Orientation

“Well, hello everyone, and welcome to Madison University. Yes, we’re all mad here, very good joke, let’s move on.

“My name is Ms. Jones. I’m your advisor for the duration of your education here. If you don’t like me, you can request a new advisor, or simply drop by the advising center during open hours and ask someone else your questions. I’m available five days a week during normal business hours in my office, but you can email me at any time. No guarantees that I I will answer, though.

“I hope you’ve had a chance to explore campus a little bit before orientation, but if you haven’t there will be an optional tour after I talk. I would recommend that you take it and mark down where all the rooms are for your classes this semester.

“Yes, oh of course you don’t know where your classes are yet. You haven’t signed up for them. Why haven’t you signed up yet? Well, how can you be expected to know what you want to do more than four months before your classes start? The only students who sign up more than a few weeks in advance are those that have clear intent to graduate in less than a year, and they need to get their classes in order. Otherwise, you get to register with the rest of the students. Now.

“Most of you are probably going to try and get your requirements over and done with, and that is totally fine. Required classes are set up to be taken without any prior experience. Be warned, though, that if you take a required class and you end up majoring in the relevant field, you might end up repeating a smilier class at a higher level. And yes, if you take the higher level class, you can get out of the required one. So if you are planning to major in political science, you might want to be aware before you take the politics course.

“Yes, Mr. Owens. There is a required politics course. In fact, why don’t you all take out your hand out on your required courses? As you can see, there are nine of them. You should all know that these courses are graded completely differently from the rest of the courses at this college. The point of these courses is to learn the material and understand it, obviously, but we want you to have enough of a basic grasp to pursue the material further on your own time, if you are so inclined. So all papers and tests will be revisable for higher grades. A bit more homework has never killed anyone. And these classes will be small, no more then twenty students.

“Now, they are in no particular order, but let us go over them quickly. First is a writing course, which you will probably find at every college. It will cover writing across different disciplines and different citation styles, and how to use the library. Remember libraries? And how to use the internet wisely. Because somebody else’s high school blog is not a reliable source. Usually.

“Next is Modern Media and Technology, and we recommend taking that early. A brief history of the types of media you use every day, including the internet. A short section on advertising, which you should all be aware of in a capitalist country.

“Next is Modern Science. And yes, even if you major in a science you will probably have to take this course. It’s a lab course, designed to give you a basic grasp of physics, chemistry, biology and earth science and their respective terminologies. It’s worth six credits, and it’s time-consuming, but you will learn any math you need in the course. This is not equivalent to taking a basic course in any of these disciplines, however.

“Fourth is a Critical Thinking class. It will cover the basics of critical thinking and debate. You will probably have practical debates in class, you will learn about logical fallacies and how to avoid them. It also helps you structure any research papers you may write.

“Fifth is my favorite, Personal Finance. This class will teach you how to manage your money, including savings, checking, budgeting, investing, and so on. I recommend taking this class early if you are planning on having a job during your college years. It will help you maximize your money usage.

“You will have to take two Fitness classes at some point. Be warned that while you will not have homework in these classes, they are graded. You can take a sport, or a gym class, or even yoga, but each class will expect you to learn about different exercise regiments, muscle groups and some basic healthy eating habits. The gym is open to students from five in the morning until midnight, and the fields are always open. We recommend that you use them.

“There will be a Critical Reading class, that you are recommended to take after your writing class. This class will focus on your ability to read texts and analyze them and discuss them reasonably. Be warned that a text is not necessarily a book, it can be a movie or a television show, but you may not substitute one for the other. The Wizard of Oz is a very different story on paper than it is on film.

“And here is that dreaded political science class. History of United States Politics is an important thing to know, as a future voter. While much of the class will be history, it is very focused on current events. You are expected to be able to understand the media coverage of elections, both locally and nationally.

“And last, but not least, is our Foreign Culture requirement. Unlike other other requirements, this is not necessarily a single class. If you choose, you may take two semesters of a language. However, you may take two classes on foreign culture, politics and history that do not have language requirements. Or you may take one of each.

“There a few other requirements as well. First, you must complete a major. We do encourage you to create your own major out of two of more disciplines. It is a fairly simple process. First, you have to write an essay explaining your focus, and then you need to compile a list of at least fifteen classes that will fit in your plan. After I approve it, an advisor from each department will need to sign off, and there you are. It usually does not take more than a week or so.

“Second, you have a practical credits requirement. Practical credits can be internships or jobs, or certain types of classes. Classes with hands-on experience, like science labs, certain art or creative writing classes, production classes, etc. There are shop classes for woodwork and cars, and sewing classes aimed at students who want to know how to personalize clothes or repair buttons. You can build computers or websites and the like, as well. I believe a cooking class is offered every fall. Some higher-level positions in clubs will offer practical credits as well, as they will demand the time and effort equivalent to a job. If you have any questions about getting practical credits, please come to me.

“You will also find that many higher-level classes at our college have prerequisite classes. This is to ensure that classes are able to function on the intended high level, without forcing the professor to explain certain basic concepts or facts to you. If you wish to take these classes without the requirements, you will only need to meet with the professor to see if that is advisable.

“Hm, I think that covers most of the basics. Does anyone have any questions? Yes, Mr. Owens…”
_______________

Pamphlet

CLASSES OFFERED BY THE MEDIA DEPARTMENT

Table of Contents:
HISTORY OF MEDIA – Page 1
History of Media Technologies
History of Media Usage
MEDIA ANALYSIS – Page 3
Literature
Theater
Games and Video Games
Television/Movies
Radio/Audio
Internet
Other (some cross-reference with select Fine Arts classes)
MEDIA PRODUCTION – Page 17
Literature
Theater
Television/Movies
Games and Video Games
Radio/Audio
Internet (cross-referrences with select Computer Science classes)
Other (some cross-reference with select Fine Arts and Computer Science classes)

To graduate with a major from the Media Department, most students choose to focus on analysis or production, although you are required to take at least one class in the other department, three for theater majors. Most students also choose a medium to focus on, although you may take classes in different mediums besides your focus. And the internet Section does not yet have enough classes to fulfill the major requirements alone.

To suggest alternate classes, please contact the Dean of the department, Professor Scribner….

Personal Notes

Classes To Take!!!

Media Adaptations: Examining how stores translate across different mediums, including books, movies, television, radio, etc.

World-Building and Franchises: The study of media focused on building worlds for stories, and how that translates to franchises. Concentration on how franchises will use different stories in different mediums to promote the same world. Works include Harry Potter, the Matrix….

Oral Traditions and Fanfiction: Studying the similarities between retelling stories through oral traditions (fables, fairy tales) and modern fanfiction.

Fan Cultures: A study of modern fan cultures, from the early 20th Century to today.

Mediated Communication: A study of the growth and changes in communication from the letter to twitter and everything in between.

History of Sequential Art Until 1960s – a look at sequential art before the 19o0’s (Egyptian hieroglyphics, triptych paintings, Native American art, etc.) and an examination of the rise of the modern comic book

History of Sequential Art 1960s-Present – a continuation of an examination of the modern comic book in the United States and the rest of the world. Including a look at underground comics, comix, Japanese manga, Korean manhwa, etc…

_______________________fin.

Notes from me!

Ms. Jones is British, and named for characters in Torchwood and Blood Brothers (the play).

Madison University is named after the avenue I happen to be passing when I was trying to come up with a name. The pun just came to me.

I couldn’t figure out how to neatly fit it in, but you get a random day of vacation every week or two. The day of the week changes because no class should lose out more than any other class, but I beleive that a random day with nothing to do is really important when dealing with a lot of classes.

In the pamphlet, the “other” catagory includes comic books, video games, music and fandom-related stuff for now. I’ve found that the music industry is lucky to get one class, fandom is lucky to be acknowledged into other classes,  and comic books are lucky to be noticed at all. So I don’t know if they could support their own sections yet. I don’t think the Internet can either, but that’s going to be constantly growing department.

The formatting went way wonky on the Media Department pamphlet, sorry about that. Don’t know how to fix it.

Yes, English should be considered media. Just because it’s books doesn’t make it not a medium.

In case it isn’t obvious yet, I wrote this as a work of fiction. It started as a short story through the orientation speech, and grew a little. Did I spend too much time thinking about it? Maybe!