EnterTech: Entertainment and Technology
EnterTech, Entertainment and Technology, is a new curricular area within Film and Media Studies that explores the close relationship between the entertainment and technology industries. EnterTech grew out of a series of conversations and meetings with Gene Schwam of Hanson and Schwam Public Relations in Los Angeles. Mr. Schwam, a member of the professional advisory board of the Center for Film and Media Research and his committee of top Hollywood entertainment industry professionals advise us on the development of the curriculum and volunteer their time to come to ASU to participate in the classes, enabling students to hear first hand the needs of the industry and to meet key figures who can help them plan their careers.
EnterTech addresses a phenomenon commonly referred to as convergence, a term indicating that the two powerful and once separate industries of entertainment and technology are rapidly merging and coming together, each interdependent upon the other for its future direction and growth. People in both industries and academia have of course long known this. But in the professional arena the relationship has been casual and haphazard at best, frequently bordering on chaos with, for example, the entertainment industry quickly reacting to new technologies by scrambling to fill the demand for new programming for which they have been unprepared. People working in the two industries do not speak the same language and often think and speak of each other in simplistic, outmoded terms such as entertainment being “content” and technology being the “delivery system.” In reality, the relationship between the two is much more complex.
The academic response has been similar to the industry response. Universities have offered scattered courses on convergence but none have developed a focused undergraduate or graduate curriculum designed to create leaders for the 21st century who understand both technology and entertainment well enough to be comfortable and well-informed in both worlds, capable of foreseeing likely developments in a manner helpful to both entertainment and technology companies. EnterTech will produce those leaders.
The EnterTech curriculum in development this year includes an undergraduate certificate in Entertainment and Technology and a professional master’s degree in Entertainment and Technology. The first course Entertainment and Technology (FMS 494/ENG598) is being taught Fall 06 (See course description). The certificate, consisting of 18 credits, will be structured around a three-course sequence: Entertainment and Technology, The Science of Entertainment, and Technological Evolution and the Future of Entertainment. These courses will also have a graduate level sequence, which will become the foundation of the proposed professional Master of Entertainment and Technology degree (MET). We anticipate hiring two new faculty members to teach in these areas: one in new media and technology and one a specialist in the study of the entertainment industry. For more information on the certificate please contact the Film and Media Studies undergraduate advisor Laura Gonzales-Macias (lauragm@asu.edu) and for information on the master’s degree please contact the Film and Media Studies Associate Director, Dr. Aaron Baker (aaron.baker@asu.edu).