The MA Research and Theory is a two-year degree designed to provide students with additional depth in media and journalism studies. While our MA Pro Track degree focuses on preparing people who want to create media, our Research and Theory MA students can gain additional methodological expertise alongside knowledge of journalism and theory, which can help them to move toward doctoral degrees or a variety of analytic careers with media organizations.
Methodological preparation includes opportunities to acquire skills to undertake qualitative and quantitative work, including working with ‘big data’ generated by Internet platforms and sites, as well as qualitative data often used by organizations ranging from the medical field to politics to survey researchers.
The wide array of courses we offer allows students to specialize in fields including media policy, journalism studies, global media, Internet information systems, media engagement, and many more. Our faculty are highly international, with extensive experience working with and conducting research on the press, media and information systems around the world. Please see our Faculty pages and our research pages to investigate your many options in our program.
Coursework
A total of 30 semester credit hours is required. All students take a set of 3 required courses (9 semester credit hours):
- Research Methods I
- Research Methods II
- Theory I
For descriptions of these courses, please see the syllabi.
All students take 5 additional courses (15 semester credit hours) supporting their research topic, with two of those courses taken outside the School of Journalism and Media.
Finally, all students take 6 semester credit hours of thesis.