Communication, Culture and Media MS

Major: Communication, Culture and Media
Degrees Awarded: Master of Science (MS) 
Calendar Type: Quarter
Minimum Required Credits: 45.0 
Co-op Option: None
Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP) code: 09.0102
Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) code: 25-1122

About the Program

The master’s program (MS) in Communication, Culture and Media is a great choice for academically oriented students who wish to learn the basics of research and theory in communication and media studies, possibly to test the waters for further study, or to explore a personal fascination with mass media, mediated communication, cultural studies, social change, and media. The program also encourages interdisciplinary approaches to the study of communication and media through faculty strengths in anthropology, communication, linguistics, and sociology.

The MS degree requires 45.0 credits of graduate-level coursework and the review by two faculty members of a major research or critical paper that has come out of the student’s work while in the program.

Depending on how many courses are taken each year, the program can be completed part time in two to five years. Full time completion takes five terms, or just under a year and a half.

Additional Information

For more information, please visit the Communication, Culture and Media  web page.

Admission Requirements

Applicants to the MS program will be evaluated based on:

  • A 1,000 word statement of purpose
  • Two letters of recommendation
  • Transcripts of all college-level coursework
  • GRE scores are recommended (especially for students whose GPAs are below 3.2)
  • Resume
  • For international applicants where English is not the official language, a TOEFL score of 100 (iBT) or equivalent score the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) minimum Overall Band Score: 7.0

Additional Information

For more information on how to apply, visit the Drexel University Requirements for Admissions page.

Degree Requirements (MS)

Core Requirements
COM 610Theories of Communication and Persuasion3.0
CCM 704Research Methods in Communication, Culture and Media3.0
Required Electives. Choose three of the following:9.0
Mass Communication and American Social Thought
Political Communication
Consumer Culture
Digital Subjectivities
Political Economy of Media
The Body Digital: Biopolitics and Media
Additional Electives *
Three courses from the CCM rubric at 500 level or above9.0
Free Electives **
Seven Additional Graduate Level Electives21.0
Total Credits45.0
*

There are several possible electives in CCM, including special seminars at the 800 level.

**

Any appropriate graduate course offered in the University can serve as an elective if the student has sufficient background to take the course. Suggested courses for free electives might also include: CCM, COM, STS, PLCY, AADM, TVMN, and ENVP.

Sample Plan of Study (MS)

First Year
FallCreditsWinterCreditsSpringCreditsSummerCredits
CCM 7043.0COM 6103.0CCM 7403.0VACATION
CCM 7453.0CCM 7503.0Graduate Level Electives3.0 
CCM Graduate Level Elective3.0Graduate Level Elective3.0CCM Graduate Level Elective3.0 
 9 9 9 0
Second Year
FallCreditsWinterCredits  
Graduate Level Electives6.0Graduate Level Electives9.0  
CCM Graduate Level Elective3.0   
 9 9  
Total Credits 45

Program Level Outcomes

  • Knowledge of how graduate-level research in Communication, Culture and Media is carried out.
  • Knowledge and skills to critically assess a research project in Communication, Culture and Media, and the ability to ask questions that go beyond the work's stated conclusions.
  • Graduate level understanding of theories to explain and define issues in social media, mass media, convergence, and agency and social change that pertain to communication, culture and media.
  • Demonstrated understanding at the graduate level of how local and global culture affects, shapes, and alters individuals and societies.
  • Knowledge and skills to demonstrate their own interest in and capability of pursuing doctoral level study in Communication, Media Studies or other Social Science.

Communication, Culture and Media Faculty

Ronald Bishop, III, PhD (Temple University). Professor. Investigative reporting, sports journalism, journalism history, journalism sourcing patterns, textual narrative and ideological analysis, cultural history of fame.
Mary Ebeling, PhD (University of Surrey). Professor. Science and technology studies; emerging technologies and biocapital; media and democratic cultures; radical social movements; sociology of markets; political sociology; and ethnographic methodologies.
Ernest A. Hakanen, PhD (Temple University) Director, Graduate Programs in Communication, Culture & Media. Professor. Telecommunications policy, adolescent media use, communication theory and history, global media, and semiotics.
Nahyun Kim, PhD (Penn State University). Tenure Track Assistant Professor. Strategic communication, organizational communication, political consumerism, quantitative methods (experiments, survey, content analysis, computational text analysis).
Emmanuel F. Koku, PhD (University of Toronto). Associate Professor. Social network analysis; qualitative/quantitative research; medical sociology; social epidemiology; social demography; sociology of development; communication and information technology; community and urban sociology.
Hyunmin Lee, PhD (University of Missouri) Director, Undergraduate Programs in Communication. Associate Professor. Social media strategies for relationship and reputation management in public relations; media messages of public health issues and its psychological and behavioral effects on the public.
Brent Luvaas, PhD (UCLA). Professor. Visual anthropology; photography; social media; digital culture; urban futures; United States and Southeast Asia.
Douglas V. Porpora, PhD (Temple University). Professor. War, genocide, torture, and human rights; macro-moral reasoning in public sphere debate; contemporary social theory moral and political communication; religion.
Rachel R. Reynolds, PhD (University of Illinois). Associate Professor. Sociolinguistics, ethnography of communication and discourse analysis; violence against women in mass media; political economy of migration; semiotics including the textual, the visual and multimodal.
Wesley Shumar, PhD (University of Pennsylvania). Professor. Digital media and learning; culture of higher education; entrepreneurship education; craft culture; semiotic of consumer culture.
Hilde Van den Bulck, PhD (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven) Department Head of Communication. Professor. Political economy of media structures; media policies for digitized media ecologies; stakeholders and coalitions in media policies; digitization; convergence and legacy media; public (service) media; celebrity culture and industry; fandom and anti-fandom.
Asta Zelenkauskaite, PhD (Indiana University). Associate Professor. Social media; user-generated content; computer-mediated communication; interactivity; active audience analysis; mobile communication; gender and online identity; prosumer culture; internet of things; quantitative/qualitative research.