Complementing any major, the gender and media minor is a cross-unit, interdisciplinary undergraduate minor offered jointly by the School of Arts and Sciences (SAS) and the School of Communication and Information (SC&I). The Department of Women's and Gender Studies is the sole SAS contributor to courses included in the minor. At SC&I, the Department of Journalism and Media Studies is the primary contributor to the minor, offering the majority of course options. Two additional SC&I undergraduate courses, one in the information technology and informatics (ITI) curriculum and the second in the digital communication, information, and media (DCIM) curriculum are course options for the gender and media minor.

The gender and media minor provides a course of study designed for students interested in a combination of theory and practice perspectives on the representation and production of gender in the media. Students will apply technical skills as media producers with the ability to add their own critical voices and unique perspectives. Students will also demonstrate critical thinking skills that enable them to critique and improve current conditions of media production and consumption. They will articulate, create, examine, inform, and improve systemic and individual power dynamics of the contemporary landscape for gender and media.

Students will be introduced to the minor through a foundational course that offers a shared vocabulary for analyzing issues of power and representation within the media. They will then have the choice of taking two electives in media production as well as two electives in critical media/feminist theory. Finally, students will apply their skills and knowledge of gender and the media in the completion of a capstone project in a capstone course that offers internship, service learning, and multimedia project options.

Students are required to complete 18 credits for the minor. Courses can not be double-counted for the gender and media minor and for any other major or minor in the School of Communication and Information or the Department of Women's and Gender Studies.

Students may declare the minor upon completion of one of the foundational courses in the program with a C or better.

Requirements for the Minor

Note the following departments represented below:
01:988 - Women's and Gender Studies
04:189 - Communication and Information
04:547 - Information Technology and Informatics
04:567 - Journalism and Media Studies

One Foundational Course (3 credits)

Select one of these:

01:988:202  Gender, Culture, and Representation (3)
04:567:215  Gender, Race, and Class in the Media (3)

Two Production Courses (6 credits)

Select one of these:

04:189:251  Strategic Presentation Methods in Digital Media (3)
04:567:200  Writing for Media (3)

And complete this required course:

01:988:200  Gender, Digital Media, and Social Curation (3)

Two Conceptual/Theoretical Courses (6 credits)

Select one of these:

04:567:274  Consumer Media Culture (3)
04:567:380  Media and Social Change (3)
04:547:340  Gender and Technology (3)

and one of these:

01:988:255  Gender, Art, and Society (3)
01:988:257  Gender and the Body: Representation and Pornography (3)
01:988:258  Gender, Race, and Contemporary Art (3)
01:988:259  Homosexuality and Visual Culture (3)
01:988:317  Gender and Consumption (3)
01:988:376  Theories of Women and Film (3)
01:988:396  Topics in WGS: Gender, Race, and Technoculture (3)

One Capstone Course (3 credits)

The capstone is the same course whether taken through women's and gender studies or journalism and media studies. Students should select the department based on their primary focus for the minor.

01:988:499  Capstone in Gender and Media (3)
04:567:499  Capstone in Gender and Media (3)