Oct 15, 2024  
USC Catalogue 2024-2025 
    
USC Catalogue 2024-2025

Digital Media Management (MS)


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The acceleration of worldwide mobile internet access has made digital media indispensable to commerce, culture, and human connection. Digital media platforms and content are driving growth across industries, with sectors such as streaming video, music, games and online publishing experiencing an unprecedented increase in global revenues. Envisioning and deploying the digital media products of the future will involve collaboration between culturally diverse and geographically dispersed teams. The Master of Science in Digital Media Management (MSDMM) program is designed to prepare professionals to better understand the evolving media landscape, to make data-driven and ethical decisions, and to build a more equitable future by leading diverse teams with the technical, artistic, analytical and production skills needed to create engaging content and technologies for the global marketplace.

Meeting the demands of diverse markets starts with digital media leaders who can effectively advance an inclusive and equitable culture within their own organizations. MSDMM students will learn professional practices needed for the strategic management of their teams, including: recruiting and onboarding an optimal mix of talent, promoting anti-racist and non-discriminatory policies, and cultivating a work environment where each person thrives. Additionally, by analyzing how organizations use digital platforms to aggregate and empower users, students will explore how to support diverse perspectives in storytelling and content-creation, delivering a user experience that balances organizational needs with the ethical imperatives to foster inclusivity, equity and access.

Through an examination of the intersecting relationships between digital media practices, consumer culture and society, students will also acquire a holistic understanding of digital media culture and business practices, and develop a critically-oriented foundation that prepares them for their roles as future leaders. Students will use real-world case studies as a springboard to ideate, create and evaluate the cutting-edge techniques, data collection methodologies and creative guidelines that can be used to implement long-range strategies for ethical media management. The program encourages immediate application of key concepts to industry challenges and opportunities with consideration of emerging technologies. Strategies for effectively communicating complex ideas to a variety of audiences and stakeholders are incorporated throughout the program.

A Master of Science degree in Digital Media Management requires 24 units of course work offered in the fall, spring and summer semesters. The program may be completed on a full-time or part-time basis. Students attending the program on a full-time basis can earn a degree within 12 months, and those on a part-time basis can complete the program in two years or less.

All master's degree candidates in the Annenberg School of Communication are required to complete the Managing Complexity in Diverse Organizations training during their enrollment at USC. This non-credit, professional skills training is offered online by USC Annenberg every fall, spring and summer term and is designed to foster students' ability to create, sustain and thrive within diverse work environments. Modules include: fostering connection and inclusive cultures; managing implicit biases and power; understanding the impact of technology on diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility (DEIA); creating representative and inclusive content; and developing habits and strategies to effect lasting change. To learn more about this training please visit our website.

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