Graduate Diploma in Arts in Media Studies

at Massey University - Wellington Campus New Zealand

Discover how the media shape our identities and our world. Massey will help you create, critique, and connect with the media world, building skills to understand and make media for a wide range of professional communication roles.

Media studies is an exciting discipline that will prepare you for the challenges of an information-rich society.

Media studies is taught through an innovative qualification that blends theory with creative practice. It analyses the production, consumption and content of media and their social, cultural, political and economic implications.

You will learn how decisions are made on what is communicated, how media forms and industry structures shape those messages, and how this impacts our lives and understanding of the world.

Media studies will help you become a flexible and critical thinker and maker, equipped to be a digitally literate, politically-engaged citizen.

Go beyond your bachelor’s degree and advance your photography skills with a Postgraduate Diploma in Design.

The Postgraduate Diploma in Design is an opportunity for you to upskill in creative practice, modern photographic skills, technology and theory.

The Bachelor of Commercial Music (Honours) is a one-year degree, with taught courses followed by an independent project. You’ll get one-on-one mentorship and support from our industry-connected academics.

You’ll gain more skills in research, development and creating prototypes and learn how to make your work professional. Your creative work will be research-driven, as you explore your place in the complex, ever-changing music industry.

This includes world-class recording facilities and technology labs, as well as a range of immersive media technologies. You’ll learn from well-connected academics who have extensive research and performance expertise in New Zealand and across the globe.

The world is undergoing a radical shift in how people communicate, work and share ideas. More people can share more ideas in more ways than ever before - photos, video, animations, tweets, graphics and experiences. We can connect with people across countries, languages and cultures. People can interact with governments and corporations in new ways, while they are using the same tools to try to influence us.

Visual communication design (VCD) offers huge scope and flexibility. At Massey, we teach a diverse range of media, like print, web and video, and give you the chance to try all of them. Within VCD you can explore and specialise in print, typographic and editorial design, information and graphic design, web, interaction and service design, and illustration and branding. You’ll learn to solve complex design problems. You’ll follow your interests and aspirations by developing a higher level of expertise in a specific area.

Create, critique, and connect with your media world with the Graduate Diploma in Arts (Media Studies). You will gain the equivalent of an undergraduate major in media studies without completing a second bachelor’s degree.

Interested in television and popular culture? Social media and the blogosphere? Film and cultural theory? Media studies can help you unlock your creative potential and develop practical skills to excel in your career.

The Graduate Diploma in Arts (Media Studies) is a bridging tool for graduates in other subjects to get the equivalent of a major in media studies.

Study musicianship and performance in the popular genre of your choice — whether you’re a singer, DJ, or in a band, Music Practice will give you the skills and confidence to take risks and make it in the music industry.

In the Music Practice major, you’ll learn songwriting, composition, musicianship, and performance from some of New Zealand’s top musicians and professionals. The Bachelor of Commercial Music has strong connections with the music industry in New Zealand and around the globe, guaranteeing you an immersive, real-world-focused music education.

You’ll develop your writing and performing craft in your instrument or interface of choice—that could be an instrument, your voice, or your computer.  Learn to produce and compose music with industry-standard software and hardware, in some of the best facilities in the Southern Hemisphere.

Your study of public relations delivers knowledge and skills that are in increasing demand – public relations is one of the fastest-growing specialist areas of communication.

The Massey Bachelor of Communication (Public Relations) will build the skills you need for a successful career in public relations. You will develop your interpersonal and inter-group communication abilities. You’ll also learn strategic thinking, planning, writing, research and information processing skills.

You’ll learn how to help organisations to communicate in persuasive and ethical ways with their staff, customers, regulators, communities, investors, and society. Public relations practitioners:

• Organise events
• Write and edit media releases
• Write and edit online and print newsletters and publications
• Manage risk and crisis communications
• Develop strategic public relations plans, and
• Build relationships through digital media.

More than just the design of buildings, spatial design is all about how people experience spaces. It intersects with the more traditional design fields of architecture, landscape design, interior design, urban design and environmental design.

People inhabit the world in many ways, but we all have spaces where we live, work, play, relax, perform, gather, learn, heal, and celebrate. The design of spaces affects how you feel, how you act, and how you interact with others: Does the layout of your local hospital make you feel reassured or stressed? Do you find you want to linger in some cafes but not in others? Does an office space make it easy and natural for people to get together? Do the views on a walk surprise and delight you because someone has thought carefully about the experience?

Spatial design can improve the standard and quality of our lives, enrich our culture and national identity, and contribute to business success. In spatial design studio courses, you'll learn to design for a host of spaces: private, public, retail, event, work, game, furnishing, experience, display, interface and performance. You learn to use the latest technologies and approaches to design spaces at the required scale, from the big picture (eg urban planning) to the fine detail of construction and materials.

In the Master of Design, you’ll produce innovative and responsive design work that is thoroughly grounded in design research methodologies and expertly realised, with the option to work with industry leaders at Weta Workshop.

The Master of Management (Journalism) is a qualification for those who are wanting to prepare for a career in journalism or those who have already been in the industry and are interested in specialising.