About the Communications and Media Studies Department

The Communication and Media Studies (CMS) department teaches students to be ethically and socially responsible professionals and scholars of communication, digital technology, film, television, and journalism.  From our campuses in New York City, the media capital of the world, our four majors balance critical thinking with hands-on experience as part of Fordham’s liberal arts curriculum.
 
Making sense of complex issues like fake news, freedom of speech, representation, privacy, and big data requires a broad range of expertise in the classroom.  Our interdisciplinary faculty are thought leaders and public intellectuals who are well-equipped to engage with  such issues through teaching and scholarship.  Our students go on to investigate, research, and tell impactful stories.  We teach them to listen and learn from the world around them, whether it be on screens, in newspapers, in strategic communication, and, perhaps most importantly, in their everyday lives. 
 
We advocate the model of the publically-engaged scholar and critically-informed practitioner who is civically and socially reflective through analytical and applied means. 
 
Curriculum Outcomes
Upon graduation from our department’s majors, students will (in no particular order):
  • Understand how communication is mediated through technologies, industries and institutions 
  • Connect the history of communication and media to the present and future 
  • Grasp the ethical and social justice dimensions of communication and media studies
  • Be critical consumers and producers of media content
  • Develop competency in research methods specific to their area of study 
  • Be civically and socially reflective through analytical and applied means.