Gender and Media

Complementing any major, the gender and media minor is a cross-unit, interdisciplinary undergraduate minor offered jointly by the School of Communication and Information and the School of Arts and Sciences' Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (WGSS) program. Students are introduced to the minor through a foundational course that offers a shared vocabulary for analyzing issues of power and representation within the media. Students then have the choice of taking two electives in media production, as well as two electives in critical media/feminist theory. At the end of the program, students apply skills and knowledge of gender and the media in the completion of a project in a capstone course that offers internship, service learning, and multimedia project options.

Program-Level Learning Goals

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.
  
• Students will articulate, create, examine, inform, and improve systemic and individual power dynamics of the contemporary landscape for gender and media.

Requirements

The minor is open to all majors at Rutgers. Students are required to complete six 3-credit courses with a grade of C or better, for a total of 18 credits. There is one foundational course, two practice/production courses, two conceptual courses, and a capstone project course. Students are strongly encouraged to speak with an adviser to create a plan for completing the program.

Foundation Course (3 credits/one course)

Choose one of the following foundational courses:

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

Practice/Production Courses (6 credits/two courses)

The first practice/production course is required:

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

Choose one of the following courses for the second course:

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

Conceptual Courses (6 credits/two courses)

Only one of these courses (3 of the 6 credits) may be taken at the 200 level; the other must be taken as a 300 level.

Choose one of the following for the first conceptual course (School of Communication and Information courses):

• 04:567:274  Consumer Media Culture (3)
  
• 04:567:380  Media and Social Change (3)
  
• 04:547:340  Gender and Technology (3)
• Relevant special topics courses from SC&I
  

Choose one of the following for the second conceptual course (women's, gender, and sexuality studies courses):

• 01:988:255  Gender, Art, and Society (3)
  
• 01:988:257  Gender and the Body: Representations of 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)
  
• 01:988:341  Gender and Popular Culture (3)
• 3 Relevant special topics courses (women's, gender, and sexuality studies)
  

Capstone Course (3 credits/one course)

Students may enroll in the capstone after completing a minimum of 12 credits in the minor. Choose one of the following courses to fulfill the capstone requirement:

• 01:988:499  Capstone in Gender and Media  (course within the women's, gender, and sexuality studies program)
• 04:567:499  Capstone in Gender and Media (course within the journalism and media studies program)