COMS 226: Digital Imaging
Credit Hours: (3)
Instructional Method: Four hours lecture and laboratory
Note(s): L (Applied Learning) Area
Instruction in the technology of digital imaging and photojournalism. Practice in the creation, editing and processing of digital images for use in various media with some emphasis on the World Wide Web. Visual communication theories and history of photography are also covered.
Detailed Description of Content of Course
Electronic imaging introduces the students to the creation and manipulation of visual images in the electronic media. These images include static pictures, static and partial-motion graphics, and full-motion animated graphics and videos. Students are trained in advanced drawing programs, electronic photography, scanning operations and the capturing of moving video images to computer programs. Students use this training to create animated graphics for broadcasting as well as moving and static combinations of images and words for hybrid electronic newspapers with text and full motion videos.
The course will survey: the convergence of broadcast and print communications technologies; legal and ethical issues in editing and publishing images (including areas of libel, privacy, copyright, ethics and taste); editing for photojournalism; basic computer operations; scanning and related photo editing operations on computers; information graphics and visual presentation of statistical information; types of computer programs including paint, vector based drawing, three-dimensional modeling, animation, video capture, "hyper" media and other programs.
Detailed Description of Conduct of Course
Lectures will focus on legal, aesthetic and theoretical issues while laboratory time will be spent on exercises. Laboratory instruction will begin with a demonstration of a program or technique using an overhead projection of a computer screen. Students will work alone and in groups using computers and related equipment to create graphics for an electronic student newspaper or student broadcasting programs. Graphic designers from local publishing and broadcasting businesses may be invited to speak to the class.
Goals and Objectives of the Course
Students who successfully complete this course will have acquired skills to prepare them for desktop publishing, electronic publishing or broadcast graphics work. They will also have learned photojournalism from a critical standpoint and acquire the judgment necessary to serve as a photo editor and the aesthetic sense needed for visual editing. They will also have a good understanding of the legal and ethical rights and responsibilities of the mass media in dealing with photographs and graphic images.
Assessment Measures
Despite the novel content of the course, the assessment measures proposed are traditional: assigned projects, mid-term and final examinations, quizzes on readings, and class participation.
REVIEW AND APPROVAL
DATE ACTION APPROVED BY
September 30, 2004 Prereqs dropped Joe Flickinger, Chair
Revised June, 2023