Media study is centered on composing and understanding the codes of three image-making technologies--film, video, and computer. It locates these activities within the context of the changing materials, processes, and systems of these technologies; within contemporary developments in their creative and critical practices; and within the evolution of human culture and its developing codes of communication (speech, writing, print). The following characteristics distinguish a curriculum in media study from others in the field: (1) it draws upon the insight of Jerome S. Bruner that there should be a balance between learning by enactment and learning by symbolization; (2) its focus on image-making codes means that the approach to image constructs is somewhat akin to that of linguistics to languages; (3) it situates itself on the cutting edge of contemporary development in creative and critical practice; (4) it introduces the study of the interactions between consciousness, the codes, and the extensions of their technologies into cultural forms and their historical transformations; (5) it involves the study of culture as an aesthetic form; (6) it is resolutely international in content; and (7) it prepares students to engage in resolving environmental, sociobiological, and economic issues in addition to the cultural ones. (HTH)