Mission of the Center on Media & Society

The Center on Media and Society, affiliated with the John W. McCormack Graduate School of Policy Studies, is designed to bring the world of media and communication practice to the University of Massachusetts Boston campus, complementing and enhancing academic courses and research. To add to the University’s urban mission, the Center on Media and Society has identified unique contributions it hopes to make to the community at large.

The Center has begun its work in 2004 by focusing on two themes:

  • News Media and Political Power
  • Ethnic and Community Journalism



The founding director is Ellen Hume, former White House correspondent and national television commentator, who, in 2008, became the research director of the Center for Future Civic Media at MIT. Frank Herron, former newspaper journalist and UMass lecturer, is the current director of the Center for Media and Society.

The Role of Media in Today's Society

Media are a central factor of life around the world.  American adults spend about half of their leisure time watching television, according to a 2006 report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The average American household has the television turned on 7 hours a day. The world’s Internet usage population has climbed to 1.4 billion in 2008 and is expanding rapidly.  Radio is identified by the World Bank as a critical asset to economic and political development in Africa, Asia and elsewhere. Film, television, music, radio, advertising, print publishing and computer software continue to be among America's leading exports. Newspapers, while facing a steep decline in readership and advertising in the United States, appear to be thriving elsewhere in the world. Global newspaper advertising spending is expected to grow from $125 billion in 2007 to $130 billion in 2010, according to Zenith Optimedia. Sociologist Todd Gitlin observes that “spending time with communications machinery is the main use to which we have put our freedom.”

These are some of the questions for scholars to address and students to understand as part of an academic field discipline called media and communication studies. This field that has developed exponentially in the last 25 years, following the media’s own growth in scope and influence.

  • What difference is this making?

  • How should consumers and content creators understand the role of media content and availability in politics, economics, and social cultures?

  • How does our brain process information differently when we are reading a newspaper, listening to radio, surfing the Net, or watching TV?

  • What is journalism exactly, and under what circumstances does it matter to public policy-making?

  • How should we determine the trustworthiness and value of media content?

  • What is the role of the Internet in China’s democracy movement?

  • What are the most effective and/or ethical communications techniques for advocacy, negotiation or persuasion?

  • How does it matter if information is portrayed through different journalism and advocacy frameworks on television?



Students Can Gain Job Skills and Work Experience

The Center is part of an effort at UMass Boston to enhance its curriculum by including a new focus on media and communication studies. The Center makes job skills and connections to the world of work a central part of our mission.

Internships available at

  • New England Cable News (NECN)
  • newspapers in the Boston area
  • American Public Television (APT)
  • WUMB, our campus public radio station.

We are working to create other internships at local media, government and public relations companies. We also hope to establish “coaching” relationships with local professionals for selected students who are heading into media and communications careers.

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