The Master of Arts in Emerging Media Studies is a 40-credit program that balances advanced social science theory with intensive technical execution. Designed for full-time completion across three semesters (16 months), the curriculum can also be completed on a part-time basis. The degree culminates in a final applied project and participation in a year-long group research seminar known as the Master’s Collaboratory.
Three tracks to degree completion
Students choose from three distinct paths based on their long-term academic or career trajectories. While you select an initial track during the application process, you can pivot your focus upon completion of your first semester in consultation with your academic advisor:
- The Professional Track (3 Semesters): The standard accelerated pathway. Focuses heavily on data methods, UX tools, and strategic application through the year-long Master’s Collaboratory.
- The Thesis Track (3–4 Semesters): Ideal for students planning to transition into premier Ph.D. programs or deep academic research roles. Requires a formal research thesis (
EM 909) guided by a faculty advisor. - The Internship Track (3–4 Semesters): Pairs your quantitative coursework with an approved professional field placement (
EM 911) inside a Boston-based tech, media, healthcare, or corporate analytics department.
Academic + tuition planning notes:
- Professional track: includes three semesters of full-time enrollment. Students should anticipate three semesters of tuition and fees.
- Thesis + Internship tracks: may require an additional semester to complete final defenses or extended field placements. If a student extends to a fourth semester, they should anticipate a fourth, part-time semester of tuition and fees.
Program Learning Outcomes
Graduates of the MA in Emerging Media Studies leave equipped with a highly specialized toolkit. Upon completing the program, you will be prepared to:
- Analyze Behavioral & Cultural Shifts: Deploy advanced empirical models to evaluate how new technologies shape human psychology, public opinion, organizational architecture, and global policy. You will develop a deep theoretical and practical understanding of how digital tools disrupt cultures, industries, and communities.
- Execute Advanced Computational Methods: Lead original big data research using large-scale data scraping, text mining, network visualization, and predictive analytics. You will master specialized network software including Gephi, NodeXL, and UCINET, alongside statistical foundations in SPSS and Stata.
- Master UX & Biometric Research: Design and run complex human-computer interaction experiments utilizing cutting-edge physiological platforms. You will gain hands-on technical proficiency with the iMotions biometric suite (integrating eye-tracking, facial expression analysis, and galvanic skin response), while building a foundational fluency in web architecture using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
- Translate Raw Data into Executive Strategy: Lead and manage end-to-end research projects that address client challenges across corporate, nonprofit, governmental, or academic sectors. You will convert raw data into interactive visualizations and build a professional portfolio featuring high-impact project reports that translate scientific insights into meaningful business recommendations.
- Present to Global Industry Leaders: Exhibit elite professional and public communication skills. You will routinely defend empirical data and present original research to audiences of executive recruiters, industry experts, and scholars at campus symposia, the annual #ScreentimeBU conference, and national research conventions.
Required core coursework (28 credits)
4 credits
Drawing on social scientific research and relevant industry examples this course examines topics related to emerging media and new communication technologies. From a variety of perspectives, including historical, economic, and psychological, the course examines underlying dimensions and affordances of “emerging media” and, in turn, the psychological effects and social consequences of these technologies. Applications of theory to a variety of topics and social issues will be discussed.
This course familiarizes students with social -scientific methods for large scale data analysis and visualization, including the application of relevant user and concept networks, time and spatial models, sentiment mapping, and comparison of matrices. In addition, the use of germane software in emerging and digital media research is developed. Most importantly, however, this course has a dual structure where students learn to not only carry our advanced analyses of large datasets, they also engage with how to visually represent with a wide-ranging skillset to scrape data, mine data, and present data in fields of specific areas of inquiry.
The shift in medial production toward dynamic user-production is harnessed in this class. Students will evaluate and critique prevailing practices in co- creative media output as well as become proficient in developing online media with cutting edge and open source software tools. Technical aspects of this class include HTML, CSS, and Wordpress, as well as audience interfaces and analytics.
This year long course introduces students to the theories, method and conventions of applied research in communication and the social sciences. It aims to do this through reading, practical applications and in-class discussions. Students will have the opportunity to work with local organization (the "project sponsor") in the Boston area to design and implement a research project. Throughout the process, students will work closely with their peers, the sponsor and the course instructors to develop the project and to evaluate work in progress.
This course offers a critical survey of the cultural, social, and political impacts of emerging communication technologies, as they have advanced over time to contemporarily include online, mobile and social media. Special attention will be paid to networks and their relationship to the ways individuals, groups and organizations communicate within society. Our work here situates the changing nature of networks in media from broadcast network models to social network ones. As such, it is both historically informed and theoretically inclusive. An important component of study also incorporates an immersive social network experience as part of this class, which is to say that the class becomes its own online social network and students are peer collaborators.
ELECTIVES (12 credits)
Tailor your quantitative profile by choosing three specialized graduate-level electives (12 credits total). In addition to approved electives in other programs across BU such as data science, computer science, public health, or sociology, you may especially wish to consider electives offered by the Division, such as:
4 credits
This courses provides training in the logic, design, and implementation of experimental research methods. The course includes a practicum component, in which students employ novel laboratory research tools in the Communication Research Center to complete original empirical research on the use and effects of emerging media technologies. By the end of the course, students will have a sound understanding of the underlying rationale and purpose of experimental research and hands-on experience using cutting-edge research technologies (including biometrics such as galvanic skin response, eye- tracking, and facial expression analysis) for data collection and analysis related to media processing and effects.
This course offers a critical survey of the cultural, social, and political impacts of emerging communication technologies, as they have advanced over time to contemporarily include online, mobile and social media. Special attention will be paid to networks and their relationship to the ways individuals, groups and organizations communicate within society. Our work here situates the changing nature of networks in media from broadcast network models to social network ones. As such, it is both historically informed and theoretically inclusive. An important component of study also incorporates an immersive social network experience as part of this class, which is to say that the class becomes its own online social network and students are peer collaborators.
Elective registration guidelines + prerequisites:
- Course cross-listing: In addition to internal EMS courses, you may select approved graduate electives across COM, BU, and the Boston-area consortium that enhance their research and/or professional interests. Students must pay close attention to listed prerequisites for any course they seek to take.
- Thesis + internship options: A formal master’s thesis (EM 909) or an approved internship (EM 911) may count as an elective toward your program requirements. Choosing these options may require the student to extend the program duration by an additional one to two semesters, which will incur additional costs.
- Official policy: In addition to this curriculum guide, master’s students should refer to the College of Communication Graduate Handbook and the BU Academic Bulletin for a comprehensive index of university policies, academic regulations, and resources.