RTF 10.511 - Research Methods in Television Studies, 3 s.h. Research Methods in Media Studies provides students with an advanced understanding of the major theories and research methodologies central to this academic field. The course is designed to provide students with the knowledge and competencies necessary to conceive graduate-level research in the study of television, film, radio, new/interactive media, and other adjacent forms. The course offers an in-depth exploration of key scholarly approaches foundational to media history, criticism, and theory, encompassing the range of ways that audiovisual media have been understood within this humanistic discipline. Students will develop conceptual frameworks for designing and conducting graduate-level research projects.

RTF 10.512. Television Genre and History, 3 s.h. Television Genre and History provides students with an advanced understanding of the major theories and research methodologies central to an historical study of Genre. The course is designed to provide students with the skills necessary to conduct graduate-level research in the field of Television Studies, history and genre. The course offers an in-depth exploration of key scholarly approaches foundational to a study of the development of genre theory and its application to Television Studies. Students will develop conceptual and practical frameworks for designing and conducting graduate-level Television Studies research projects Note: RTF.515 ST: Television Historiography: From Networks to Netflix can fulfill this requirement. 

RTF 10.513. The Global Television Industry, 3 s.h. The Global Television Industry provides students with a comprehensive understanding of the historical foundations of the global television industry and the ability to identify major shifts in the current international landscape of television markets. The course is designed to provide students with the skills necessary to conduct graduate-level research in the field of Global Television Studies. The course offers an in-depth exploration of key scholarly approaches foundational to the study of the global television industry, encompassing the range of ways that international television markets have adopted international products and adapted them to their home market. Students will develop conceptual and practical frameworks for designing and conducting graduate-level Television Studies projects.

The core of our program is coursework that studies television, film, and other media forms using a wide array of humanistic approaches, including textual analysis and criticism, history and media industry analysis, cultural studies and theory. 

RTF 10.514. Identity on Television, 3 s.h. This course provides students with an understanding of the relationship between identity formation and its representation in media texts and industries. The course introduces students to various theoretical and industry studies approaches to questions of representation in film, television, and other media with an attention to the way structures within media industries have been built on exclusions and inclusions of people of various identities. Throughout the course students will examine how identities like race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and ability (to name a few), intersect with the production, circulation, and reception of media texts and technologies. 

RTF 10.516 - Television Auteurs, 3 s.h. Television Auteurs provides students with an advanced understanding of the relationship between the study of the auteur, television writing and the role of the showrunner in the contemporary television period. The course introduces students to various theoretical approaches to the television auteur and is designed to provide students with the skills necessary to apply these approaches to specific examples from the contemporary international television landscape. The course offers in depth exploration of key debates and approaches to the auteur theory and how the concept of the authorship has subsequently been developed in the field of Television Studies. Students will develop conceptual and practical frameworks for designing and conducting graduate-level Television Studies written assignments.

RTF 10.519 - Women and Television, 3 s.h. This course provides students with an advanced understanding of key issues, theories, and analytical approaches related to the study of women/gender and Television in order to provide students with the skills necessary to conduct advanced, graduate-level research in the field of Feminist Television Studies. The course offers an in-depth investigation into key theoretical approaches to women’s positioning within society and how this relates to their place within the television industry. Students will analyze the construction of women and gender in television in relation to: institutions of production and how television produces, reproduces, and/or challenges gendered power relations in the media industries, as well as issues of authorship and representation and how gendered working practices impact on women’s representation onscreen. Starting from an historical overview of the evolution of women’s roles within society, the course will then turn to the television industry specifically in order to unpack how gendered expectations impact on women’s roles within television. The course will primarily focus on the US television industry but will also include overviews of European practices in order to uncover how societal expectations impact on representational practices.

RTF 10.525 - Rhetoric of Reality TV, 3 s.h. This course examines rhetorical dimensions of the reality television genre. Students will analyze the various subgenres constituting Reality TV, with particular attention given to how such shows critique and/or validate certain identity positions in Western culture, including gender, gender identity, race, class, sexual orientation, and regional identity. Students will explore concepts of authenticity, truth, and suspension of disbelief as they relate to a television format based on documenting the “real.”

RTF 10.526 - Script to Screen, 3 s.h. This course provides students with an advanced understanding of the major methodologies and practices central to the work of directing and producing narrative television. The course is designed to provide students with the skills to prepare to produce or direct narrative scripted material for television. The course offers in-depth explorations of key approaches to directing both multi-camera live productions and single camera film style productions. Students will develop conceptual and practical frameworks for designing and producing shooting plans for narrative scripted content. Students will develop an appreciation of the key role of the director in preparing a television script for the production process.

RTF 10.515 - Film and Media in the Archive, 3 s.h. Archives serve a fundamental role in constructing histories of film, television, and other media. What gets saved and who has access to those materials—be it scripts, interviews with production crews, or most critically the films and television shows themselves—matters for how media texts and their audiences are remembered. In this course, we will examine the ways media scholars have engaged with the archive to write histories, we will learn how archivists save moving-image media and make it accessible to wider audiences, and we will practice archival methods to inventory and interpret, for the public, media related collections in Rowan University Archives & Special Collections. Central to our exploration of media in the archive will be a consideration of how dominant social values influence the shape of the archive and the subsequent interpretation of film, television, and media within their broader social histories.

RTF 10.515 - Special Topics, 3 s.h. New courses are regularly being developed and offered as special topics. Check with the graduate program coordinator for current and future course offerings.

RTF 10.523 Graduate Screenwriting, 3 s.h. This course is an intensive writing workshop where students learn the basics of dramatic writing for the screen. The first half of the course is built around screenings, lectures, discussions and exercises where students explore the fundamentals of daily writing, dramatic structure, visual writing, characterization, dialog and proper screenplay formatting. Film analysis will focus on classic and contemporary shorts and feature films. The second half of the semester focuses on the development, and re-writing of a narrative short film based on an incident from a longer feature screenplay outline.

RTF 10.527 Episodic Screenwriting I: Creating the Series, 3 s.h. This graduate-level writing workshop course explores the form of episodic screenwriting, specifically serialized narrative programs. Students analyze a variety of episodic content; design a complete “show bible,” a document that maps a series and provides a clear sense of its characters, tone, structure and narrative trajectory; create a polished visual pitch presentation; and write the first act of a pilot script.

RTF 10.528 Episodic Screenwriting II: Writing the Pilot, 3 s.h. This graduate-level writing workshop course explores the form of episodic screenwriting, specifically serialized narrative programs. Students analyze a variety of episodic content; expand the “show bible,” a document created in Graduate Episodic Screenwriting 1 that maps a series and provides a clear sense of its characters, tone, structure and narrative trajectory, with more in-depth episode breakdowns; revise the visual pitch presentation created in Graduate Episodic Screenwriting 1; and write and revise a complete hour-long pilot script or two half-hour episode scripts.

MA degrees are definitionally broad and flexible, allowing students to chart their own intellectual and professional paths through a field of study, and Television and Media Studies have always been interdisciplinary fields. We therefore allow, and indeed encourage, students to explore graduate electives in other programs. Related programs include the MAs Writing, History, Strategic Communications and Certificate of Graduate Study (COGS) in Digital Humanities, but there are many others. We allow all students 3 credits of “free” electives, any graduate-level coursework outside our program’s field, and up to 6 credits total (2 classes total) provided your advisor approves that 3 of the credits (one class) is part of your degree plan within our program. 

Graduate students can receive credit for taking an undergraduate course as long as the professor increases the workload, conceptual complexity, and learning outcomes such that the course meets graduate-level education standards. Modifications that bring classes up to the graduate level usually include some combination of the following: supplemental readings, additional meetings with the professor as a group or one-on-one every few weeks, writing a longer final paper or conduct more complex research project, and/or working with the professor to develop a lecture or facilitate a course discussion.

Professors may meet with graduate students and discuss which of these or other options best align with the student’s academic goals. If you are interested in taking an undergraduate course, you should reach out to the instructor and program coordinator.

To find current and upcoming RTF courses, consult the Academic Catalog and Section Tally.

RTF 10.524 - Master’s Project, 3 s.h. The Master’s program may culminate in a final project offering students the opportunity to demonstrate specialized subject knowledge as well as research and writing skills developed over the course of the Master’s program. This final piece of work will utilize students’ particular expertise in their chosen area of focus and can take the form of an academic thesis, a longer form of piece of journalistic writing, a short script with a researched artist’s statement, among other possible outputs. Supervisors most suited to students’ chosen subject area, topic and skillset will be identified from the program faculty at the outset of the course. Students will be offered weekly workshop sessions and/or individual meetings with their supervisors to guide them through this, their final written assignment.

RTF 10.530 - Master’s Project II, 3 s.h. Some ambitious, academic final projects require additional time and resources to develop a comprehensive literature review and bibliography, to master the relevant literature, to conduct original research, or to draft a long or complex final deliverable. In such cases, students may take this second Master’s Project course.
In addition to the above capstone project options, students may be able to take independent studies, internships, and practicum courses for graduate course credit. Contact the program coordinator for more information.