Graduate Programs in Media Study

Gain insight into the demands and expectations of employers through credit-bearing and, in some cases, paid internships. Develop real world skills, build your resume and expand your professional network. Students displaying knowledge, professionalism and a solid work ethic are oftentimes offered full-time positions. 

Explore internship opportunities at production studios, local TV studios, and media access centers. In the past, students have interned with:

• The David Letterman Show
• MTV
• NYC-TV
• Tricoast Studios
• Late Night with Conan O’Brien
• Black Entertainment Network (BET)
• Human Code
• Fireant Design
• The Rachael Ray Show
• Buffalo Pan Am Exposition Project

Read about Media Study undergraduate student Michael Hunter's 2020 internship with the NFL.

Enhance your oral, written and interpersonal communication skills through a variety of department, university, student group and professional organization opportunities. In addition, you can network with industry professionals who are invited to present and engage our students in local, national, and international practices within various fields of the Media Study discipline.

Network with your peers in the Department of Media Studies, and participate in Media Study events such as:

• Graduate seminar exhibitions
• Student shows
• Workshops
• Thesis screenings
• Guest speakers

Build on your existing knowledge and progress toward expertise in a range of tools and devices integral to the practice of media arts using our facilities and equipment. 

You will have access to “traditional” film/video/audio production equipment including:

• An array of professional- and pro-sumer-level digital video cameras
• Sync- and non-sync 16mm and Super-8 film cameras
• Audio recorders; microphones
• Tripod systems, dollies, lighting kits, grip accessories
• Field monitors
• Presentation equipment including film and video projectors and media players

You will also have access to devices, tools, and software essential to fields of mobile media production, interactive installation, physical computing, sensing, and more. Hardware includes:

• Microcomputers and microprocessors
• Frame grabbers
• Cmucams/webcams
• Mobile devices
• Various sensors, electronic components, breadboards, soldering irons
• Diagnostic tools

Gain an in-depth understanding of the issues surrounding diversity and culture and its impact on policies, political groups, regulations, laws and funding. Develop cultural self-awareness and learn to appreciate and value diverse views.

Below is a small sampling of some of our faculty members' interests and work providing insight into the mediums, issues, approaches and challenges to which our students are exposed. Visit our Faculty page for a comprehensive look at who we are and what we do. 

• Sarah Elder, MFA, Professor, is an international award winning documentary filmmaker whose work focuses on the practices and and ethics of filming across cultural and social boundaries.
• John Fiege, MFA, Assistant Professor is a filmmaker and photographer whose work explores our relationships with one another and the environment, probing key questions at the heart of our global ecological crisis, including how art, activism, community, and culture are vitally linked to our ecological predicament.
• Cort Lippe, Associate Professor, research includes more than 35 peer-reviewed publications on interactive music, granular sampling, score following, spectral processing, FFT-based spatial distribution/delay, acoustic instrument parameter mapping, and instrument design. He has won numerous international prizes and his works are recorded on more than 30 CDs.
• Cody Mejeur, PhD, Visiting Assistant Professor, is a game scholar, developer, player, and activist whose work focuses on trans, queer, and feminist studies and social justice in video games and new media.
• Mark Shepard, MS, MFA, Associate Professor: Recent work includes False Positive, a mobile performance and workshop that deploys text messaging, stealth infrastructure, street intervention, and data visualization to enact a surveillance conspiracy engaging the public in an intimate, techno-political conversation with the mobile technologies on which they depend.

Advance your ability to find, evaluate, produce and communicate information on and through various digital platforms. Employing diverse methods in experimental and radical approaches to the discipline, we prepare students to both thrive in and shape a media-saturated world.

Apply your skills in real-world projects. For example, MFA student Lee Terwilliger was the lead animator in a short film about the Velvet Underground’s first gig in 1965: in front of a crowd of shocked kids at a suburban New Jersey high school.

Depending on your program, interests and career goals, you gain advanced skills in:

• Computational media
• Emerging technologies
• Programable graphics
• Physical computing
• Networked computing
• Computer science

In addition, the department offers access to devices, tools, and software essential to fields of mobile media production, interactive installation, physical computing, sensing, and more.

Formulate your own position on a subject, performance or other artistic endeavor that is supported by evidence and analysis. Learn to compare and discuss different attitudes towards and interpretations subjectively. 

We have strong working relationships with nearby media and cultural organizations including the C.E.P.A.Gallery, Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, Squeaky Wheel Film and Media Art Center, the Buffalo Bills, and numerous television stations and production houses where students gain real-world experience and perspectives.

Rise to the challenge by gaining experience and leadership skills in some of the hundreds of University at Buffalo extracurricular and governance organizations, civic groups and volunteer activities. 

For example, gain leadership experience and network with peers and faculty members through Palah 파랗 Light Lab, a creative space that fosters poetry, participation, and pedagogy through technology and equity.

Acquire the knowledge and skills to initiate, plan, execute, control, and close projects to achieve specific organizational goals. Negotiate reasonable and achievable deadlines and milestones, and report results to multiple stakeholders. In short, gain hands-on experience delivering projects that meet the organization’s goals on time and on budget.

Graduate students are required to design and complete a capstone or research project, prepare a thesis, and present the results to faculty members and students in the program:

• MFA in Media Arts Production students become acquainted with many types of media production while becoming expert in the practice of one or more modes of production. The degree culminates in the student authoring both a final media project and a thesis in their area of specialty. 
• MS in Media Arts and Sciences students ultimately embark on writing an MS Thesis or a producing a research project (or some combination thereof) under faculty guidance in areas such as Gaming; Mobile, Social and Computational Media; Virtual Reality; Bio Art; and Interaction Design.
• Interdisciplinary MA in Humanities in Film and Media Study students undertake a capstone experience which leads to a research project or paper under the guidance of two faculty advisors, one from the Department of Media Study and one from their chosen Humanities discipline. 

Learn the intricacies of teamwork through collaboration with classmates on applied group projects, research papers, academic competitions, in student organizations and volunteer opportunities in the community. 

For example, UB's Intermedia Performance Studio is a collaborative initiative involving researchers, scientists and artists interested in exploring how digital technology and virtual environments can affect interpersonal dynamics. Recent projects include:

• Human Trials
• An Invitation to Lose Your 21st Century Western Mind

Take advantage of opportunities to work with fellow students and faculty members in our specialized labs:

• CFA Lab 242: 9 Windows OS computers exceeding system requirements for VR capability; for Game Design, Game Studies, programming, VR
• CFA Lab 244: 22 Mac computers for multimedia creation, programming, web design, graphics
• CFA Lab 246: 22 Mac computers for video editing and instruction
• CFA Lab 266: 16mm Film Editing: 6 and 8 plate Steenbeck flatbed editors, rewind benches
• CFA Lab 270: Graduate student editing lab
• CFA Lab 281: VR Lab with PC, monitor, open space for VR
• CFA Lab 284: Post-production and Animation editing lab
• CFA Lab 290: Audio Editing and Recording Lab with isolation booth
• Crosby Hall 201: The Extensible Media Lab located on South Campus, resources include 3D & PCB printing, an array of electronics, microprocessors, and sensing components for design and prototype of projects

Expand your world view and prepare to work in our interconnected global ecosystem. Gain critical perspective for effective performance in an increasingly diverse and interconnected world. Take advantage of opportunities to interact with global-minded scholars and students through department and university sponsored events. 

For example, PLASMA (Performances, Lectures, and Screenings in Media Art) brings internationally celebrated artists to discuss varied arts practices, models, modes, examples, and experiences in media arts. The series serves as a kind of hub as to how courses in new media, digital poetics, game studies, locative media, robotics, installation, media theory and performance arts can be experienced.