Mar 29, 2024  
Loyola Marymount University Bulletin 2020-2021 
    
Loyola Marymount University Bulletin 2020-2021 [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

Film, Television, and Media Studies, B.A.


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Program Goals


  • Students will be able to critically examine the ways in which their own perceptions have been shaped and influenced by media texts such that they may become more thoughtful consumers as well as producers of such texts. Students understand the many ways that media texts reflect, shape and question cultural values, attitudes, and beliefs, including but not limited to representations of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual identity, class, and nationality.
  • Students will understand and appreciate the development of cinematic and televisual media within their historical and cultural contexts, including the difference between national and global/transnational approaches to the study of film/media. This includes the different approaches to the study of film and other screen media, particularly, but not limited to, how they are informed by auteur studies, genre studies, or the study of specific cycles and movements.
  • Students will gain the necessary tools to analyze, write and communicate critically about media texts.

Learning Outcomes


  • Students will be able to deconstruct and describe the basic elements of film and television language.
  • Students will differentiate between a visual text’s form and content.
  • Students will be able to execute close-readings and interpretations of visual texts.
  • Students will be able to engage critically on topics of representation (e.g., race, gender, class, etc.).
  • Students will be able to identify the context to which a particular film/visual text belongs (e.g., what national or transnational tradition, or what key movement, etc.).
  • Students will distinguish approaches to the study of media (e.g., auteur studies, genre studies, reception studies, national vs. transnational lens, etc.).
  • Students will engage effectively with critical/theoretical readings by integrating them into their own argumentative essays and/or oral/visual presentations.

Major Requirements


FOUNDATIONS: Five required courses (19 semester hours):


These courses set up the foundations for the study/analysis of film and media. In general, these courses are mostly survey-style courses that establish a historical and aesthetic overview of the medium.

NATIONAL/REGIONAL FOCUS: Two courses required (8 semester hours)


These courses emphasize national or transnational modes of studying film, focus on a deeper understanding of critical/theoretical paradigms, and require students to integrate the skills learned in the previous levels.

ELECTIVE COURSES: Four courses (16 semester hours)


These courses round-off student’s knowledge of film and allow those who would like to do so to pursue specific areas of interest. These courses reinforce concepts learned in lower-division courses and further develop issues pertaining to narrative and visual structure, uses of technology, and issues of representation (gender, race, class. etc.).

NON-WESTERN/TRANSNATIONAL EMPHASIS: A total of three (these courses have to be chosen from the above categories, no extra units)


In recent years, the study of film has moved away from analyses that focus on a single national tradition. In order to prepare students that are well-rounded in their knowledge of the field we will require them to be conversant in non-Western media as well as in transnational modes of study. These courses may include Western film/media as long as the course offers a transnational analysis. For shorthand purposes, these courses are labeled “global” (also discernible by ending with the number 7, refer to courses above).

Model Four-Year Plan


  • Normal course load is 16 semester hours of 4-5 courses per semester.
  • Consult your advisor regarding proper course sequencing and course selection for the major.
  • Suggested sequence, but students may take courses in a modified order with written permission of the Chair and Associate Dean.
  • All students must complete six flags to graduate. Each student is responsible for ensuring she/he fulfills all graduation requirements.

Freshman Year


Fall Semester


Total: 13-16 semester hours

Spring Semester


Total: 14-15 semester hours

Sophomore Year


Fall Semester


Total: 12-16 semester hours

Spring Semester


Total: 14-16 semester hours

Junior Year


Fall Semester


Total: 14-16 semester hours

Spring Semester


Total: 15-18 semester hours

Senior Year


Fall Semester


Total: 13-16 semester hours

Spring Semester


Total: 13-16 semester hours

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