Media Studies provides students with a better understanding of self and society through a comprehensive overview of media institutions, forms, contents, creative processes, and social effects. Courses help prepare individuals for professions that require historical, theoretical, and creative knowledge of the media, such as education, the law, government service, the ministry, advertising and public relations, social services, industrial communications, and the arts and humanities. A major in the department encourages the student to view the media, both in the United States and around the world, as a unified field of study, while allowing a concentration in subjects and areas of special personal interest.

The Department of Media Studies offers work in several major areas of study, including film and television studies, advertising and marketing, international communications, and the media arts. Each area is designed to provide a comprehensive understanding of the substance and form of message variables in a variety of media systems, including speech, film, radio, television, narrowcast broadcasts, and the Internet. Students are introduced to research-oriented, rhetorical, and aesthetic approaches. Theory and research courses are complemented by basic and upper-level courses in film and television production. Students may elect a limited number of credits in internship programs at major corporate and public institutions in the greater New York area. They may also create special courses of study.