COMM 2243 Mobilizing for Mobile Media Storytelling World

This course may be used to satisfy one of four electives required within the Communication major. With the advent of the iPhone in 2007, and Android mobile devices shortly thereafter, came the smartphone media revolution. Once the domain of high cost production studios and controlled distribution through a handful of television networks, digital storytelling is now in the hands of the average citizen. Today, nearly three billion smartphones offer extraordinary access to digital media creation and post production tools, as well as instant content distribution across increasingly faster, global networks. With this kind of once unimaginable access to media creation and distribution comes an urgency to understand this tsunami of digitally crafted and often manipulated communications. In this course, we will examine the various applications and impact of this new world of networked, media-rich, mobile devices, while getting hands-on experience actually crafting digital stories with little more than smartphones for video acquisition. While the cost of smartphone production can be virtually free, to create effective short-form digital videos still requires some fundamental skills. To that end, students will learn how to plan, direct, shoot, and edit their own smartphone productions from how-to videos to short commercials, as well as advocacy spots, and political issues and candidate videos.