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A New Standard for Journalism Education

New York University’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute is a pioneer in educating today’s journalists. Not confined by the traditional structure that defines most journalism schools, NYU’s degree is responsive to the industry demand for journalists who are well-versed in the subject matter they report on. Students choose their focus from eight subject areas—from cultural criticism to science and the environment.

Our small cohort size allows for a deeper, more personalized experience. And NYU’s program emphasizes the critical thinking skills so important when covering a complex, interrelated world. All of this adds up to the perfect combination of skills and mastery of content.

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Find Your Focus

The NYU Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute offers an online master’s degree in journalism as well as traditional graduate programs and concentrations in ten targeted areas of study.

American Journalism Online Master’s

Collaborate with classmates from around the world and workshop your stories while earning your degree at your own pace.

Business & Economic Reporting

Build your portfolio and set yourself up for career success as you report on what drives the global economy. Take journalism courses at the Journalism Institute and MBA courses at NYU’s prestigious Leonard N. Stern School of Business.

Cultural Reporting & Criticism

Learn to write in a variety of formats—from personal essays to long form narrative—in the only graduate journalism program in the country specifically designed to prepare the next generation of cultural reporters and critics.

Global & Joint Program Studies

Work toward a joint M.A. degree* in Journalism and Africana Studies, French Studies, Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Near Eastern Studies, Russian and Slavic Studies, European and Mediterranean Studies, East Asian Studies, or International Relations.

Literary Reportage

Learn how to produce beautifully written, reality-based journalism in a degree that brings together the mastery of research and reporting skills of a journalism school with the writing-intensive focus of an MFA program.

Magazine & Digital Storytelling

Focus on learning the journalistic skills necessary to report and write for both print and digital magazines as you try out every form of journalism—from timely news stories and opinion pieces to in-depth features and personal essays.

News & Documentary

Master the reporting and storytelling skills to produce short- and long-form video journalism for traditional and non-traditional media and take master’s classes with the best independent documentary filmmakers in New York City.

Podcasting & Audio Reportage

The Podcasting & Audio Reportage concentration is a 36-credit program which allows students to acquire deep skills in the audio medium, within NYU’s Journalism offerings

Reporting the Nation & New York in Multimedia

Using New York City and the United States as your laboratory, learn how to tell stories in new ways through a variety of different mediums—from traditional TV and print to audio and social media.

Science, Health & Environmental Reporting

Join others with a passion for making stories about science, health, and the environment relevant and accessible to everyone. Learn from a faculty of nationally prominent science journalists.

Studio 20: Digital First

Focus on digital innovation through project-based learning, and engage with the evolving opportunities of multimedia and interactive journalism.

Pulitzer Prize-Winning Faculty

of graduate students in the Class of 2019 held internships while at NYU

of the Class of 2019 landed jobs, paid fellowships, internships, or freelance work after graduation

Faculty Who Are Invested in Your Future

The strength of NYU’s journalism program stems from the accomplishments of our faculty , who are at the top of their fields. Our professors author books on important contemporary topics. They publish in the most prestigious papers, magazines, and reviews . And they produce documentaries for major media outlets. NYU professors are much more than just mentors—they are deeply invested in their students’ success as future journalists.

On-the-Ground Experience in the Media Center of the World

NYU journalism students benefit from the dynamism of New York City, a global magnet for the best and brightest in the field. Here, you’ll find inspiration on every city street. This is where professional publishing opportunities abound: our students land some of the most competitive internships in the industry and publish in the world’s most prestigious publications , even before finishing their degrees.

*Note: Global and Joint Program Studies consists of joint programs with:

• Africana Studies (MA in Journalism and Africana Studies)
• The Center for European and Mediterranean Studies (MA in Journalism and European and Mediterranean Studies)
• The Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (MA in Journalism and Latin American and Caribbean Studies)
• The Department of East Asian Studies (MA in Journalism and East Asian Studies)
• The Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies (MA in Journalism and Near Eastern Studies)
• The Institute of French Studies (MA in Journalism and French Studies)
• The Program in International Relations (MA in Journalism and International Relations)
• Russian and Slavic Studies (MA in Journalism and Russian and Slavic Studies)

For joint degrees, you should indicate your interest when applying. You must apply to and be admitted by both participating departments.

In some cases, students are permitted to take courses from other areas of study within the Institute. The corresponding graduate program director must approve such requests.

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DAUS Faculty Spotlight: Clinical Professor of Media Studies Chyng-Feng Sun

November 22, 2022

Chyng-Feng Sun, PhD, a clinical professor of media studies at the NYU SPS Division of Applied Undergraduate Studies (DAUS), has taught and conducted research on popular media representations of race, class, gender, and sexuality, and their cultural and social impacts. The empirical research projects she has designed include large-scale international surveys, qualitative studies of focus groups, and individual interviews. One representative example is a project in which she led a group of international scholars who surveyed 8,000 subjects in nine countries (in the US, Asia, and Europe). So far, 17 peer-reviewed journal articles related to this multilingual survey have been published. She also makes documentary films, which are extensions of her research on media representations and effects. Recently, the Connecticut State Education Resource Center approved plans to move forward with the dissemination of her 2012 documentary film Latinos Beyond Reel to the state’s 250 public high schools.

How did you get involved in Latinos Beyond Reel ? “Latinos” commonly refers to people in the US who were born in, or whose ancestors came from, Latin America and the Spanish-speaking Caribbean. Although they comprise 19% of the US population and are our largest minority group, Latinos have been largely invisible in the media—in both news and entertainment—and when they have been represented, they were mostly negatively portrayed.

I decided to make Latinos Beyond Reel because I needed media materials addressing the problem for my teaching curricula, but I could not find anything appropriate. It is my fourth documentary film and I wrote, co-produced, and co-directed it with Miguel Picker, a Chilean-American filmmaker. My films have always been created by multiracial and multicultural teams. I would not have made the film if I had not been able to work with a co-director of Latin American descent.

Even though the term “Latinx” is now commonly used in higher education settings and has the advantage of including all genders, the Pew Research Center reported that only 23% of the adults who self-identify as Hispanic or Latino have heard of the term, and a mere 3% say they use it to describe themselves.

How did you connect with the Connecticut school system? I have no personal connection with the Connecticut school system. In December 2020, Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont announced that beginning in the fall of 2022, the state would require high schools to offer African American, Black, Puerto Rican, and Latino studies, becoming the first state in the nation to do so. The Connecticut State Education Resource Center assembled an advisory group and expert review panel to recommend instructional materials for the curriculum. I was informed when the decision was made.

Are you planning the documentary’s dissemination in other states? Since its release and distribution by Media Education Foundation, Latinos Beyond Reel has appeared on the distributor’s bestselling lists and has been viewed by audiences (particularly college students and teachers) across the country. As an educator, it is particularly exciting to conduct professional development workshops for Connecticut high school teachers on how to use the film to engage students in discussion. At a time when public school curricula are so politicized, and critical race theory is so vilified and misunderstood, I do hope that more states will follow Connecticut’s example to offer similar courses to public school students.

Why is it relevant to our society? Media help shape our world view and identities. Vilification of Latinos in both entertainment and news media has real-life consequences. I think my film can facilitate open dialogue regardless of one’s race and ethnicity, and it is important to examine one’s identity in relation to others.

What has been the response of audiences who have seen it thus far? I also heard Latino audiences saying that they always knew about media stereotypes, but my film helped them see the patterns in an objective and “scientific” way. Audiences of other races, particularly Blacks, remarked that they did not realize that Latinos also suffer media racism just like themselves.

From my observations and reports from professors who showed the film in class, the self-identified Latino children in the film (ages 5 to 12) seemed to elicit the strongest emotional impact from the audience. For example, children pinpointed negative Latino characters in cartoons (“bad guys,” stealing cars, etc.), could not remember seeing any heroes/heroines in films that look like them, and expressed hurt and anger when they saw free or popular video games or YouTube videos that depict killing or capturing “illegal aliens.”

What are other projects are you working on? I am currently working on a project that explores frontline workers’ perceptions of the connection between child sexual abuse and sexual media.

Related Articles

Media, Culture, and Communication (MA)

Program description, career opportunities.

The MA degree program trains agile researchers to think critically from diverse perspectives about changing industries, technologies, and cultures. Students work closely with diverse and renowned media studies faculty. MCC research and coursework foreground the study of global media and culture, digital media and new technologies, media history and theory, visual culture, race, and politics.

While  graduate courses  are primarily theoretical, the Media, Culture, and Communication  curriculum  is flexible, allowing electives from across the University to align with students' personal academic and professional trajectories.

Media business at NYU Stern, media law at the NYU School of Law, interactive technology at NYU Tandon School of Engineering, and media ethnography in NYU Anthropology are just some of the many elective options in addition to graduate study abroad courses in Europe, Asia, and Latin America examining media in comparative contexts.

The MA in Media, Culture, and Communication offers a theoretical foundation for examining global media within political, social, and cultural contexts. The program does not provide practical training in media production, publicity or marketing. MCC MA students can use some of their electives to enroll in such classes elsewhere at NYU, but those seeking a purely practice-based degree should consider applying to the School of Professional Studies'  MS in Integrated Marketing  or  MS in Public Relations , or Tisch's  MA in Interactive Media .

Review our  FAQs  to learn more about the MA program. 

Graduates of MCC's media studies master's build careers as astute analyzers of the global media landscape. Alumni find themselves well positioned for careers at the intersections of media, culture, and tech — ranging from research to creative, strategy to policy. Those who pursue doctoral study enroll in top-tier PhD programs. Special Opportunities Students attend special events throughout the year and can apply to present their original research at the department’s annual Neil Postman Graduate Conference. Internships in a wide array of media and communication positions are available to master’s students through the department’s online internship database. Students are encouraged to take advantage of the full academic and professional resources of the University and metropolitan area.

The University and department offer graduate summer and January intersession study-abroad programs to explore globalization, global visual culture, and media and culture in other countries.  Locations have included Amsterdam, Beijing, Berlin, Buenos Aires, London, Paris, Prague, and Shanghai.  These courses typically examine the social, economic, political, and cultural implications of global media and culture in relation to the site of study. Courses integrate lectures, seminars, and site visits and deploy a comparative approach. Courses vary year to year. Recent topics have included Race and Media (London); Migration, Media, and the Global City (Berlin); Visual Culture of Memory (Buenos Aires).

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.

See How to Apply for admission requirements and instructions specific to this program.

Program Requirements

If the Research Course has an MCC area of study designation, the course may simultaneously be allocated as a Research Course and an Area of Study course.

MCC internship credit, non-MCC study abroad courses, and/or graduate-level courses offered by another NYU department may be allocated as electives towards the MCC MA degree. In order to qualify as an elective, a class offered by an outside department must be:

• Graduate Level
• Directly related to your course of study
• Approved by the MCC graduate advisors

One elective course may be a research course, chosen by advisement.

Students who select the MA Thesis must have a 3.75 minimum GPA.

Sample Plan of Study

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.
• Demonstrate advanced oral and written communication skills, accessing and analyzing information from various media, including primary, print, audiovisual, and digital sources.
• Present in-depth information from relevant sources that will demonstrate critical thinking and application of media, culture and communication on a national and global scale.
• Synthesize historical relevance, common narratives, and compelling theory in their writing to illustrate mastery of a specific area of study: Global and Transcultural Studies, Technology and Society, Visual Culture and Cultural Studies, Persuasion and Politics, or Interaction and Social Processes.
• Conduct original research; find gaps within current media and communication research; establish a research question of their own and make projections for future research all to further the knowledge base.

Core Seminar Policy

Stem opt benefits for international students, nyu policies, steinhardt academic policies, program policies.

Students who receive B- and below in the Core Seminar would need to take the Comprehensive Exam in the spring semester. If the student fails the exam, the student would have to retake the Core Seminar the following year. 

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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FLAS Fellowships – Title VI Foreign Language Area Studies

Title VI Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowships are awarded to universities in order to promote the training of students who intend to pursue careers in pre-college or post-secondary education, government service, international business, the NGO sector, or othe fields where knowledge of foreign languages and cultures is a prerequisite for success.

Eligibility: Throughout the period of the award, recipients must be full-time students and enrolled informal instruction in the language of the award. If the award is for the academic year, recipients must also enroll in a course in Russian and East European area studies in both the Fall and Spring semesters. U.S. citizens and permanent residents are eligible for FLAS fellowships. Awards available for the academic year 2022/23 are Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian, Czech, Estonian, (Modern) Greek, Hungarian, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Ukrainian, and Yiddish. The availability of FLAS Fellowships is dependent upon final authorization of funding from the U.S. Department of Education.

Award: Stipend of up to $18,000 per academic year, a fee remission of 12 credits/semester, and health insurance coverage for school-year fellows; stipend of up to $2500 and a tuition award of up to $5000 for summer fellows.

Application: Applications must include:

• One FLAS application
• One complete set of official transcripts of college and university credits
• Three letters of recommendation, at least one of which should address the applicant’s abilities in foreign language training
• Statement on language training and proposed program of study
• For academic-year applications, a completed Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) on file with Indiana University

The deadline for receipt of all materials is January 31, 2022.

Additional FLAS Awards: A number of other departments on campus offer Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) fellowships. For a complete listing, consult the< HLS FLAS website .

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PS alum, Fusako Innami, awarded the 2024-25 Fulbright Scholar Award

Tuesday, Jun 25, 2024

PS alum Fusako Innami

PS alum, Fusako Innami (M.A. '08), has been awarded the 2024-25 Fulbright Scholar Award to conduct her book-length research,  Gestural Writing: Performance, Topography, Trace  at UC Berkeley (Dep of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies).

Fusako's Fulbright project, Gestural Writing: Performance, Topography, Trace , concerns performance which by its very nature disappears. How do we recollect live performances that are not available in recordings, but only remain in the form of reviews, scores, pictures, or digitized archives? Her project gathers traces of dancers' transcultural movements, contacts, and memoirs. Based in the Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies at UC Berkeley, she will explore new methods of reconstructing past performances.

Dr. Fusako Innami is an Associate Professor in Japanese and Performance Studies at Durham University, and author of Touching the Unreachable: Writing, Skinship, Modern Japan (Michigan, 2021). She lives according to an ethos of intercultural understanding, knowledge exchange, and community building through arts and cultures with her embodied experience in Japan, Italy, the US, and the UK. Since her childhood study of classical ballet and music, she has reflected on what it means to integrate gestures, movements,and rhythms migrating from different continents to enter her body.

As an academic, dance reviewer, and practitioner, Fusako conducts dance workshops in Japan, "Touch," to translate touch in literature back to moving bodies; and an ongoing international symposium, "Translating Embodiedness," to develop new metodologies for translating embodied practices across media.

Film Studies graduate hoping to take her act to Hollywood

• June 24, 2024

David Leder

Gracen Bayer caught the filmmaking bug way back in middle school when her family moved to Washington from Alabama.

The recent CWU Film Studies graduate and her younger sister would pass the time making short films as they tried to adjust to their new surroundings.

“Making films together gave us a way to cope with the loss of our friends,” said Bayer, who just completed an illustrious four years in Ellensburg earlier this month. “It’s kind of cute to look back on it now — the films were horrible, but our family loved them. As I grew up, I just kept working at it, and I eventually got better.”

Bayer started taking her hobby more seriously at Capital High School in Olympia, and she went on to win a number of state and regional awards with the help of an equally talented friend.

“From that point on, I knew I wanted to pursue a career in film,” she said.

When it came time to start looking at colleges, CWU stood out to her because it was one of only a few schools in the Northwest that offered a four-year film degree.

“That made my decision pretty easy,” Bayer said.

As it turned out, the CWU Film Studies program proved to be everything she had hoped for and more. She praised the faculty — specifically, Michael Caldwell, Jennifer Green, and Emily Rollie — for their undying support as she developed her craft.

“I seriously can’t thank my professors enough; they made the program so worthwhile,” Bayer said. “They were always so supportive of me and the other students. I thoroughly enjoyed my entire time at CWU.”

Now that Bayer has finished her CWU degree, she is hoping to pursue a job in the film industry. Even if it takes some time to land the right opportunity, she believes she is ready to follow her dream of one day becoming a Hollywood filmmaker.

“It’s kind of a scary realization that this is what I really want to do,” she said. “I tried denying it for years, but it just didn’t work. I don’t know if the industry is going to eat me alive or not, but I feel like I’m well prepared, thanks to the training I received at CWU. I have a lot more to learn, but I know I have a great community to rely on.”

Aside from her CWU professors, Bayer also thanked Communication Department secretary Gretchen Lohse and Learning Commons Program Support Supervisor Channas Stewman for their guidance. Bayer is confident that she has built an extensive professional network that will continue to support her as her career evolves.

“I’m leaving with so many great connections, and I know they will be there for me,” she said. “That’s a great feeling to have, and I don’t know if I would have found it anywhere else.”

Staying Active on Campus

While filmmaking was Bayer’s primary focus during her four years at CWU, she also stayed busy with student clubs and working for 88.1 The ‘Burg, the Learning Commons, and PULSE Magazine, where she was a photographer and website manager.

As if she needed more to do, she held a board position for a student organization called CRFT, directed the Rocky Horror Picture Show for Campus Activities, and served as the president of the CWU chapter of Her Campus , a national club that highlights creative writing of women and non-binary students in a weekly online magazine.

“I’ve done a lot during my time here, and I’ve had a lot of opportunities that I’m very grateful for,” Bayer said. “The connections I’ve made on campus and through other organizations have provided me with so many creative outlets. Working with other students to help make their voices heard is rewarding. It was hard for me not to stay involved.”

Making sure her own voice is heard also motivates Bayer when she is producing her own films. She’s been told that she doesn’t have a specific style, which she considers to be a compliment. But, lately, she has found herself moving in one specific direction with her work.

“I tend to gravitate toward female-centered stories,” she said. “I find myself watching movies and sometimes feeling like the female characters aren’t written correctly — like there’s something missing. I feel like a lot of people misunderstand the female experience, and that has kind of sparked a fire in me. That’s why I’m needed in this space — to make sure women characters are being seen in all of their different capacities.”

Earlier this year, Bayer’s passion for filmmaking caught the eye of the national Student Production Awards, which nominated her for two regional Emmy Awards. The annual contest — which is governed by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) — recognized Bayer’s work in the videography/photography and non-fiction short film categories. The winners were honored at a May 31 ceremony in Seattle.

Much to her surprise, she ended up winning the Photographer award in the College Craft category for a promotional video she made for PULSE.

“It was definitely a highlight of my college career, and I felt incredibly honored to be recognized by the organization,” she said.

Bayer is quick to credit her professors and mentors at CWU for recognizing her potential and pushing her to be the best she can be. No matter how far she goes in the industry, she will always appreciate Central for providing her with the foundation she needed to be successful.

“I’ve grown so much at Central, and I couldn’t be more grateful for all of the experiences I’ve had here,” she said. “I started out as a little kid making films around my house and now I’m leaving here a totally new person.”

CWU computer science and math major finds her future in academia

June 26, 2024

by Rune Torgersen

Distant dream morphs into career path for physics alumna

by David Leder

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