Department of Media Studies

Media Studies examines:

• aesthetics and form of media communication;
• individual perception and concepts of audience from psychological, cognitive science, and psychoanalytic perspectives;
• the history of media (primarily mass-circulation print, journals, and newspapers, recorded media, telephone, radio communications and broadcast media, and electronic modes);
• ethics and effects of media in the arena of policy studies;
• issues of race and identity in media industries;
• the social impact of media on public opinion and mass culture;
• the relations among media and the law free speech issues, the commerce and regulation of media in the public sphere.

The Media Studies Program began in Fall 2000 as an interdisciplinary undergraduate major in the College of Arts and Sciences at The University of Virginia. The program is historical and critical in orientation and takes media as its object of study. The program focuses on the forms, institutions, and effects of media (radio, film, television, photography, print, digital and electronic media), with particular emphasis on the mass media of the modern and contemporary period.

Media Studies is critically engaged with the creative analysis, production, and research into traditional and emerging forms of media. The program has a significant emphasis on digital media through approaches to its history, theory, and technology and their impact upon contemporary life.

Media Studies is not a production oriented program. Students supplement their historical/critical studies with internships and work opportunities to acquire production skills. Student seeking traditional training in journalism (print, broadcast, or digital), public relations, advertising, marketing, and other areas associated with Mass Communications programs should look into other majors such as English, Art, or Commerce.

However, students who have completed the major are prepared to enter the media industry as well as to pursue advanced degrees in professional or graduate school. Many employers in the media industry today actually prefer graduates who have a humanities background of critical thinking over a specifically trained pre-professional concentration. Current students find a bountiful amount of internship opportunities through the University Career Services as well as the Media Studies own Internship Database. Through Media Studies efforts majors found placement in top-ranked national media companies including CNN, Turner, Disney, CBS, NBC, Washington Post, as well as many other local and regional media firms. These contacts and experience become invaluable to the majors, leading them into career directions such as journalism, advertising, public relations, communications, film and video production, and digital and graphic design. Our recent graduates are now working with companies like News Hour, Good Housekeeping, MTV, WUVA, and NYU Film Studies.

In addition to internships, current majors also find practical experience through various student organizations like the daily student newspaper The Cavalier Daily, the weekly student magazine The Declaration, the student run television station WHOO TV, as well as communication and media positions in other organizations.