Integrating Service Learning and Media Production

Abstract

Few media production courses look beyond the technical, aesthetic, and historical elements of the medium and genre at hand to consider the cultural implications of student filmmakers' work. This is an account of a new undergraduate seminar at Wake Forest University that integrates service learning and documentary filmmaking and offers an innovative model for teaching students production practices at the same time they are putting into practice theories about meaningful service to humanity. The authors explore the strengths and weaknesses of the seminar in its first offering and present a case study of the course.