IMPORTANT: DIGI CLASSES ARE NOW MEDI
As of May 2025 all courses that formerly had the prefix DIGI have been renamed MEDI. The timetable has been updated to reflect this, but if you have inadvertently enrolled in Fall or Spring 2025 DIGI classes you may receive a message saying you have been unenrolled or that the course is ending. The new "MEDI" courses are identical to the previous "DIGI" courses, it is a course-code change only.
To remedy this, look for the same number with the prefix MEDI and enroll in it instead. The VIU calendar online (and this website) are in the process of being overhauled to reflect the new names and reduced requirements for our Major in Digital Media Studies and Minor in Media Studies, the two degrees this department offers.
Anyone who declared a Minor in Digital Media will now receive a Minor in Media Studies. All previous credits will count toward this degree.
For more information, please contact the Chair of the department, Joy Gugeler, at joy.gugeler@viu.ca
Welcome to Media Studies at VIU
Media Studies teaches students hands-on media-making skills for video, audio, and Web as well as critical theory and analysis to understand the media context they are entering and what their media will mean within it. As prosumers -- both producers and consumers of media --we are fascinated by story and have our own to tell. This requires thoughtful research, writing, design, multimedia production, and distribution.
Media Studies at VIU balances a critical analysis of past, present, and future media formats with the technical, creative, and professional skills needed for today's evolving media industries. The 4-year degree puts equal emphasis on understanding how media makes meaning and how you can make media that is meaningful to you and your audience across platforms: from film and video to music and audio for radio, podcast, or Web or games. Our experiences of these media in our homes and businesses equip us to design media that engages, empowers, disrupts, and informs.
Our degree stresses both a critical understanding of the economic, social, historical, and contextual landscape in which media is operating and the hard skills required for hands-on careers and entrepreneurism in the field. These components are equally essential and mutually reinforcing.