Stop. Look around. Listen. Feel. What types of media are in front of you, around you, and beyond you? What role do they play in how you know yourself, express yourself, relate to other people, and make your way in the world? Where did these media come from and how do they even work?

If you鈥檙e curious about questions like these, then Media Studies is for you.

Here you鈥檒l discover that media shape your everyday life; how you think, feel, act, create, and even the communities you are a part of.

Imagine how disoriented you would be鈥攕patially, temporally, and socially鈥攊f you lost your mobile phone. Think about how much your experience of learning has been shaped听by听tablets and laptops, cloud services and screens, and older media like pencils and chalkboards. Or consider how your sense of belonging is affected by TV shows either portraying or neglecting to portray people like you.

If we don鈥檛 know what media are doing, then do we understand what we are doing?

Students and faculty in the Department of Media Studies explore how all types of media affect key elements of daily life including law, culture, and politics, and how media are affected by them in return. For us, media literacy is just the beginning. Together we recognize 鈥渢he media鈥� as consisting of a diverse array of content, technologies, institutions, and people, and as sources of both pleasure and power. Our mission is to empower you to become a more reflexive, effective, and creative inhabitant of our mediated world.

Degrees Offered:

BA: Media Studies

Minor: Media Studies

MA: Media and Public Engagement

PhD: Media Studies

Undergraduate Opportunities

Our Bachelor of Arts in Media Studies emphasizes the creative and analytical skills needed to make sense of current and future trends in media听and to gain a deep understanding of the history and development of various means and forms of communication.

Interdisciplinary experience
Explorations of media theory, history, criticism, practices, popular culture, technology and emerging cultures are enhanced by the access to all the departments within the College of Media, Communication and Information, giving you opportunities for practical training in media design, storytelling, digital art, information science, documentary filmmaking and journalism.

Practical training
You鈥檒l gain conceptual, technical听and practical skills in media analysis, production听and management, but you鈥檒l also听learn to think critically about the creation, distribution and reception of contemporary and emergent media cultures across a global context.听听

Learn more about:

听

Undergraduate Advising

BA Degree Requirements

Media Studies Minor

The minor in Media Studies (MDST) allows students to choose from among a wide array course offerings, which focuses on contemporary media topics in one of three recommended concentrations:

  • Media, Technology and Society
  • Global Media Industries and听Culture
  • Advocacy, Entrepreneurship and Social Change

听

Minor Requirements

Graduate Programs

In the Department of Media Studies, graduate students work with faculty to design a program of study that fits their individual interests by taking advantage of the expertise and intellectual opportunities offered within the department, CMCI and other academic programs on campus. Our faculty provide an environment in which graduate students听receive optimal opportunity for study, research, teaching and the production of creative work.

The department鈥檚 scholarly and teaching interests focus on the cultural, social, economic, political and discursive environments in which communication systems, industries, texts and audiences operate. We examine national, international听and global media institutions;听the role, development and evolution of communication and information technologies;听the political economy behind media content production;听the nature and effects of media representations听and the way media issues create publics and counterpublics. We investigate how various communities receive, interact with, interpret and produce media texts and address these interests from a variety of theoretical and methodological approaches.

The Department offers two main graduate tracks within Media Studies:

The MA in Media and Public Engagement (MAPE) is a 2-year immersion in the practice and theory of media advocacy. It offers critical study of the history, institutions, economics and social implications of the media, nationally and globally, combined with a practice-based media training geared toward civic engagement and community building. In addition to completing courses in media theory and other fields of interest, students will have the opportunity to create thoughtful and engaging projects using a variety of media practices including documentary film, multimedia websites, interactive video installations听and digital platforms.

In their two years in the program, MAPE students will collaborate with faculty, community leaders, nonprofit organizations and socially engaged corporations to devise innovative pathways to the study, commentary and presentation of social issues. They may also choose to focus on environmental issues and complete the Graduate Certificate in Environment, Policy and Society (EPS), which consists of 18 credit hours met by taking courses both inside and outside CMCI.

Learn more about:

The PhD in Media Studies is a distinct track within the umbrella PhD in Media Research and Practice (MDRP). Drawing largely from contemporary cultural and critical theory, the Media Studies PhD program focuses on interactions among the major components of modern communication 鈥� media institutions, their contents and messages, and their audiences or publics 鈥� as a process by which cultural meaning is generated. It examines that process on an interdisciplinary basis through social, economic, political, historical, legal/policy/regulatory and international perspectives, with a strong emphasis on issues involving new communication technology and policy.

Learn more about:

听

Graduate Student Help

MA Degree Requirements

PhD Degree Requirements

How to Apply

The MA in Media and Public Engagement