Connecting to our world
The Department of Media, Film and Journalism Studies is devoted to exploring the ways in which media connect us with the world and how these relationships help shape the societies in which we live. The department has an innovative and creative faculty with many areas of specialization.
The Department of Media, Film & Journalism Studies guides students through undergraduate and graduate degrees in film, emergent digital practices, journalism studies, strategic communication, and International and Intercultural Communication, and offer courses that meet the needs of students in other disciplines who encounter our field through the common curriculum.
Reflecting DU's values for inclusive excellence, our faculty members embrace theory that informs practice, seeking to create critically informed, multiculturally sensitive, and internationally astute media producers, storytellers, artists, scholars, consumers and critics who understand the historical, political, economic, cultural, legal and philosophical frameworks that shape media content and media institutions. We contribute to socio-legal studies, sustainability and environmental studies, the Korbel School of International Studies, the Sturm College of Law, the Center for World Languages, the Center for Service Learning and Civic Engagement, the Office of Teaching and Learning, and many other centers and programs on campus.
DU has a long history of excellence in the broad field of communication. Our alums work for the largest media outlets, corporations and government agencies, as well as local nonprofits, renowned colleges and universities and international development agencies. Faculty, student, and alumni artists display their work around the world.
Faculty specialization
Our faculty are leaders and pioneers in the world of media, journalism and film. Their expertise is centered in these areas of study:
- strategic communication: public relations; communication campaigns; health communication; global and multi-cultural communication; media law and ethics; advertising; audience research.
- media studies: contemporary communications media; mass media; interactive and digital media; media influence on individuals, culture and society; globalization and media; the history and future of the media industry; social, political, economic and cultural implications of media process and content; reading and analysis of media texts.
- film studies and production: film and digital video production; narrative, documentary and experimental styles; script/screenwriting; film history and criticism.
- journalism: newswriting; feature writing; design and layout; online journalism; activist media; media law, policy and ethics.
- digital media studies: Web and multimedia design; programming; digital video/audio; influence of digital media on individuals; culture and society.
Changing the world
Our students and alumni are committed to improving the world . As leaders within the communication field, our students tackle a variety of issues to further their own educational pursuits and interests as well as make a difference in society. Some recent projects:
- Documentary film students explored a variety of subcultures and the unique impact those subcultures play in today's society.
- Journalism students keep the pulse of the campus community through the weekly publication of the Clarion. The paper regularly wins local and national awards for its journalistic efforts.
- Journalism student Mary Jean O'Malley helped start the DU Bike Library (bike sharing program) and raised $50,000 from the City of Denver to fund the initiative.
- Strategic communication students take on nonprofit organizations as clients and help them build relationships with their publics through strategic messages.
- Students assist faculty with important research including: religion and the media; health communication and strategic messaging campaigns on college campuses and the developing world; and the role of journalism in today's society.
The department also tackles the great global issues of the day. Students, faculty and staff immerse themselves in exploring new and immerging topics.
- The Estlow International Center for Journalism and New Media works for the public good by researching how people make meaning out of journalism, digital media and popular entertainment. The center also hosts workshops on issues such as communication during hurricane Katrina, the portrayal of Islam in the media and the role of journalism and First Amendment rights.
- Strategic communication student Brittany Weiser wrote a senior thesis on "Smallpox and Bioterrorism: An Examination of Public Knowledge about Smallpox and Bioterrorism Risk Communication Techniques."
- Journalism student Daliah Singer explored what it means to be a "connected" college student in her thesis, "Sensory Overload: What it Means to be an Informed College Student Today."
- Professor Renee Botta is addressing water sanitization and hygiene issues in an urban slum in Africa by helping building water treatment facilities and implementing hygiene education programs.
- Professor Christof Demont Heinrich developed a website and blog devoted to covering and promoting the synergy between solar energy and electric vehicles and plug in hybrid electric vehicles.
- Professor Margaret Thompson spends her summers covering women's rights issues as a journalist for the Feminist Internet Radio Endeavor in Costa Rica and South America.
- Film faculty produce documentary, experimental and narrative films on a variety of topics such as college sports, religion, sexual orientation, and death and dying .
Global awareness
In recognition of the increasingly global nature of communication, the University of Denver actively integrates global awareness into our curriculum. In recent years, our faculty have brought international experience to students through speaking and teaching engagements and research in diverse locales such as Australia, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Costa Rica, Great Britain, Ireland, Kenya, South Africa, Switzerland, Taiwan, Ukraine, and Zambia.
