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
  • A GPA of 3.2 or higher is recommended
  • 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)

Plan of Study Grid
First Year
FallCredits
CCM 704 Research Methods in Communication, Culture and Media 3.0
CCM 745 Digital Subjectivities 3.0
CCM Graduate Level Elective 3.0
 Credits9
Winter
COM 610 Theories of Communication and Persuasion 3.0
CCM 750 Political Economy of Media 3.0
Graduate Level Elective 3.0
 Credits9
Spring
CCM 740 Consumer Culture 3.0
Graduate Level Electives 3.0
CCM Graduate Level Elective 3.0
 Credits9
Summer
VACATION  
 Credits0
Second Year
Fall
Graduate Level Electives 6.0
CCM Graduate Level Elective 3.0
 Credits9
Winter
Graduate Level Electives 9.0
 Credits9
 Total Credits45

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

Mary Ebeling, PhD (University of Surrey) Director, Women's and Gender Studies. Associate 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). Professor. Telecommunications policy, adolescent media use, communication theory and history, global media, and semiotics.
Barbara Hoekje, PhD (University of Pennsylvania) Director, English Language Center. Associate Professor. Sociolinguistic theory, discourse analysis, applied linguistics (language teaching, learning, and testing).
Jordan Hyatt, PhD, JD (University of Pennsylvania, Villanova University School of Law). Assistant Professor. Community corrections; drug treatment; homelessness; probation/parole; re-entry; risk assessment; sentencing.
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.
Brent Luvaas, PhD (UCLA). Associate Professor. DIY and independent media production; transnational consumer culture; popular music; new media and mediated subjectivities; youth culture in the US and Indonesia.
Rakhmiel Peltz, PhD (Columbia University, Linguistics; University of Pennsylvania, Biological Sciences) Director of Judaic Studies Program. Professor. Sociolinguistics, ethnography of communication, social history of Yiddish language and culture, Yiddish culture of Eastern Europe, language planning, language and ethnic identity, language and group memory, aging and ethnicity, history of urban neighbors.
Douglas V. Porpora, PhD (Temple University). Professor. International political economy, culture, social theory, and philosophy of social science.
Rachel R. Reynolds, PhD (University of Illinois at Chicago). Associate Professor. Sociolinguistics, ethnography of communication, intercultural communication, globalization and the rhetoric of community, political economy of immigration, race and ethnicity, new African immigrants in the United States, Igbo studies.
Mimi Sheller, PhD (New School for Social Research) Director, Center for Mobilities Research and Policy. Professor. Sustainable mobility and mobility justice: new cultures and infrastructures of travel, transport, mobile communication, and urbanism; Caribbean Studies: history, culture and political theory of the region, including intersections of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality and class.
Wesley Shumar, PhD (Temple University) Department Head, Anthropology. Professor. Ethnography of cyberspace, online learning communities, political economy of higher education, globalization, activity theory, semiotics, critical realism, psychoanalysis, identity and the self.
Asta Zelenkauskaite, PhD (Indiana University). Assistant 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.