New undergraduate certificate in entertainment and technology launches

The individuals creating your entertainment options in the future may well be graduates of ASU.

The film and media studies program in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences launched a new undergraduate certificate in entertainment and technology this spring to help meet the need for innovative industry leaders who are ready and able to shape the future of entertainment.

The new certificate trains students to anticipate, understand and prepare for the inevitable changes resulting from the rapid convergence of entertainment and media technology. The cross-disciplinary program explores the roles and interdependencies of the two powerful and once-separate fields.

“The entertainment and technology certificate prepares students to be on the cutting edge of media convergence, the trend in the entertainment industry that is already reshaping how we make media, distribute media and watch media,” observes Daniel Bernardi, director of film and media studies. “Students will learn to analyze industry changes, to identify current industry trends and to develop likely entertainment and technology models and scenarios for the future.”

Educating a workforce to fill jobs yet to be conceived – using technologies yet to be invented – seems a daunting task, but the film and media studies program partners with industry leaders to ensure the program’s relevancy and success. Gene Schwam, a longtime Hollywood publicist, helped put together an advisory board of two dozen entertainment veterans, including producers, lawyers and studio executives. These industry professionals have helped shape the program’s curriculum; they also will make classroom visits to share their expertise with students.

The New York Times lauded the timeliness of ASU’s entertainment and technology certificate in a feature story in fall 2006, when the program was being developed. A Times reporter visited ASU and sat in on some of the classes.

“The program at Arizona State comes at a particularly fraught time for Hollywood as the industry grapples with rapidly evolving technology that is changing consumers’ leisure habits,” wrote the reporter. She also noted that while established film programs like the University of Southern California have tried integrating new technology into their curricula, “Arizona State University . . . is taking a very different approach.”

The entertainment and technology certificate program is open to students from any discipline, as well as returning students who already possess a degree. The certificate requires 18 credit hours of entertainment and technology history, theory and convergence studies.

This article originally appeared in spring/summer 2008 issue of “Humanities at ASU,” a newsletter published by the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.