MEDIA DESIGN (MA–ONLINE)
Are you driven to make an impact on the world? Emerson’s online Media Design MA program will prepare you for a life and career of improving society through media, technology, and activism. During your time in the program, you will develop a design-oriented media project that effects social change in your community. Past projects have included games, technologies, storytelling platforms, and public art installations, among other examples.
In this dynamic program, you will study and collaborate with a tight-knit cohort of fellow students. By graduation, you will be ready to become a leader in the knowledge economy, positioned to pursue a wide range of paths, like:
- Creative digital roles at foundations and corporations;
- Design careers at nonprofits, corporate companies, tech companies, government agencies, design firms, and more;
- Leading community initiatives for media and news organizations;
- Continuing studies on the PhD level.
Engagement Lab
The Engagement Lab at Emerson, home to the Media Design program, is an applied research and design lab that reimagines civic engagement in a digital culture.
The Lab collaborates with global partners to design solutions to the most pressing problems in society today, including participation gaps, gender or racial discrimination, lack of basic media literacies, youth exclusion, and disparities in public health practices.
“The Media Design program helped me develop the design thinking skills, strategic planning skills, and program design required for the position I have at the Obama Foundation. I managed an entire project from ideation to implementation during my thesis.”
—Samantha Viotty, Media Design ’17 Experience Design Associate at the Obama Foundation
Global Experience
Media Design students have the chance to participate in the Salzburg Academy on Media & Global Change, a renowned global media program in Austria. At this annual event, 80 students and two dozen faculty gather for three weeks at the Schloss Leopoldskron, famous for serving as the setting of The Sound of Music. Working with institutions such as the BBC, the Red Cross, and the United Nations, students and faculty address issues of international concern and build media responses together.
Past guests to the Salzburg Academy include US Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy; actor Vanessa Redgrave; authors Orham Pamuk, Richard Ford, and Jeffrey Eugenides; journalists Dana Priest and Robin Wright; playwright Tom Stoppard; and activist Bianca Jagger.