Chair's Welcome

Greetings folks,

And many thanks for expressing interest in Hofstra University.

The Department of Radio, Television, Film (RTVF) is one of the fastest-growing on the Hofstra University campus, featuring an award-winning, diverse and experienced faculty committed to preparing students for the rapidly-changing world of mass communication in the 21st Century. Incorporating the latest media production technology within a rigorous liberal arts framework designed to intellectually challenge students our academic programs provide you with countless opportunities to express yourself creatively and responsibly through film, television, radio, and online media.

Undergraduate students can pursue a Bachelor of Arts degree (BA) in our three primary areas: Audio/Radio, Video/Television, or Film Studies and Production. We also offer a Bachelor of Science degree (BS) in Video/Television, Video/Television and Film, or Video/Television and Business.

At the graduate level, the RTVF Department offers a comprehensive, one-of-a-kind program in the greater New York metropolitan area: a Master of Fine Arts degree (MFA) in Documentary Studies and Production that includes radio, television and film in its curriculum. Combining theory and history with a wide selection of production courses that progressively lead towards the completion of a master’s thesis documentary film, the MFA program reflects the important balance between research and critical inquiry on the one hand, and the development of the necessary technical skills required to work in the industry on the other. The MFA program can be taken either full time or part time.

In all our academic programs, we give considerable attention to the art of storytelling and the development of powerful, relevant and original content, while at the same time, emphasizing the importance of understanding the long historical traditions of each medium, and the theoretical frames in which they function. Depending on your major area of study within the department, you will become immersed in a broad array of creative processes, including single and multi-camera productions, post-production using advanced digital media software, such as Avid, Final Cut Pro and Pro Tools, cinematography, the art of film editing, graphic design, sound design, and producing, directing, and writing for radio, television, film, and online media. This expansive level of production work is faithfully grounded in an ongoing emphasis on media aesthetics, media history, and media theory, sustained by the faculty’s commitment to the promotion of civic engagement in the students.

Our faculty includes a multi-Emmy Award winning television director, the FM radio personality with the record for the most years broadcasting on the same station in the New York market, groundbreaking documentary and feature filmmakers and television producers whose diverse body of work has been broadcast and screened nationally and internationally, two Fulbright Scholars, veteran broadcast journalists, as well as several published authors. Their unique experiences are shared daily with students in small and mid-sized classes, allowing for a unique interaction that results in a mentoring process that is nourished throughout the four-year college experience.  

All of this academic rigor is further complemented by a wide range of curricular and extra-curricular “real-world” production experiences, exemplified most prominently by our award-winning, student-run, 24-hour, community-licensed radio station WRHU Radio Hofstra University, which broadcasts to the Nassau-Suffolk-Queens listening area at 88.7 FM, and is celebrating its 50th Anniversary in 2009. (WRHU can be streamed worldwide online at www.wrhu.org).

There is also HTV and htvinteractive, the Hofstra Film Club (HFC), Hofstra Entertainment Access Television (HEAT Network), and many other student-run clubs and organizations. Student productions and events include the annual RTVF Student Film Showcase, Live from Studio A (a program featuring local music talent – simulcast on TV, radio, and online), FYI (For Your Island – a community television magazine program), the Community Radio Forum (live broadcasts featuring debates about current issues), and Midday Mania (the official opening of the Hofstra Pride Basketball season).

Furthermore, we encourage you to take advantage of the extensive internship opportunities that are available to all students for credit, beginning in their third year. Given our close proximity to the number one media market in the country - New York City is only a 45-minute train ride away – each semester we place dozens of students into some of the most important media outlets in the world. While the list of internship sites available is too large to present here, some examples include MTV, "Saturday Night Live" (NBC), "The Daily Show” (Comedy Central), "All My Children" (ABC), MSG, Fox News, Sony/BMG, Warner Bros., New Line Cinema, Panavision, Sesame Workshop, WCBS Newsradio 880, Pacifica Radio, NPR, Sirius/XM Satellite Radio, ABC Sports Radio, Atlantic Records, WPLJ 95.5, and ESPN.

There are countless successful Hofstra University alumni who, over the years, have benefited from our programs. They are currently working on many levels in the dynamic worlds of radio, television, film, journalism and online media industries, both in the commercial and not-for-profit sectors. These individuals are not only playing a direct role in the kinds of stories and ideas that are constantly defining our culture and our world at a crucial time in history, but they are also making a concrete difference in the complex processes of communication that ultimately shape our society and our democracy.

We enthusiastically welcome the responsibility, and the privilege, of working with you in this challenging endeavor in the very near future.

With warm regards,

Mario A. Murillo, MA, BA, Associate Professor
Chairperson, Department of Radio, Television, Film (RTVF)
School of Communication, Hofstra University