in public affairs reporting that can be completed in three semesters of year-round full-time study or two years of part-time coursework. Qualified candidates are educated in government organization and practice, as well as in the many pressures applied from lobbyists of every kind. They emerge as more sophisticated news consumers and are trained across media platforms so that they will be prepared for the fast-paced news environment of the 21st century where they are likely to be called upon to report and deliver stories in various media.