Cerritos College’s newest degree in Film, Television, and Electronic Media will debut in the Fall 2020 semester, preparing students in various elements of multimedia, including social media.
“The new degree in film, television, and electronic media gives Cerritos College students an amazing opportunity to learn about the creative industries from our talented faculty,” Dr. Gary Pritchard, Dean of Fine Arts and Communications, said.
The degree was approved by the state in February and was publicly announced in a press release on May 11.
The release states, “the new program will prepare students with hands-on skills to produce digital video, podcasts, and webcasts in the era of YouTube, TikTok and other emerging platforms, in addition to film productions, live television, radio programming, and all that pertains to audio and visual content.”
The new Associate in Science for Transfer (AS-T) degree requires 18 units in major courses and 60 transferable units in general education courses and electives.
Department chair of Mass Communications Christian Brown stated he hopes students will apply, as it is an AS-T guarantees the student admission to the California State University system.
“All the evidence shows it’s a popular degree statewide,” Brown said.
He explained that there are many other schools that offer the degree, such as City College of San Francisco, so he wanted to take charge of building the program at Cerritos College.
“Smartphones have re-wired our world,” Brown said. “In Los Angeles County, the epicenter of media industries and technology, we owe it to our students to offer an academic program that trains a new generation of storytellers who will one day produce high-quality entertainment, news and social content on apps and digital-only platforms.”
The degree will offer students a diverse variety of courses, such as film production, history of mass media, and video/audio broadcasting.
With these courses, Brown is confident the students will know how to produce film and TV segments, write and record audio pieces.
His long term goal is that a new professor will come in to help oversee the degree and perhaps create a separate weekly show that could potentially collaborate with the Talon Marks newspaper.
“So it can be like one big mass media thing. We have the paper, website, podcast, and some type of show,” Brown added, explaining the collaboration will bring all different majors together.
For those interested in the degree, please contact Christian Brown at cbrown@cerritos.edu.
Students may also speak with a Cerritos College counselor for more information.
