phd communication nyu

Media, Culture, and Communication (PhD)

Program description, career opportunities.

The PhD program in Media, Culture, and Communication is committed to interdisciplinary, theoretically sophisticated, multi-methodological, historical, and comparative approaches to the study of media and culture.  Five research areas  operate as guiding frameworks for intellectual inquiry across the department: Global Communication and Media, Technology and Society, Visual Culture and Sound Studies, Media Industries and Politics, Interaction and Experience.  Students attend special events throughout the year and can apply to present their original research at the department’s annual Neil Postman Graduate Conference. 

Doctoral student work is shaped by the program's commitment to:

• Engaging with theoretical concepts from a range of disciplines—media and cultural studies, visual culture, history, science and technology studies, anthropology, sociology, disability studies, sound studies, political science.
• A multi-methodological approach to research—from semiotics, global ethnography, gender and queer theory, critical race theory, qualitative and quantitative discourse analysis, to political/cultural economy, among other critical frameworks.
• A global perspective—conceiving of the global mediascape as transnational and transcultural.
• Recognizing media and technology’s long history and antecedents.

Graduates of the PhD program join academic departments of media and communication, with placement in the social sciences and interdisciplinary humanities becoming increasingly common. MCC PhDs who graduated in the past ten years are now tenure-track or tenured professors at the University of California, Berkeley; University of Washington, Seattle; Cornell University; Stanford University; UCLA; Rutgers; Fordham; University of Michigan; George Mason University; University of North Carolina; University of Arizona; College of Charleston; Memorial University of Newfoundland; University of San Francisco; Scripps; Pratt; University of Maryland; American University of Beirut; American University of Paris; Ryerson University; Trent University; St. Joseph’s College.

Over the past decade, PhD graduates have received numerous prestigious postdocs, including a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Humanities in the Department of Comparative Media Studies/Writing at MIT; Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship at MIT's Center for Art, Science, and Technology; Postdoctoral Fellow, Berkman Klein Center, Harvard University; Postdoctoral Researcher, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science; Postdoctoral, Center for Information Technology Policy, Princeton University; Postdoctoral Fellowship at Rice University in Technology, Culture, and Society; Research Associate, Center for Digital Humanities, Princeton University; Postdoctoral Fellow, Media, Inequality & Change Center, University of Pennsylvania.

Admission to graduate programs in the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development requires the following minimum components:

• Statement of Purpose
• Letters of Recommendation
• Transcripts
• Proficiency in English

See  NYU Steinhardt's Graduate Admissions website  for additional information on school-wide admission. Some programs may require additional components for admissions.

Program Requirements

The PhD program requires 48 credits of coursework for students with a master’s degree; 54 credits are required for those admitted only with a bachelor’s degree. Core courses must be taken in sequence:

Courses are taken by advisement, including specialized elective courses inside the department (8–10 credits); research and methods electives inside or outside the department (14–16 credits); and theoretical or disciplinary foundational study outside the department (12 credits). A minimum of 12 credits from these remaining courses must be taken in the department.

Students move quickly toward pursuing their dissertation research in the third year of study, accompanied by teaching and research opportunities that will help prepare them for academic positions in the fields of media studies, cultural studies, communication, and related disciplines.

Sample Plan of Study

Following completion of the required coursework for the PhD, students are expected to maintain active status at New York University by enrolling in a research/writing course or a Maintain Matriculation ( MAINT-GE 4747 ) course.  All non-course requirements must be fulfilled prior to degree conferral, although the specific timing of completion may vary from student-to-student.

Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of the program, graduates will:

• Display fluency in core texts and scholarly literature, contemporary theory, and key debates in media, culture, and communication.
• Display fluency in and in depth knowledge of the areas of specialization in student's field of study.
• Analyze and synthesize scholarship in a range of disciplines related to media, culture, and communication and understand the ways in which these disciplinary perspectives are integrated and transformed through interdisciplinary study.

STEM OPT Benefits for International Students

Nyu policies, steinhardt academic policies, program policies.

If you’re an international student, you may be able to work in the United States after graduation for an extended period of time. Most students studying on F-1 visas will be eligible for 12 months of Optional Practical Training (OPT) off-campus work authorization. F-1 students in this program may also be eligible for the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, or Mathematics) OPT extension, allowing you to extend your time in the United States to pursue degree-related work experience for a total of 36 months or 3 years. For more information on who can apply for this extension visit NYU’s Office of Global Services: STEM OPT .

University-wide policies can be found on the New York University Policy pages .

Additional academic policies can be found the  Steinhardt academic policies page . 

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Communications, Journalism, and Media Studies

Shape the way people around the world share information and push the possibilities of what and how we communicate. Pursuing an advanced degree focused on communications, journalism, and media studies may lead to a career as a multimedia journalist, digital media designer, content strategist, researcher, or professor.

Communications

Virtual Office Hours: Monday–Friday 9 a.m.–5 p.m. Email: [email protected] Phone: 212-992-4723

Interactive Telecommunications: MPS Tisch School of the Arts

Linguistics: PhD Graduate School of Arts and Science

Professional Writing: MS School of Professional Studies

Public Relations and Corporate Communication: MS School of Professional Studies

Translation and Interpreting: MS School of Professional Studies

American Journalism: MA Graduate School of Arts and Science

Journalism: MA Graduate School of Arts and Science

Journalism and Africana Studies: MA Graduate School of Arts and Science

Journalism and East Asian Studies: MA Graduate School of Arts and Science

Journalism and European and Mediterranean Studies: MA Graduate School of Arts and Science

Journalism and French Studies: MA Graduate School of Arts and Science

Journalism and International Relations: MA Graduate School of Arts and Science

Journalism and Latin American and Caribbean Studies: MA Graduate School of Arts and Science

Journalism and Near Eastern Studies: MA Graduate School of Arts and Science

Journalism and Russian and Slavic Studies: MA Graduate School of Arts and Science

Culture and Media: Cert Graduate School of Arts and Science

Game Design: MFA Tisch School of the Arts

Global Sport: MS School of Professional Studies

Integrated Digital Media: MS Tandon School of Engineering

Integrated Marketing: MS School of Professional Studies

Media, Culture, and Communication:   MA , PhD Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development

Publishing: MS School of Professional Studies

Sports Business: MS School of Professional Studies

Technology, Culture, and Society: PhD Tandon School of Engineering

If you’re excited by more than one subject and would like to combine them to create your own individualized program of study, you may be interested in the MA in Individualized Study degree at the Gallatin School of Individualized Study.

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Areas of Study

Phd, media, culture, and communication.

The doctoral program offers five research areas, which operate as guiding frameworks for intellectual inquiry across the Department. These areas of research are overlapping and interrelated, and we encourage students to take advantage of course offerings in all areas.

Global Communication and Media

This research area explores the challenges posed by the global circulation of media and information with respect to citizenship and identity, immigration and diasporas, ethnic and racial minorities, human rights and social movements, neoliberalism and political-economic inequalities, war and geopolitics, and international media treaties and policymaking. Perspectives include international development and postcolonial studies; comparative media systems; sociology of culture; critical cultural geography; transnational feminism; alternative modernities; critical memory and archive studies; and global ethnography. Faculty regional expertise spans the Middle East, South Asia, East Asia, South and North America, Africa, Latin America, and Europe.

Media Industries and Politics

This research area examines the political economy of media and information industries, governance and the use of media to shape and mobilize public opinion, social movements, and electoral politics. Specific themes include state and corporate media manipulation and propaganda; political campaigns and public policy; dissent and censorship; media activism; platform capitalism; and the practices of culture industries such as journalism, social media, marketing and advertising, and entertainment. Perspectives include the political economy of media systems; theories of rhetoric and persuasion; feminist, postcolonial, and critical race analyses of news and information; and comparative media and politics. 

Visual Culture and Sound Studies 

This research area focuses on the ways that visual and sound media shape everyday life on and offline, especially through politics and power. Specific themes include global visual culture with a focus on the role of images (in news, art, advertising, science, fashion, television, film, digital images, architecture, and amateur media); visuality in colonial, imperial, and legal culture; visuality and the body, violence, and war; visual activism; the consumption and production of mediated sound; and the intersections of music and media. Perspectives include media history, media archaeology, aesthetics, cultural analysis, formalist methods, ethnography, technological mediation, and an understanding of social and global activity determined by its auditory, sonic, and communicative materiality.

Technology and Society

This research area focuses on information and communication technologies and their social, political, and ethical implications. Specific themes include the social, political, and ethical dynamics of information and communication technologies; the history of technological systems, devices, and forms of mediation; surveillance, data-tracking, and privacy; communications infrastructures and technologies of the built environment; assistive and wearable technologies; cryptocurrencies; the design of media regulation and policy. Perspectives include infrastructure studies, ethnography of design and use, algorithm and platform studies, media archaeology, philosophy of media, disability theory, and practice-based research.

Interaction and Experience

Courses explore how we relate to ourselves, each other, and the material world in various social, cultural, and technological contexts. Specific themes include communication dynamics and interaction rituals; social identity and a sense of self; creativity and craft; structural violence and human agency; embodiment and affect; the lived experience of algorithms and data. Perspectives include psychoanalysis, phenomenology, ethnography, speech-act theory, gender and queer theory, critical memory and archive studies, and black feminist thought.