The Media School
Minor in Cinema and Media Studies
For more than a century, cinema and other moving image and sound media have been central aspects of everyday life, providing pleasure, offering career opportunities, delivering art, entertainment, and information that represents and constructs values, attitudes, fears, and aspirations. The minor in Cinema and Media Studies enables students to become more experienced in interpreting a range of media texts and conducting archival research. The curriculum also provides a fuller sense of the historical, technological, political, and cultural contexts of film, broadcast media, and digital media.
Requirements
The minor requires at least 15 credit hours, including the requirements listed below.
- Watching Film. One (1) course:
- MSCH-C 241 Watching Film
MSCH-C 241 Watching Film
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Introduction to the power, pleasure, politics, and possibilities of cinema. Opportunity to develop film literacy through a better understanding of how film is and has been constructed and experienced. Provides critical techniques for analyzing and appreciating the many forms film has taken.
- Critical Approaches to Media. Three (3) credit hours:
- MSCH-B 321 Sports Media Imagery
- MSCH-D 331 Social Media Cultures
- MSCH-D 337 Digital Media and Society
- MSCH-D 413 Global Screen Cultures
- MSCH-F 326 Authorship in the Media
- MSCH-F 383 Sound and Cinema
- MSCH-F 392 Media Genres
- MSCH-F 395 Horror Cinema
- MSCH-F 398 National and Transnational Cinemas
- MSCH-F 415 Contemporary Filmmakers
- MSCH-F 425 Media Theories
- MSCH-F 445 Media, Culture, and Politics
MSCH-B 321 Sports Media Imagery
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Explores how sports media texts are infused with power relations through a critical media literacy methodology, including how sports media texts sometimes reflect and reproduce social inequalities, while at other times helping to illuminate and challenge them.
MSCH-D 331 Social Media Cultures
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- A grade of C- or higher in MSCH-C 101; or consent of instructor
- Description
- None
- Repeatability
- Social media technologies are an integral part of social life. This course helps students develop a vocabulary for understanding social media critically and analytically. Content includes a history of social media technologies, examinations of how people construct identities and relationships on social media, and how misinformation affects online experiences.
MSCH-D 337 Digital Media and Society
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Develops frameworks for understanding new media technologies in social contexts. Compares computing, networked digital media, and social media to prior eras of technological change, focusing on interactions among technological, industrial, regulatory, social, and cultural forces.
MSCH-D 413 Global Screen Cultures
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Covers electronic media\'s role in altering perceptions of time, space, locality, and identity. Explores changing economic, political, and cultural relations in the global media environment. Topics vary and may include global media events, trans-border information flows, cultural differences in media forms and practices.
- Repeatability
- May be repeated with different topics for a maximum of 6 credit hours.
- Fall 2026CASE SHcourse
MSCH-F 326 Authorship in the Media
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Topic varies: in-depth analysis of directors, producers, or creative individuals in the media, viewed as 'authors.'
- Repeatability
- May be repeated with a different topic for a maximum of 6 credit hours.
- Fall 2026CASE AHcourse
MSCH-F 383 Sound and Cinema
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Explores the role of sound in cinematic production and exhibition from the early days of live musical accompaniment of silent films through to recent innovations in sound design. Covers the skills needed to analyze, discuss, and write about how sound gives meaning and feeling to the cinematic image.
MSCH-F 392 Media Genres
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Topic varies. Analysis of typical genres, such as westerns, situation comedies, documentaries, etc. Problems of generic description or definition: themes, conventions, iconography peculiar to given genres.
- Repeatability
- May be repeated with a different topic for a maximum of 6 credit hours in CMCL-C 392 and MSCH-F 392.
- Fall 2026CASE AHcourse
MSCH-F 395 Horror Cinema
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Examines horror in cinema as a cultural and cinematic form, and attempts to draw some conclusions about its \"politics\"-sexual, ethnic, familial, economic etc. Focuses on social changes in sexual mores. gender roles, family structure, political and economic events, and the increasing role of technology in our lives.
MSCH-F 398 National and Transnational Cinemas
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Historical survey of major national cinemas. Subject varies. Topics include Brazilian cinema, British cinema, Chinese cinema, French National cinema, German film culture, Indian cinema, and Italian cinema.
- Repeatability
- May be repeated with a different topic for a maximum of 6 credit hours in CMCL-C 398 and MSCH-F 398.
- Fall 2026CASE AHcourse
MSCH-F 415 Contemporary Filmmakers
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Examines contemporary film authorship in collaboration with the IU Cinema. Students attend lectures by visiting filmmakers and attend screenings of their films and discuss film criticism and review.
MSCH-F 425 Media Theories
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Media theory is the intellectual practice of asking foundational questions about media's relationships to society, culture, the world, and how it affects us. Addresses a range of critical-cultural theories on film, television, digital, video, immersive, and mobile media that constitute our media worlds and experiences.
- Fall 2026CASE AHcourse
MSCH-F 445 Media, Culture, and Politics
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Examines the role of media in the political process. Topic varies and may include censorship and free speech, social movements, politics of representation.
- Repeatability
- May be repeated with a different topic for a maximum of 6 credit hours in CMCL-C 445 or MSCH-F 445.
- Media Representation. Three (3) credit hours:
- MSCH-D 413 Global Screen Cultures
- MSCH-F 370 Women Directors
- MSCH-F 375 Race, Gender, and Representation
- MSCH-F 377 Cinemas of the Black Diaspora
- MSCH-F 398 National and Transnational Cinemas
- MSCH-F 445 Media, Culture, and Politics
MSCH-D 413 Global Screen Cultures
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Covers electronic media\'s role in altering perceptions of time, space, locality, and identity. Explores changing economic, political, and cultural relations in the global media environment. Topics vary and may include global media events, trans-border information flows, cultural differences in media forms and practices.
- Repeatability
- May be repeated with different topics for a maximum of 6 credit hours.
- Fall 2026CASE SHcourse
MSCH-F 370 Women Directors
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Focuses on women directors in cinema, from the silent era to the present day. Explores the presence of women directors in American and European cinema, the connection to feminist theory in cinema, and the challenges confronting women who wish to direct films.
MSCH-F 375 Race, Gender, and Representation
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Construction of race and gender identities across a range of media. Emphasis on the power of sound/image representations to shape and contest ideas about race and gender. Topic varies.
- Repeatability
- May be repeated with a different topic for a maximum of 6 credit hours in CMCL-C 412, JOUR-J 375, or MSCH-F 375.
- Fall 2026CASE SHcourse
MSCH-F 377 Cinemas of the Black Diaspora
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Examines filmmaking in the black diaspora as a formally innovative visual and narrative art form in world cinema. Studies select films for their political and cultural significance and shared themes. Topics include colonialism and postcoloniality; race, gender and sexuality; migration and exile; modernity; and the dislocating processes of globalization.
- Fall 2026CASE AHcourse
- Fall 2026CASE DUScourse
MSCH-F 398 National and Transnational Cinemas
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Historical survey of major national cinemas. Subject varies. Topics include Brazilian cinema, British cinema, Chinese cinema, French National cinema, German film culture, Indian cinema, and Italian cinema.
- Repeatability
- May be repeated with a different topic for a maximum of 6 credit hours in CMCL-C 398 and MSCH-F 398.
- Fall 2026CASE AHcourse
MSCH-F 445 Media, Culture, and Politics
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Examines the role of media in the political process. Topic varies and may include censorship and free speech, social movements, politics of representation.
- Repeatability
- May be repeated with a different topic for a maximum of 6 credit hours in CMCL-C 445 or MSCH-F 445.
- Historical Approaches to Media. Three (3) credit hours:
- MSCH-F 311 History of Media and Culture
- MSCH-F 380 Cinema History 1: 1895 - 1945
- MSCH-F 381 Cinema History 2: 1945 - Present
- MSCH-F 382 American Independent Cinema
- MSCH-F 420 Topics in Media History
MSCH-F 311 History of Media and Culture
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Historical development of media forms, institutions, and technology, from the origins of writing to digital media. Attention to characteristics of media, changes in media's role as a cultural force, transformations to media institutions, and the role of media in the development of public discourse. Considers continuity and change over time.
- Fall 2026CASE SHcourse
MSCH-F 380 Cinema History 1: 1895 - 1945
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Surveys the first fifty years of cinema, from the premiere of moving pictures to the end of the second world war. May include the emergence of early film industries and movements, looking at the impact of new technologies, exhibition strategies, genres and film theories on the development of the medium.
- Fall 2026CASE SHcourse
MSCH-F 381 Cinema History 2: 1945 - Present
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Surveys cinema and the cultural and industrial histories that inform it from 1945 to the present. May include the study of genres, cycles, movements, technological change, histories of representation, exhibition and reception, and theoretical work on the medium.
- Fall 2026CASE SHcourse
MSCH-F 382 American Independent Cinema
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Explores the history, context, and development of American independent cinema from the 1960s to the present day. Introduces key films and directors from the period, aesthetic characteristics and influences, as well as social and institutional contexts that led to the creation of this form of filmmaking and cinema.
MSCH-F 420 Topics in Media History
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Media historiography, topics in national media history, national and international movements and trends. Topic varies.
- Repeatability
- May be repeated with a different topic for a maximum of 6 credit hours in CMCL-C 420 and MSCH-F 420.
- Fall 2026CASE SHcourse
- Cinema and Media Studies Elective. Three (3) credit hours:
- Additional course(s) from the Critical Approaches to Media list.
- Additional course(s) from the Historical Approaches to Media list.
- Additional course(s) from the Media Representation list.
- Minor Hours and Minimum Grade Requirements.
- Minor Residency. At least 9 credit hours in the minor must be completed in courses taken through the Indiana University Bloomington campus or an IU-administered or IU co-sponsored Overseas Study program.
- Minor Upper Division Courses. At least 9 credit hours in the minor must be completed at the 300-499 level.
- Minimum Grade. A grade of C- or higher is required for a course to count toward a requirement in the minor.
Minor Area Courses
-
Unless otherwise noted below, the following courses are considered in the academic program and will count toward academic program requirements as appropriate:
- Any course contained on the course lists for the academic program requirements at the time the course is taken—as well as any other courses that are deemed functionally equivalent—except for those listed only under Addenda Requirements
- Any course directed to a non-Addenda requirement through an approved exception
This program of study cannot be combined with the following:
- Major in Cinematic Arts (Bachelor of Fine Arts) [CINEARTBFA]
- Major in Game Design (Bachelor of Science) [GAMEDSGNBS]
- Major in Global Media (Bachelor of Science) [GLBMEDIABS]
- Major in Journalism (Bachelor of Arts in Journalism) [JOURBAJ]
- Major in Media (Bachelor of Arts) [MEDIABA]
- Major in Media Advertising (Bachelor of Science) [MEDIAADVBS]
- Major in Public Relations (Bachelor of Science) [PBLCRELNBS]
- Major in Sports Media (Bachelor of Science) [SPTMEDIABS]
- Minor in Film Production [FILMPRDMIN]
- Minor in Global Media [GLVMDIAMIN]
- [Name unavailable] [NMISTACRT]
Exceptions to and substitutions for minor requirements may be made with the approval of the unit's Director of Undergraduate Studies, subject to final approval by the College of Arts and Sciences.