New Minors in Media Studies, National Security Announced at Rutgers-Camden

For Immediate Release

CAMDEN –  Starting fall 2008, two new undergraduate programs at Rutgers University—Camden will seek to prepare students for careers in the burgeoning fields of media studies and national security.

In a rapidly evolving digital age, college students find that numerous careers are impacted by global media saturation.  A new undergraduate program at Rutgers—Camden will prepare students to think critically about new and old media as well as examine these methods of communication through global, social, political, and economic contexts.

The media studies undergraduate minor, offered to business and arts and sciences students, will provide a broader scope of understanding media that will complement studies in a range of majors from marketing to sociology. An interdisciplinary curriculum, the 18-credit program will feature such courses as “Mass Media and Popular Culture,” “History of Television,” and “Digital Photo.”   

“The combination of a media studies minor with other Rutgers—Camden majors prepares students for advance study of media and allows them to specify their future career goals.  Combinations include business and media, art and media, all social sciences and media, and others,” says Allen Woll, director of the media studies program at Rutgers—Camden, where he is also a professor of history.

Rutgers—Camden currently offers undergraduate degrees in fine arts with concentrations in animation, graphic design or film as well as undergraduate and graduate programs in computer science.

The altered threat environment of the 21^st century has created many new career opportunities in the fields of national security and homeland security at the national, state, and local levels. Starting this fall, a new Rutgers—Camden undergraduate program in national security, intelligence, and counterterrorism studies will help to prepare students for these fields.

Offered by the Rutgers—Camden political science department, the academic minor will seek to assist students interested in careers in such agencies as the FBI, the CIA, and the National Security Agency.  Courses will address a wide range of subjects, including the Homeland Security establishment, civil liberties, resource scarcity and national security, and global anti-Americanism matters.

Both new minors are offered by the Rutgers—Camden College of Arts and Sciences.   

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