Digital Studies

Undergraduate Minor Requirements

The 20-unit Minor in Digital Studies, offered through the School of Cinematic Arts, explores the rich potential of digital media for critical analysis and creative discovery. Learning the exciting and dynamic potential of a broad array of tools and technologies, students create innovative, scholarly projects, from photo-essays to Web-based documentaries, from interactive videos to sophisticated Web sites, and from typography in motion to 3-D visualizations. Elective courses explore media for social change, the ethics of virtual worlds, transmedia expression and more, allowing students to use media in pursuit of their own interests and to enhance their major.

The Digital Studies Minor presumes no prior experience with media production. All Digital Studies courses combine theory and practice in lab-based seminars featuring hands-on tutorials to support students in producing sophisticated, media-rich work. Participants in this minor gain powerful skills useful in future endeavors within or beyond academia, as the ability to work effectively with media is a crucial job skill.

Further information:
Sonia Seetharaman, Academic Program Coordinator
sseetharaman@cinema.usc.edu
213-743-2198

Required Courses:

Four units (minimum) from the following:
Course Number	Course Name	Units
IML 104	Introduction to Digital Studies	2
IML 140	Workshop in Multimedia Authoring	2, max4
IML 201	The Languages of Digital Media	4
12 units (minimum) from the following*:
Course Number	Course Name	Units
IML 340	The Praxis of New Media: Digital Argument	2, max 4
IML 346	Methods in Digital Research	2
IML 400	Creative Coding for the Web	4
IML 420	New Media for Social Change	4, max 8
IML 422	Information Visualization	4
IML 466	Digital Studies Symposium	4
*Students in good standing may elect to take graduate (500-level) courses, pending departmental approval.

4 units (minimum) from the following:

School of Cinematic Arts

Course Number	Course Name	Units
CTCS 400	Non-Fiction Film and Television	4
CTCS 411	Film, Television and Cultural Studies	4
CTCS 412	Gender, Sexuality and Media	4
CTCS 478	Culture, Technology & Communications	4
CTCS 482	Transmedia Entertainment	4
CTPR 327*	Motion Picture Camera	3
CTPR 335*	Motion Picture Editing	3
CTPR 385	Colloquium: Motion Picture Production Techniques	4
CTAN 330	Animation Fundamentals	2
CTAN 432	The World of Visual Effects	2
CTAN 448	Introduction to Film Graphics-Animation	4
CTIN 309	Introduction to Interactive Entertainment	4
CTIN 400	Fundamentals of Procedural Media	2
CTIN 462	Critical Theory and Analysis of Games	4
CTIN 483	Introduction to Game Development	4
CTIN 488	Game Design Workshop	4

Viterbi School of Engineering

Course Number	Course Name	Units
ITP 300x*	Database Web Development	3
ITP 301x**	Interactive Web Development	4
ITP 404x* **	Developing Web Services and Application Programming Interfaces	3
ITP 411x*	Interactive Multimedia Production	3

College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences

Course Number	Course Name	Units
ANTH 429	Studies in Art, Science, and Technology	4
ANTH 476	Ethnographic Film Theory From an Historical Perspective	4
ENGL 392	Visual and Popular Culture	4
IR 444	Issues and Theories in Global Society	4
PHIL 446	Aesthetics and the Film	4
REL 341	Technology, Culture and Ethics	4
SOCI 365	Visual Sociology of the Urban City and Its Residents	4

School of Architecture

Course Number	Course Name	Units
ARCH 432	People, Places, and Culture: Architecture of the Public Realm	4

Roski School of Fine Arts

Course Number	Course Name	Units
FADN 332ab	Typography	2-2
FAIN 315	Internet Studio: Online Experimentation and Expression	4
PAS 371	Art in the Public Realm: Contemporary Issues	4

Marshall School of Business

Course Number	Course Name	Units
IOM 443	The Business of Interactive Digital Media	4

Thornton School of Music

Course Number	Course Name	Units
MUSC 465	Music, Television and American Culture	4

Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism

Course Number	Course Name	Units
COMM 306	The Communication Revolution, Entertainment and the Arts	4
COMM 310	Media and Society	4
COMM 339	Communication Technology and Culture	4
COMM 411**	Communication Criticism	4
COMM 412	Communication and Social Movements	4
COMM 422	Legal Issues and New Media	4
COMM 440	Music as Communication	4
COMM 450	Visual Culture and Communication	4
COMM 455	Advertising and Society	4
COMM 456**	Entertainment, Marketing and Culture	4
COMM 458m**	Race and Ethnicity in Entertainment and the Arts	4
COMM 465m	Gender in Media Industries and Products	4
JOUR 330	Photojournalism	4
JOUR 381	Entertainment, Business and Media in Today's Society	4
JOUR 405**	Non-Fiction Television	4
JOUR 420**	Advanced Photojournalism	4
JOUR 422	Visual Journalism	4

School of Theatre

Course Number	Course Name	Units
THTR 403	The Performing Arts	4
THTR 406	Theatre on the Edge	4

* Please note that these are 3 unit courses and will not alone fulfill the elective requirement of 4 units.
** Please note that these courses have prerequisites and/or co-requisites