CMST 3545 Immersed in Urban Oil

4 semester hours

Immersed in Oil is a course focused on documenting the oil infrastructures of LA County and producing a publicly accessible and immersive archive of research about the communities that inhabit local oil fields. In this course, teams of Journalism and Communication Studies students will document historic and contemporary oil refining and production practices and the social and environmental problems created by the petroleum industry in Los Angeles. Students will create a digital archive on a specific Los Angeles oil field: its history, oil infrastructure and records of public safety and environmental racism in relation to the communities that live on the field and adjacent to it. In the process of creating their digital archive, students will develop familiarity with an interdisciplinary skill set drawing on Communication theory, news reporting, documentary and immersive storytelling skills, archival research and VR/AR journalism.

Junior or senior standing required.

CMST majors only.

Must be completed with a grade of C (2.0) or higher.