Media Innovation and Data Communication

• The MS in Media Innovation and Data Communication empowers media makers to think creatively about the future of media and provides training in the digital tools they need to thrive in today’s new media environment.
• Students will gain the skills to report, research, design, and build multimedia, interactive, and data-driven storytelling projects that clarify complex matters, explain processes, reveal insights, elucidate concepts, and relate stories about newsworthy topics and the human experience.
• The program will guide students to use emerging technologies and techniques of information and data design; visual communication and cognitive science; data analysis and visualization; photography, documentary, and visual storytelling; virtual reality, augmented reality, and mixed reality; social media; computer science; and more.
• The program guides students to evaluate and critique media products, platforms, and projects based on principles of democracy and equity, as well as on ethics, history, and cultures of media innovation.
• The MS in Media Innovation and Data Communication is a STEM-designated degree.

The School of Journalism in the College of Arts, Media, and Design has trained many students in diverse skill and knowledge areas, including data reporting and visualization, web development, podcasting, analytics, and experimental video, including augmented and virtual reality. In the last few years, students have interned at The Wall Street Journal, Reuters, The Marshall Project, PBS’s NOVA, WGBH’s Frontline, Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting, WBUR’s Innovation Hub, NPR’s On Point, WGBH’s Basic Black, and The Bay State Banner. Our students have also written for The New York Times, Roll Call, Washington Post, WGBH News, Undark Magazine, Columbia Journalism Review, Smithsonian Magazine, and InsideClimate News.

School of Journalism alumni have gone on to jobs at places such as National Public Radio, The Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Texas Tribune, VTDigger, Arizona Republic, Business Insider, Indianapolis Star, CBS Interactive, and NJ.com. They have also successfully leveraged the broad learning offered within the degree to go into nonprofit communications, digital marketing, and product development.

Anchored in the School of Journalism, the program is an interdisciplinary degree, partnering with faculty from both Art + Design and Communication Studies. Students will be able to gain sophisticated knowledge of well-developed literatures that can guide visual- and experience-related media practice and strengthen their data communication-oriented work through a broader theoretical knowledge of areas such as network science, cybersecurity, social psychology, and communication. The MS in Media Innovation and Data Communication is also affiliated with multiple campus research entities, including the Co-Laboratory for Data Impact, the Center for Design, and the emerging Center for Communication, Media Innovation, and Social Change, allowing students to participate in valuable experiential and intellectual endeavors.

• Application form

• Application fee

• Resumé

• Personal statement

• Transcripts from all institutions attended

  • The Foreign Credential Evaluation (FCE) is a required assessment of all transcripts and documents from non-U.S. accredited post-secondary education institutions. (Review the FCE requirements by country.)

• Three letters of recommendation

• TOEFL, IELTS or Duolingo exam scores for international applicants

• Samples of published work (optional)