School of Communication at Northwestern University :: Radio/Television/Film

The Department of Radio/Television/Film offers undergraduate and graduate education in the history, theory, and production of media. Our educational orientation is broad-based and interdisciplinary. We offer a range of perspectives on media forms from cinema to broadcast television to alternative media to emerging technologies. We emphasize that media are social and cultural practices in dialogue with the broader contexts of the humanities.

The Screen Cultures Ph.D. Program continues Northwestern's historical leadership in the cultural and critical analysis of film, television, and emerging media by integrating interdisciplinary opportunities both within the School of Communications and across the University. A humanities-based program grounded in critical and cultural theory, cultural history, and media poetics, Screen Cultures conducts and mentors research in the history and critical analysis of media texts, technologies, and cultures.

For more information on graduate study in the history and critical analysis of film, television, and emerging media, please visit the Screen Cultures home page.

RTVF/The School of Communication starts a new Masters of Fine Art in Writing for the Screen and Stage, an interdisciplinary program that provides a rare opportunity for writers to work in screen, stage, television and experimental mediums. The school offers scholarships, production opportunities and networking for the professional writer. Click here for details.

Our department is dedicated to integrating theory and practice, to creating intersections with other disciplines, and to fostering cutting-edge media production. We value originality, critical analysis, creativity, and vision, in both scholarly research and creative work. Our goal is to educate students and citizens to critically interpret contemporary media, envision alternative structures in theory and in practice, and reinvent the media of the future.

Working within a full gamut of styles and genres in a wide range of media, including digital video and computer-generated images, students in the department have produced narrativefiction, documentaries, computer animation, experimental work, interactive CD-ROMs, educational programs, commercials, video installations, and Internet sites. These works have received awards and won critical acclaim at festivals and in other media venues in the United States and abroad.

Chicago is rich in resources for viewing and research. The Museum of Broadcast Communications houses early television and radio materials; the Video Data Bank at the School of the Art Institute collects and works with experimental video production and art forms; and the Gene Siskel Film Center of the School of the Art Institute presents a diverse and challenging film series.


Last Sentence (Andy Graydon, MFA 2000		Softimage photo by Jim Ziv		Meshes of the Afternoon (Maya Deren).		Fred Ott's Sneeze (Thomas Edison);

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