What is The Media School?
The Media School combines decades-long traditions of journalism, communication, film studies, and creative practices with a commitment to preparing students for 21st-century media careers.
Our graduates are journalists and marketing professionals, advertising executives and public relations experts, filmmakers and directors, scholars, game designers, and researchers.
Our faculty members have a set of experiences that are just as varied. Media School faculty consists of Pulitzer Prize and Emmy winners, internationally recognized scholars and writers, filmmakers, and game designers.
Our staff provide essential support to all aspects of Media School operations, such as scheduling classes, maintaining studio equipment, and advising students on their course of study.
Together, we are creating the media landscape of the future.
Mission Statement
The Media School was created to foster excellence in the practice and study of the media arts and sciences. We seek to understand media in all of their historical and evolving aspects. We aspire to train students to be ethical and creative practitioners in media fields, produce and disseminate media products of the highest caliber, and conduct research that analyzes media messages and their social impact. The Media School serves the State of Indiana, the nation, and the world in helping to create a media environment that pursues and honors the true and the good.
Core Values
These are the core values of The Media School:
- We prize the search for fairness, balance, and truth.
- We strive to produce work that meets the highest professional and creative standards.
- We aim to extend the boundaries of knowledge and critical thinking about the roles that media play in contemporary life.
- Freedom of expression and unfettered access to media are foundational to our concept of the school.
- We encourage diversity of thought and welcome all forms of expression, including those with which we may disagree.
- We are committed to the rights of all to participate in what we have to offer, including under-represented minorities and groups that have not traditionally had places at the academic table.
The Media School is committed to the pursuit of an inclusive and representative media industry to ensure all stories are told. We pursue diversity among our students, staff, and faculty and support the academic study of the work of underrepresented media makers, as well as representation in media and its effects on society. See the diversity page on the school’s website for more details on how we are pursuing this goal.
The Media School’s strategic plan is available on the intranet, as is the governance document.
While The Media School was established in 2014, it includes schools and departments that have a rich history. We are home to the 100-year-old journalism program and the more than half-century-old telecommunications and film studies departments.
We offer degree programs at every level intended to prepare students for a variety of careers.
Undergraduate programs
- Bachelor of Arts in Journalism
- Bachelor of Arts in Media
- Bachelor of Fine Arts in Cinematic Arts
- Bachelor of Science in Game Design
Graduate programs
- Master of Science in Media
- Master of Arts in Media Arts & Sciences
- Ph.D. in Media Arts & Sciences
Our degree programs contain a number of academic concentrations, and most Media School students self-identify as being a part of one of these concentrations. The list of Media School concentrations includes:
- Cinema and Media Studies
- Fashion Media
- Film, Television and Digital Production
- Interactive and Digital Media
- Media Advertising
- Media Management, Law and Policy
- Media Science
- Media Technologies, Games and Culture
- News Reporting and Editing
- Public Relations
- Social and Digital Media
- Sports Media
Our facilities
Franklin Hall serves as the main headquarters of The Media School. Built in 1907, the buildings exterior reflects its history as a campus library, but the interior points to the future. After a $21 million renovation, Franklin Hall houses the latest technology for digital media and communications:
- Central commons, with a glass ceiling and interactive 24-foot-by-12-foot screen
- The Ken and Audrey Beckley TV studio, equipped with eight HD cameras and fiber connections to the Radio-Television Building and the Mark Cuban Center for Sports Media and Technology
- Studios for student media and classroom production
- Game design labs
- Student media space for the Indiana Daily Student, Arbutus, IUSTV, WIUX, and American Student Radio
- Audio and video production equipment for student checkout
The Media School also has offices and studios in the Radio-Television Building (RTV). Approximately 10 percent of our faculty offices are in RTV, and roughly half of our teaching occurs there. RTV includes a digital infrastructure that was recently upgraded with new wiring, wireless networking, and broadband cable. Integrated digital signals can be distributed internally and externally to other locations on the Bloomington campus, to other IU campuses, and via fiber and satellite to the state and beyond.
The Black Film Center & Archive is also part of The Media School but is located in the Herman B Wells Library. The Black Film Center & Archive is the only archival repository in the world that is wholly dedicated to collecting, preserving, and making available historically and culturally significant films by and about Black people.
Administration
You can find a list of our current administration, including deans; unit directors; undergraduate, graduate, and honors directors; and staff directors in our website directories.
Contact Galen Clavio, associate dean of undergraduate studies, with questions about your teaching assignment, classroom assignment, grading and enrollment, and technology issues.
To schedule an appointment with Dean David Tolchinsky, Associate Dean of Academic Affairs Gerry Lanosga, or Associate Dean of Undergraduate Studies Galen Clavio, contact Anne Stichter, executive assistant to the deans.
Faculty and Staff
The Media School is home to 72 faculty members and 55 staff members. As of 2021, the faculty identified as 65 percent male and 35 percent female. The faculty has grown since the school was founded yet the tenure-track versus non-tenure-track faculty ratio has stayed relatively consistent.
Faculty belong to four different units: Cinema and Media Studies (CIMS), Communication Science (COMS), Journalism (JOUR), and Media Arts and Production (MAP). A directory of faculty and staff is available online.
An academic and administrative organizational chart is available on the intranet.
