B.S. in Digital Media Studies
Follow your passion to a successful career in digital design. Our bachelor’s degree in digital media studies will help you get there. With an interdisciplinary approach, we integrate creative arts with technical fields through coursework from a variety of colleges and departments, including Fine Arts, Computer Science, Communications, English and Business. As a digital media studies major, you’ll develop technical skills in web development, multimedia and interactive design, game design, application design, electronic business and marketing, digital graphics and e-marketing. You’ll also develop a strong commitment to artistic quality and critical thinking for the ability to design your own applications, video games, animations, short films and more. Choose from concentrations in Multimedia Production and Video Game Design.
Many other universities with schools for film, game design and other fields in digital media separate their creative and technical disciplines, so a student must choose one field or the other. Fields like video game design and interaction design require both technical and aesthetic skills. At Tarleton, we offer a variety of opportunities to develop both in the same undergraduate degree program.
What is Digital Media Studies?
Digital media studies explores new and emerging digital communication trends and technologies, including computer software and applications, and teaches you how to use these tools to meet any creative challenge you encounter.
Texas has played a major role in the computer and video game industry since the 1980s. The largest hub for production in the United States outside of California, Texas is home to more than 130 animation, postproduction and visual effects companies that provide support and talent to the local and worldwide film, advertising, education and video game industries.
We implement new courses each year to keep up with the growing and changing industry and provide training in marketable job skills needed to be active and productive in today’s society.
What Can You Do With Your Bachelor’s Degree in Digital Media Studies?
Opportunities for digital media studies majors are available in a wide variety of industries and businesses, including marketing, advertising, entertainment, museum and library science, journalism and more. Their jobs are just as diverse, such as:
- Graphic Artist
- Film and Animation Producer
- Web Developer or Designer
- Video Game Designer
- Interaction Designer
- Multimedia Artist
Estimated Completion
120 Credit Hours (4 years)
Application Process
Cost
Locations Available
College
Our graduates have designed and sold their own video games, worked at creative design agencies and gone on to graduate programs to earn master’s degrees. You may be interested in Tarleton’s MA in English or MA in Communication Studies, as well as graduate schools across the country for film, game design, fine arts, studio art, digital humanities, film production and documentary studies.
How Much Do Digital Media Studies Graduates Make?
Multimedia artists and animators, which include digital media designers, earned a median annual salary of over $75,000 in 2019, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Why Major in Digital Media Studies?
Our small class sizes create an intimate, student-focused learning environment that fosters critical thinking, creativity and technological expertise.
Collaboration is a hallmark of any media profession, and our digital media studies degree program requires undergraduate students to work collaboratively. We partner with various other Tarleton departments and offices, as well as city and community projects around the Cross Timbers area, to create opportunities for undergraduate students to learn and research, as well as showcase their work.
In recent years, digital media studies majors have gained hands-on, real-world experience in graphic design, animation, game design, social media management and public relations while interning with Ubisoft Games, the Fort Worth Community Arts Center, Barefoot Marketing, Envision Graphic Design, Tarleton and more.
You'll have opportunities to present your work across campus, in professional seminars and exhibitions, and at conferences around the Dallas/Fort Worth region. For example, our undergraduate students attend and participate in conferences such as the Society for Photographic Education, South by Southwest and PAX video game conference and have been featured in juried exhibitions across Texas.
Gain a deeper understanding of your own values in relation to others from a culturally diverse and global perspective. In recent years, the digital media studies bachelor's degree program has sponsored study abroad trips in digital photography courses to South Africa and Iceland. Our undergraduate students also take field trips to various conferences, events and exhibitions in destinations such as New York City.
We are practicing artists, filmmakers and designers who are active in the digital media industry. We participate in international and national film festivals, conferences and exhibitions. Our research interests include virtual environments, 3-D modeling, digital imaging, stop-motion filmmaking, art installations and physical computing.
With some of the lowest tuition rates of any four-year school in Dallas or Fort Worth, Tarleton offers a variety of ways to make college even more affordable. For example, our department offers numerous undergraduate student scholarships for digital media studies majors, such as the Willie and Eve Tate Family Fine Arts Scholarship, Joe and Theresa Long Department of Fine Arts Scholarship, Dick Smith College of Liberal and Fine Arts Scholarship and the Dr. Marie Meisel Cedars Scholarship. You may also qualify and apply for federal financial aid.
What Classes Will You Take as a Digital Media Studies Major?
The bachelor’s degree program in digital media studies is designed to offer many opportunities for theory application, hands-on learning and student involvement through lecture and seminar projects, studio art, class critiques and individual presentations. The curriculum includes diverse art, communication, computer science, and English courses to provide you with a vast set of creative and technical skills that will give you an upper hand in the current job market.
Explore topics such as multimedia and web design, film and video production, special effects and compositing, 3-D rendering and lighting, object-oriented programming, 2-D animation with digital software, programming and more.
View all required classes for the digital media studies bachelor’s degree.
Accreditations
How Do You Get Started on Your Bachelor’s Degree in Digital Media Studies?
Take the next step toward earning your bachelor’s degree in digital media studies. We have the resources to help you get started.
Facilities and Features
Undergraduate students showcase their work through the annual competitive student media festival, at our annual Juried Student Exhibition in the Clyde H Wells Gallery and with various exhibits organized by our student clubs. We also have an Artist in Residency program that brings working artists to campus to work with students on a special gallery exhibition.
We have a new Fabrication Lab with 2-D and 3-D digital printing devices, laser cutter, CNC router and vinyl cutter. We have one of DFW’s only Vicon Motion Capture Labs for animation and video game design, as well as Mac and PC labs with the latest design and 3-D modeling software and digital printing and scanning equipment.
Student clubs and organizations offer opportunities for digital media studies majors to socialize, get creative and attend professional events. Join the Tarleton Art Society, Game Club, Photo Club, Film Club and Anime Club. Many of our undergraduate students also attend conferences such as the PAX Conference for gaming and the Society for Photographic Education South Central Conference.
What Bachelor’s Degrees are Related to Digital Media Studies?
- BFA in Art
- BS in Communication Studies
- BS in Computer Science
- BS in Computer Information Systems
- BA in English