The dull buzz of the same lighting equipment has permeated our second-floor studios for over 50 years. For the first time this fall, that buzz will fade as these old lights are phased out and students begin using brand-new LED lighting kits in their productions.
News
Behind the Beat
As you inch closer to the classroom door, you can hear the distinct “bum bum be-dum, bum bum be-dum bum” from Rihanna’s “Disturbia” echoing through the hall. You round the corner to see the music video projected at the front of the room and students quietly bopping their heads along with the beat. Class is now in session for the new special topics course, “Music Video from MTV to TikTok.”
Unstoppable and Uncontainable
While every academic year brings new challenges, it also brings new proof of our department’s unrelenting momentum. Through the talent of our students, the commitment of our faculty and staff, and the support of our alumni, Communication Arts is making an impact more widely and across more boundaries than ever before.
Latine Comic Collective—A Positive Force for Belonging and Cultural Expression with Latine Middle & High School Newcomers
Art projects can be a transformative force for Latine youth, offering a vibrant avenue for self-expression and cultural pride.
Congratulations to These Expecting Parents
Good things come in threes, and that has certainly been true for our Communication Science area this year. Not one, not two, but three Communication Science graduate students are preparing to expand their families in the coming months as they welcome new children into their lives.
Looking Up That Lost Love
Ever wondered what an old flame is up to? For better or worse, an answer
might be just a click away
Gender and Migration in Media: From Research to Action
The 4W Gender and Migration in Media project hosts screenings, book discussions and invited talks centered around gendered representations and nuances around migration in media. The effort explores migration both within and across boundaries of all kinds – national, cultural, geographic and more – and studies the different ways stories of migrants and refugees are narrated and represented.
The 2025 TikTok Moment: Possibilities and Perils
TikTok is indeed everywhere— on our phones, in the news, even in our classrooms. Just the other day in my class on global digital cultures, an undergraduate student presented a case for TikTok as a “cultural infrastructure,” a day-to-day, routine app for the younger demographics that surround our scholarly endeavors.
With the Wisconsin Exchange, UW–Madison is strengthening a culture of civil dialogue across difference
At a university large enough to warrant its own zip code, how do you help an entire campus, full of people with different viewpoints and perspectives, learn to engage effectively across difference?
Chasing the Thrills: Students Explore Postproduction in a New Communication Arts Course
While many students may be thinking about scary thrills during Halloween week, students in our new postproduction class have been thinking about and creating those experiences all semester. Communication Arts instructor Craig Erpelding created the new capstone course to help students explore a variety of postproduction workflows as they re-edit a found footage horror film.