About BTMM

Welcome to the Department of Broadcasting, Telecommunications and
Mass Media (BTMM) at Temple University. We are part of the School of Communications and Theater, located in Annenberg Hall on Temple's main Campus.

As the news, information and entertainment media industries rapidly evolve, it is an exciting time to study the production of media messages and products and their many roles in our lives.

The dynamic mix of BTMM courses prepares students for careers in
rapidly changing communications fields such as television and
radio, the recording industry, emergent media (online, mobile, games), organizational management, telecommunications, media analysis, research and consulting, and much more.

Our Mission

The mission of the Department of Broadcasting, Telecommunications and Mass Media is to prepare students to become responsible communicators as they create, critique and analyze media content designed for audiences in a global society.

The media content includes commercial and corporate media presentations in genres including information (news and documentary), music, comedy, sports, drama, and persuasion, and is distributed nationally and internationally via mass and personal electronic media including radio and television, mp3 and other audio recording media, the Internet, DVDs, and more.

The media institutions we train students for create (e.g., production studios), distribute (e.g., television and radio networks) and analyze (e.g., audience measurement companies) media products. BTMM students reflect on media content and institutions - think about them purposefully and critically - and analyze them systematically via formal research tools such as participant observation, interviews, surveys, experiments, and content analysis.

We prepare students to act responsibly and apply high ethical standards as they interact with the world both in careers in media
institutions and as citizens.

A secondary goal of the department is to have a positive impact on
current and future professional media creation and analysis. Our
students develop both the technical and critical skills to create high quality and meaningful media products, respond appropriately to ethically challenging dilemmas in the professional world, and to thoughtfully evaluate the media products and patterns they encounter as consumers and citizens.

Our Curriculum

(For 2011-2012 students following new curriculum)

Undergraduate Bulletin (March, 2011)

The Department of Broadcasting, Telecommunications and Mass Media expands students' knowledge and skills to create, evaluate, and manage media content and organizations. With the urban and global communities as their living laboratories, students draw on their creativity, entrepreneurship, intellectual curiosity and analytical abilities to navigate digital media in our global society.

Theory and practice are integrated into all areas of study in the major. BTMM students learn how to produce, evaluate and manage media content for traditional and emerging media in a variety of genres, including information (news and documentary), music, comedy, sports, drama, and commercial and noncommercial persuasion campaigns. They study institutions that create, distribute and investigate media products (e.g., production studios, television and radio networks, and audience measurement companies) and learn how to create and operate successful media businesses. BTMM students learn to think purposefully and critically about media, and examine media roles in history, culture and society from many perspectives. They also learn how to act ethically as they interact with the world both in careers in media institutions and as media consuming and producing citizens.

The BTMM curriculum features Professional Options in four areas:

Media Production Professional Option: This option introduces students to conceptual and technical tools employed to create media content for the digital world. Students who study in this option develop strong professional skills as well as critical and analytical abilities that enable them to evaluate content for various media. They seek career opportunities as producers, writers, videographers, editors, recording engineers, web site designers and talent in traditional and emerging media.

Media Business & Entrepreneurship Professional Option: The practical and ethical ways to start, operate or participate in an enterprise that creates, produces, and/or distributes media content. Students who follow this option seek career opportunities as media entrepreneurs, media production free-lancers, owners/ operators of production companies or recording studios, web site developers, or founders/ owners of a station, channel or network.

Media Analysis Professional Option: Critical understanding of the roles of media in contemporary life, including media technology as a cultural force; the nature of media institutions, audiences, and texts; and the media as a source of shared social identities. Students who select this option are prepared for careers as media consultants, editorial or technical writers, community activists, corporate communication producers and market research analysts.

Emergent Media Professional Option: Focuses on critical analysis and production in new digital media, specifically in mobile media, the web, and video games. Students who study this option develop an understanding of the global nature of the new digital media environment and its business practices, and production processes. Students follow this option will be prepared for careers as digital media consultants, web designers, and marketing professionals in the converged media environment.

Media Production Professional Option

Media Production Advising Sheet

Adviser for Video: Matt Fine

Adviser for Audio & Recording Industry: Jack Klotz

The courses in Media Production provide students with the conceptual and technical tools to create media content in a variety of formats and genres. The emphasis is on the production of content for large, diverse populations. Students who study in this area develop strong professional skills as well as critical and analytical abilities that will enable them to evaluate content for television, radio, mobile devices, games and other digital media.

Television and Radio Production

Our television production courses offer access to HD cameras, three
television studios, and a digital video editing center that features Avid and Final Cut Pro work stations. BTMM students produce content designed for broadcast, cable, and emerging media. Specific projects vary each semester and include music video, documentary, sports, and comedy. Check out Temple Smash.

TUTV, Temple’s new digital cable station has begun broadcasting to the Philadelphia area on the Comcast cable system and to the world online. TUTV will feature programming from the School of Communications and Theater (SCT) and other schools and colleges within Temple University, as well as community and professional broadcast partners. Learn more.

The Television Practicum offers students the opportunity to write, produce and perform for Temple Update. The program gives Temple students the opportunity to gain news gathering experience during their college years. In addition to Philadelphia and other major media markets, the alumni of Temple Update are working all across the United States. Anchorage, Cincinnati, Tampa, Nashville, Richmond and an army base in Guam are just some of the places former Updaters now call home. Story: Aspiring journalists become 6abc reporters for a day

In addition to the studios and labs in Annenberg Hall, the Tech Center offers BTMM students all day and evening access to recording booths, studios and up to date specialty labs for multimedia production, green screen effects, teleconferencing, audio editing with Pro Tools and video editing with Avid and Final Cut Pro.

Students who take these courses are prepared for careers as producer, writer, videographer, and talent in traditional and emerging media.

WHIP, Temple's student-run radio station, is about to step into the national spotlight, according to Hillel Hoffman of University Communications. According to the publication, Clear Channel Media and Entertainment has announced that WHIP will be one of 14 college radio stations in the nation selected to pilot a new college radio category on iHeartRadio, the media giant's free, industry-leading digital radio service. The service comes as a free download for users of PCs, smartphones, tablets and connected car stereos. WHIP, the only college station in the region among the 14 selected, is expected to make its iHeartRadio debut in late February, 2012. More

Recording Industry

Recording Industry courses emphasize both production skills and business acumen, providing a world-class education in music production techniques and technology as well as management and marketing. Students learn from active industry professionals including a Grammy® winning producer, and a Grammy® winning engineer. The experience can culminate in an internship and/or work on Bell Tower Music, the school’s record label. Bell Tower is built around an environment intended to help foster the kind of creative risk-taking that is critical to developing the new business models and exciting, new music that is needed to reinvigorate the industry.

Students who take these courses are prepared for careers as producer, engineer, manager, agent, A&R representative, marketer, or entrepreneur.

In March of 2012, Associate Professor Jack Klotz was deeply involved in the composition and production of a song in support of The TU Japan Relief Fund, which was established to help those most impacted by the devastation of the March, 2011 earthquake and tsunami including Japanese students studying at Temple campuses and students, staff, faculty and their families in Japan experiencing hardship such as being displaced from housing or experiencing food, health and financial challenges.

For more on the project see the Temple Press interview: http://news.temple.edu/news/2012-03-08/japan-tsunami-anniversary-song-offers-message-hope?utm_source=templetoday&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=songofhope
CBS-3 Report: http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2012/03/09/temple-students-remember-disaster-in-japan-with-commemorative-song/

There is an accompanying video co-created by SCT staffer Naoko Masuda: http://vimeo.com/38224848

Media Business & Entrepreneurship Professional Option

Media Business & Entrepreneurship Advising Sheet

Adviser: Bill Mooney

The courses in the Media Business & Entrepreneurship Professional Option concern the practical and ethical ways to start, operate or participate in an enterprise that concerns itself with the creation, production, and/or distribution of media content.

Students who take these courses are prepared for careers as media
production free-lancers, new media entrepreneurs, production company
owners and operators, station owners and operators, and channel owners and operators.

Media Analysis Professional Option

Media Analysis Advising Sheet

Adviser: Dr. Barry Vacker

The courses in Media Analysis provide students with a critical understanding of the role of media in contemporary culture, including media technology as a cultural force, the nature of media institutions, the factors that influence audiences, the comprehension of mediated texts, and the media as a source of shared social identities.

Students who take these courses are prepared for careers as media consultant in politics, education, government, and the non-profit sector; editorial or technical writer; professor; fund raiser in government, non-profit and educational sectors; media activist; media specialist, speech writer, or community activist in government; consumer affairs advocate; corporate communication producer; market research analyst; media sales person; media literacy advocate.