Combine state-of-the-art research tools with an understanding of past and present social context to understand, critique and mediate today’s media environment, including the tech, digital, visual, auditory and material media fields.
$66,000 average salary of a research analyst
10the number of hours per day an average American spends looking at screens
I love my career because it’s a mix of educating myself and others. Uncovering facts, crafting data and sharing information with others to help them do their jobs better feels amazing.
Margaret Aprison, BA’11, digital and social listening specialist at The Boeing Company
Examine the effects of mass media on human cognition, attitudes and behaviors using empirical social science research, including the effects of media on the individual, groups, organizations and societal norms.
Develop your understanding of basic media theories as well as cognitive, emotional and social psychology, with a focus on how these theories can be applied to the design of media messages.
Examine topics in national and international media history, including movements and trends.
Develop a framework for understanding new media technologies in social contexts. Compare computing, networked digital media and social media to prior eras of technological change, focusing on interactions among technological, industrial, regulatory, social and cultural forces.
The Media School has one of the most productive student research records in the world, with students producing and publishing in and out of the classroom. Learn about our student research opportunities.
Conduct original research alongside faculty members by working with one of our centers.
The Institute for Communication Research is your gateway to pioneering social science media research. Enhance your classroom learning by taking advantage of research opportunities with Media School faculty and graduate students in the ICR. The ICR supports survey research, focus groups and content analysis of media in addition to psychophysiology labs to measure heart rate, skin conductance, facial muscle coding and eye tracking.
The Black Film Center & Archive is a resource for scholars, students and researchers studying films and related materials by and about Black people.
The Center for Documentary Research and Practice serves as a research hub for historical, theoretical and critical research on nonfiction film and video, and hosts visiting artists and scholars who are working on projects with nonfiction media components.
The Center for International Media Law and Policy Studies researches the legal protection of media rights in Indiana, the United States and the world. The center studies free expression rights, educates the public and develops opportunities for students.
