History

History of Elon’s Interactive Media Program

The Master of Arts in Interactive Media launched in summer 2009 and prepares graduates to be leaders and innovators in the new world of 21st century communication. The 10-month, full-time program focuses on both theory and practical application. Students will create group and individual interactive media projects and participate in a domestic or international fly-in trip to collect content for a project that will serve the public good. Elon is one of only nine private institutions in the nation with a graduate communications program accredited by the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications (ACEJMC).

What Is Interactive Media?

Interactive media refers to the transformative ways that people share information and ideas through creative uses of technology.

Text, graphics, audio and video have been integrated into digital environments, allowing a user or audience to interact with the source of this content (typically via computer or mobile device) rather than receive content in a packaged linear form (such as a newspaper or evening newscast where the communication flow is one-way). Examples of interactive media include web sites, user-generated content, interactive television, gaming, interactive advertising, blogs and mobile telephony.

Elon’s Master of Arts in Interactive Media program will enroll approximately 20 students for a year of intensive, full-time study. The program invites working professionals who desire to return to school for a year of retooling, newly graduated communication students who wish to extend their education to interactive media, and graduates who earned other majors in college and now want to pursue a professional graduate degree.

The School of Communications and the M.A. in Interactive Media are accredited by the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications. Elon is one of only nine private institutions in the nation with an accredited graduate communications program.

Students will work in a high-tech graduate suite as they research, plan and develop interactive media projects. The program also includes a domestic or international fly-in to collect content for a Winter Term team project to serve the public good.

Classes are Monday through Friday during the day. Production classes will have fewer than 20 students; the full cohort of graduate students will be in theory and strategy courses.

Our Mission

The M.A. in Interactive Media program prepares students to think strategically across media platforms, plan and create interactive media content, and manage information in a digital age.

Curriculum

The Interactive Media program requires 11 courses (36 semester hours) from Summer II through Spring Term. Students admitted without prior undergraduate courses in Media Law and Ethics and Media Writing will take them as preparatory classes.

The curriculum is designed for graduate student development in four stages:

Media tools. The summer Digital Media Workshop ensures that all students have a strong grasp of the tools used to gather content. This includes audio recorders, still and video cameras, and a working knowledge of editing and Web software. This is a non-graded course so that students work together to become skilled in media tools.
Classroom interactions. Courses in the Fall Term are teacher-directed, with students learning both concepts and skills through in-class and out-of-class exercises and assignments. Students also learn the higher-level software packages for the creation and enhancement of interactive media.
Team projects. In the Winter Term, students are divided into teams and, under the direction of faculty members, travel to a domestic or international site for about a week to gather content through interviews, photographs, audio and video. Teams return to campus and, on deadline, complete their interactive projects for the public good.
Individual capstone projects. In the Spring Term, students complete an individual capstone project as a culminating experience. This gives students not only a team project for their portfolios, but also an individual project. Students have a greater choice of electives in the spring, while some students may prefer to emphasize strategic issues others may choose to emphasize advanced skills development.

National Accreditation

National Advisory Board

View the National Advisory Board Members page for more information.

We look to our national Communications Advisory Board for both professional expertise and program support. Our students benefit enormously by having media professionals and corporate executives come to campus each semester to share their expertise in classes and with individual students. In fact, students tell us the Advisory Board visit is a highlight of the semester. In turn, our faculty benefits from their discussion of communication trends that may impact our curriculum, our internship program and the job market for our seniors. Additional program support comes in the form of gifts and development efforts. For example, the Advisory Board and other sources have raised more than a half-million dollars in gifts and pledges to support the School of Communications.