top navigation barMenu Item: Catalog Home
Menu Item: Academics
Menu Item: General Resources
Menu Item: Student Resources
Back to Top Link
[ online catalog | academics | contemporary arts | communications arts ]
Catalog 2004-2005
Communication Arts (BA)
School of Contemporary Arts
Contact - (201) 684-7368


Requirements of the Major

Career Paths 
Convener: Patricia Keeton
Advisors: Marta Bautis
Bonnie Blake
Regina Clark
Kelly Dolak
Renata Gangemi
James Hollenbach
Jonathan Lipkin
Edna Negron
Andre Perry
Ruma Sen
Fred Strype
Kathleen Sunshine

(disclaimer below)



About the Major

The Communication Arts Major prepares students for a richly interdisciplinary field that exists at the intersection of media and culture. One of the important newer disciplines to emerge in the 20th century, Communication Arts has its origins in speech, rhetoric, publishing and journalism, but has been greatly expanded by the technologies of photography, telegraphy, film, broadcasting, recording, television, cable, digital media and the Internet. The field also draws from the disciplines of history, psychology, sociology, business and environmental studies. It brings together the traditional disciplines as well as the newer informational media. The communication arts are also on the cutting edge of the rapid developments in new technologies, digital media and the Internet –the newest mass medium.

The Communication Arts Major reflects and supports the mission of the college by integrating global, multicultural, and diaspora perspectives into the curriculum; by providing interdisciplinarity and experiential learning; and by assuring that emerging multimedia, digital video, and computer technologies are a vital part of our curriculum.

With the goal of preparing students to meet the communication needs of an increasingly complex and interdependent global and technological world, the Communication Arts will introduce a revised curriculum for students entering the program in Fall 2002. A major renovation and expansion of facilities has been undertaken to integrate new digital technologies across the curriculum.

The Communication Arts Major is based on two important principles:

(1) that the core of the major includes both a strong liberal arts foundation and a deep understanding of digital theory and of the social and cultural impact of digital technologies in transforming the discipline of the Communication Arts; and

(2) that the major prepares students to bring their creative ideas to maturity. Graduates must demonstrate their ability to conceptualize and execute meaningful work, using such technological tools as video, multimedia, television, graphic design, journalism, radio, and writing. We recognize that in order to produce outstanding creative work, our students must be both grounded in the liberal arts and educated in the principles, aesthetics, techniques and tools of the discipline.

The Communication Arts Major is housed in recently renovated facilities that include computer labs for writing and digital imaging, a Final Cut Pro editing lab, a field production classroom, private editing suites, a TV studio, an audio studio, and radio studios. Students completing this program will receive a B.A. degree. A minor is not available


Ramapo College of New Jersey recognizes the value of publishing on the Internet and encourages the campus community to produce personal World Wide Web pages to enhance communications. The College does not preview, review, censor, or control the content of these pages in any way as a matter of course. Personal Web pages are those of the authors, and do not in any way constitute official Ramapo College of New Jersey content.

Arch IconLink to Feedback Page