Christopher Newport University offers an abundance of interesting and challenging courses. As a junior, I have accomplished a lot in my classes in the past five semesters. I am a communication major and digital humanities minor. Communication has provided a wide variety of classes that involve philosophy, interpersonal, rhetoric, media, culture and overall criticism of these interests. Digital humanities is actually a very recent addition in the catalog of minors that incorporate communication classes, fine arts classes, computer science classes and overall digital humanities classes.
There are three points of interest in the digital humanities minor. At Christopher Newport, digital humanities is an interdisciplinary minor that teaches the skills and knowledge for careers that digital media and technology meet with humanities. Some examples of these careers can be education, library science, museum curation, nonprofits, political campaigns, graduate research, design, fine arts and music/film/theater/dance production along with fields like mass communication, journalism and marketing.The second pillar of the minor is to understand the concepts and vocabulary that are needed for ongoing digital conversations. Lastly, the third pillar is to provide the tools and experience to use various digital media applications, technological tools and coding basics that allow the student to analyze texts/works in the humanities.
All of this being said, the best class I have taken so far in my minor is Introduction to Digital Media. This class primarily has helped cultivate a very creative side of my academic career. The class focuses mainly on Adobe products, specifically Photoshop and the use and experimentation of the software. What I love most about the class is that not only do I enjoy learning the software but its something that I could legitimately use in a future job or even on its own as a source of income. The class overall is fast paced and certainly requires a high level of focus, but once I’ve been able to learn the basics of Photoshop, it has become a really fun process to create and re-create in new ways.
I really love the digital humanities minor because it is a minor that is looking toward the future. Our society, culture, businesses are all run by the use of digital media and humans. Learning so many different tools to keep up with what a fast paced technological future is one that I am very thankful Christopher Newport provided for me.
