ABSTRACT
How can university media educators better equip under-represented students in media programs to tell their own stories? Part of the barrier lies in undergraduate journalism and media production curricula, where the history and theory of media making are often taught separately from production courses. The privileging of mechanics over critical literacy is known to help perpetuate norms and practices that maintain the hegemony of corporate media representation. This chapter discusses efforts at California State University East Bay to break down the theory-practice divide in its Media Production curriculum, specifically to support its minoritized students. Two courses, in particular, use theoretical and historical perspectives on dominant and independent media to create a foundation for students to research and produce work by and for their own communities. The curriculum is inspired by students at East Bay, an under-resourced, majority-minority campus of primarily first-generation, immigrant, and historically underrepresented learners. Set in a framework of critical media literacy, the curriculum aims to support students learning to use media as a tool of counternarrative and self-representation to challenge dominant mainstream perspectives.
