Master of Arts in New Media & Digital Culture

Explore How New Media are Changing our Daily Practices and Cultures

During the one-year Master’s program in New Media and Digital Culture, you will delve into the many aspects of what it means to live in an age of new media. Guided by experienced scholars, you will assist with research projects and learn to reflect critically on how present-day cultures are shaped by social media, data, games, internet activism, apps, data visualizations, mobile devices, algorithms, and participatory platforms.

Contemporary Features of New Media Technologies

The program pivots around three contemporary features of new media technologies and their relationship to culture and society, namely: the mobile/urban aspect, the ludic/games aspect, and the software/data aspect. While the program highlights the overlaps and synergies between these aspects, students can also choose to specialize in a profile, e.g. Media, Data, and Society. Engaging with a profile means following a set trajectory of courses and a profile-related internship and thesis.

Research Internship

Both our general program and its more specific profile trajectories cater to a job market and an industry interested in graduates who are capable of critical engagement with the cultural implications of the complex media culture we live in. To facilitate both in-depth knowledges about new media and digital culture with more practical hands-on experience, you will also complete a research internship towards starting a promising career.

Active Career Development

Moderately sized groups of students, individual tutoring, and the chance to participate in international research projects provide you with multiple ways to develop your skills, explore your interests, and achieve valuable academic and personal results. Our dynamic and active community of students, alumni, and scholars provides a wide array of extracurricular activities and access to a large network of practitioners, media artists, policymakers, entrepreneurs, and activists from the most diverse strands of digital culture.

After Graduation

• You have developed the vocabulary to analyze and reflect on the meanings, functions, and effects of new media technologies.
• You will be able to translate your new media knowledge and skills into practical advice, policies, and applications.
• You have acquired the tools to become a critical journalist, researcher, teacher, writer, designer, or policy-maker.
• You possess the tools to investigate and to enlarge our understanding of the many ways in which new media are embedded within, and reflect on, a changing society.

As a graduate of NMDC, you are well equipped to fill a position in educational and cultural institutions, governmental institutions, or in the Media and ICT industries.

Graduates of this Master’s program await a large and expanding professional field:

• Media industries: graduates enter careers in media, information, communication, and cultural industries as an advisor, producer, developer, interface/software architect, festival organizer, presenter, designers engineer, etc.
• Governmental institutions: graduates fill advisory positions in governmental institutions and shape policies that make a difference in how our society gives its citizens the (digital) opportunities to act and have influence. The political ramifications of new media are often hidden in hardware and algorithms, but our students will know how to bring them out in the open and make them the subject of critical reflection.
• Educational and cultural institutions: graduates are well prepared to transfer knowledge and skills in ways that connect with the expectations of many types of audiences in educational and cultural settings. Think of schools and universities, or public organizations that help advocate new media literacies.

Professional Careers

Around 80% of our graduates find a job within six months after graduation, mostly via the networks created during the research internship phase of the programme.

Some examples of careers of our alumni:

• Lindsy Szilvasi works as a Legal Assistant Trademarks at Google.
• Ward Geene is a Game Journalist /and Editor in Chief at IGN Benelux.
• Vivette Rittman works as a Culture and Communications Analyst

Other alumni found jobs as:

• Designer and Advisor at SETUP, Utrecht's Digital Media Lab.
• Lecturer and Researcher on new media, culture and society at the Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam.
• Marketing & Media Specialist at the Amsterdam Fashion Institute (AMFI).

More graduates have found jobs at, amongst others:

Google | VPRO | PICNIC | Mindshare | Beeld & Geluid | Rathenau Institute | Rabobank | Oxfam/Novib | Greenberry

Academic Careers

The Master’s program in New Media and Digital Culture does not specifically train you to become an academic scholar with a PhD degree. Even though some of our graduates have successfully pursued an academic career, we would recommend applying for the two-year Research Master’s program in Media and Performance Studies if you are specifically interested in obtaining a PhD degree.