New Media & Digital Culture

During the one-year Master’s programme in New Media & Digital Culture, you will delve into the many aspects of what it means to live in an age of new media. Guided by experienced scholars you will assist with research projects and learn to reflect critically on how present-day cultures are shaped by social media, data, games, internet activism, apps, data visualisations, mobile devices, algorithms, and participatory platforms. 

Contemporary features of new media technologies

The programme pivots around three contemporary features of new media technologies and their relationship to culture and society, namely: the mobile/urban aspect, the ludic/games aspect, and the software/data aspect. While the programme highlights the overlaps and synergies between these aspects, students can also choose to specialise in a profile. Engaging with a profile means following a set trajectory of courses and a profile-related internship and thesis.

Interdisciplinary and international

The programme uses a broad yet clearly delineated approach, drawing on interdisciplinary perspectives from media studies, communication studies, cultural studies, game studies, philosophy, anthropology, history, art history, gender studies, and political science. Our students come from a wide variety of countries, such as the Netherlands, Germany, the United Kingdom, China, Spain, Greece, Mexico, Indonesia, the United States of America, and Switzerland. Their educational backgrounds range from media studies, sociology, and communication studies, to philosophy, and literature.

Research internship

Both our general programme and its more specific profile trajectories cater to a job market and an industry interested in graduates who are capable of critical engagement with the cultural implications of the complex media culture we live in. To facilitate both in-depth knowledge about new media and digital culture with more practical hands-on experience, you will also complete a research internship.

Research collaborations

With many opportunities to explore Utrecht’s creative industry and participate in ongoing research collaborations, this Master involves students as quickly as possible in social and academic discussions on new media. Ad-hoc seminars and workshops, data analysis projects (organised by the Utrecht Data School), Game Studies Summer Schools (hosted by the Center for the Study of Digital Games and Play), and seminar series and events (organised by the [urban interfaces] research group) provide ample scope to boost your new media profile.

Active career development

Moderately sized groups of students, individual tutoring, and the chance to participate in international research projects provide you with multiple ways to develop your skills, explore your interests, and achieve valuable academic and personal results. Our dynamic and active community of students, alumni, and scholars provides a wide array of extracurricular activities and access to a large network of practitioners, media artists, policy makers, entrepreneurs, and activists from the most diverse strands of digital culture. 

After graduation

• You have developed the vocabulary to analyse and reflect on the meanings, functions, and effects of new media technologies.
• You will be able to translate your new media knowledge and skills into practical advice, policies, and applications.
• You have acquired the tools to become a critical researcher, consultant, teacher, writer, designer, or policy-maker.
• You possess the tools to investigate and to enlarge our understanding of the many ways in which new media are embedded within, and reflect on, a changing society.

As a graduate of NMDC you are well equipped to fill a position in educational and cultural institutions, governmental institutions or in media and ICT industries. 

Admission

New Media & Digital Culture is a selective Master’s programme. Do you want to know if you are eligible for this Master?