Unlike a major for which there is a single career, Radio, Television and Film is practically the entire mass entertainment and information industry as delivered by electronic means. Add to these categories the Internet, now very much a part of the RTVF curriculum, and you begin to see the picture: 12,000 radio stations, 1200 TV stations, hundreds of cable channels and millions of Websites, and the "Hollywood" film industry.
Communication using radio, television and film is learning how to use an ever-evolving collection of electronic technology to synthesize audio and visual information for the telling of convincing stories to a mass audience. The process is getting an idea, writing a script, producing and directing that idea into a program, distributing it to an audience, and getting feedback in the form of listeners, viewers, movie-goers, product buyers or Web surfers. The other part of the RTVF major is that it helps you understand how to be a savvy consumer of the media and a critical thinker as you hear and see the thousands of daily messages all carefully designed to sell you something, get you to believe in something, make laugh or cry. As an RTVF major, you'll know how all this works. And with this knowledge comes lifetime power.
The RTVF major will teach you the processes used to communicate using a variety of electronic media formats. Specifically, if your interest area is radio and audio, you can start on KSJS-FM, and later work in radio as a disk jockey, production and promotion specialist or music program director. Television, both broadcast and cable, is a combination of entertainment and news and information delivery organizations. The entertainment part of television is mostly the production of talk shows, TV movies, sitcoms, dramas and commercials. These productions use all of your RTVF-learned skills, and at the highest level you may specialize as a writer, producer, director, talent editor or one of dozens of technical areas. A graduate specializing in film might produce films for television or the big screen, the so-called "Hollywood feature." Like television, making films is basic storytelling. And while traditional entertainment industries like broadcast radio and TV and film have always prospered, the new media companies based on the Internet are demanding people with the skills learning in this program of study to provide content. That is the major thing that an RTVF student will learn: how to turn ideas into media content for diverse audiences.
The BA, Radio-TV-Film degree is divided into so-called required or core classes, and electives or advanced and specialized classes. One third of your core classes may be described as "media studies," basic classes in the history, structure, theory and business of the electronic mass media, and may include film history, communications theory and criticism, aesthetics and media management. A second grouping of core classes are technical; how to identify, select and operate the technology of production. Most of these core classes are termed "process," meaning you learn and experiment, but do not necessarily make something where you write the script and direct actors.
A third part of the core consists of writing which, even in the electronic media, is a skill of major importance. Every successful media production begins with the written word, whether it is a script or a story outline or just a page which describes a potential sponsor in words that you want to represent with sound or pictures.
The last grouping of classes, called electives, allow you to go into some depth in a certain area of the media. Examples are research, if graduate school is your goal, or advance video and film where you learn how to produce a project on video or film, direct actors, and edit your work using one of several computer-based systems. Other elective tracks may include advanced scriptwriting, digital media for special effects and multimedia production, or courses related to radio station KSJS-FM, where you can be on the staff, learning how to program and run an actual station.
Finally, there is a required internship, your gateway to the job market. It is here that you meet potential employers and find out what they expect from you as a media professional.
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