Master of Arts in Public Media

PMMA Students Working in Classroom

"It's media with a mission."

Our flexible, interdisciplinary M.A. program in Public Media offers tracks in Multi-Platform Journalism and Strategic Communication. Both concentrations have the goal of using storytelling to promote dialogue, civic engagement, and social justice.

Now more than ever, public media matters.

It’s about real journalism, real communication strategies, and real narratives. It’s about committed, responsible storytelling across a variety of existing and emerging platforms, from radio to TV to mobile apps.

Our one-year program combines academic inquiry and hands-on experience. You’ll engage with media theory and build your own portfolio, working with committed scholar-activists, talented advocacy practitioners, and top professionals from traditional broadcasting and digital news media. Key partners for the program include pioneering public radio and television outlets WFUV, WNYC, BronxNet, and WNET.

The Public Media program continues to grow as we incorporate public media partners and work with organizations to provide our students with practical experience. Read more about our efforts.

Choose between two tracks:

  • The multi-platform journalism track will focus on audio, video, and interactive web content reporting, production, and distribution.

  • The strategic communication track will focus on nonprofits, the public sector, and social enterprises, including social media marketing, public relations, fundraising, and advocacy.

Program Highlights

  • Gain communications skills that are grounded in media ethics and theory.
  • Learn best practices for informative, compelling storytelling across platforms.
  • Develop multimedia production expertise in graphics, audio/video production and editing, and web and mobile design.
  • Take advantage of internships and courses at WFUV, WNYC, BronxNet, WNET, other media outlets, and public-interest and advocacy organizations.
  • Enroll in courses taught by media professionals from WFUV, CBS, The New York Times, WNYC, DoSomething, and more.

Program Basics

  • Designed as a  for full-time students, with evening courses at both our Rose Hill/Bronx campus and the Lincoln Center/Manhattan campuses, allowing for daytime employment, fieldwork, or internships.
  • Curriculum requires two core courses, four advanced courses, two electives or internships, and a summer master’s project for a total of 30 credits.
  • Opportunity to take electives in other graduate programs across Fordham's Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, as well as the Gabelli School of Business.
  • Courses are held at both the Rose Hill/Bronx campus and the Lincoln Center/Manhattan campus to take advantage of the different opportunities that each campus and neighborhood has to offer.

Careers

  • Multi-Platform journalist
  • Digital activist
  • Social entrepreneur
  • Communications director
  • Public relations specialist
  • Development director

The M.A. in Public Media (PMMA) program, Fordham, and WFUV, has changed my life forever. Attending Fordham is the best decision I have made in my life thus far.

Maya Sargent, PMMA '23, Associate Producer, Multimedia Journalist for WTXL in Tallahassee

- Read more testimonials

Public Media News

Journalism Students Assist at News Emmys

Journalism Students Assist at News Emmys

For the second year, the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences tapped Fordham students to help presenters give out Emmy awards for news and documentaries. The ceremonies took place on Sept. 27 and 28 at the Palladium Theater in Manhattan. Two students assisted the production on stage during the broadcast, while six others helped …

Journalism Students Learn Ropes at Spanish-Language TV Station

Journalism Students Learn Ropes at Spanish-Language TV Station

Journalism students in Fordham’s Master of Arts in Public Media program have been interning at HITN, a Brooklyn-based, Spanish-language television station dedicated to educational and cultural programming. The station has also hired graduates of the program. Ysabella Escalona, GSAS ’22, a recent graduate, and Viviana Villalva, a current student in the master of public media …

Telling the Stories that Matter in Fordham’s Public Media Master’s Program

Telling the Stories that Matter in Fordham’s Public Media Master’s Program

For Maya Sargent, public media is more than a career path; it’s a calling. The U.K. native traveled a lot with her family while she was younger, living in places such as Dubai and Spain, which sparked her curiosity and sense of storytelling even at a young age. “I’ve always been intrigued to find out …

Seen, Heard, Read: ‘White Noise,’ ‘Looking for Violet,’ and ‘All the Women in My Brain’

Seen, Heard, Read: ‘White Noise,’ ‘Looking for Violet,’ and ‘All the Women in My Brain’

White Noise a film based on the novel by Don DeLillo, FCRH ’58 Don DeLillo’s novel White Noise has aged well since it won a National Book Award in 1985. Darkly funny, it parodies academia and captures the media, technology, and consumer culture of the mid-’80s—what one character calls the “incessant bombardment of information,” much …

Public Media Graduate Wins Prestigious Awards for Podcast on Rom-Coms

Public Media Graduate Wins Prestigious Awards for Podcast on Rom-Coms

When Carmen Borca-Carrillo was deciding on her capstone project for the master’s in public media program at Fordham, film and television seemed like the obvious choice. She was passionate about movies and TV, having earned her bachelor’s degree in journalism and film and television at Fordham College at Lincoln Center in 2020 and pursuing the …

A Colombian Immigrant Finds Beauty in Art and America

A Colombian Immigrant Finds Beauty in Art and America

Melissa Mejia has always been an artist. Growing up in Colombia, she painted school murals and took extracurricular art classes on weekends. As a teenager in New York, she was awarded first runner-up in a national high school art competition. She also won several art scholarships and created two pieces that were featured in the …

Enhanced Partnerships, Accelerated Track Add to Public Media Program’s Growth

Enhanced Partnerships, Accelerated Track Add to Public Media Program’s Growth

Media with a message. That’s the key component of Fordham’s one-year, 30-credit graduate public media master’s program, according to director Beth Knobel, Ph.D. “There are other programs that are here in the media capital of the world, but none of them are in a Jesuit school that brings an emphasis on ethics and on serving …

A New Master’s with a Mission in Public Media

A New Master’s with a Mission in Public Media

Fordham is offering the first graduate communications degree available in New York City designed specifically to focus on nonprofit rather than commercial media. Billed as “Media with a Mission,” the new Master’s in Public Media degree, undertaken in partnership with WFUV and WNET/Channel 13 public television, begins in the fall of 2016. It is one of …