Recommendation:

That the Faculty recommend to the Dean approval of the proposal to change the name of the Master of Arts in Mass Communication to the Master of Arts in Media Studies.

Rationale:

One advantage of changing the name of the MA program to Media Studies is that the new name will reflect more accurately the research and teaching of many of the graduate faculty members. Another advantage is that the new name will remove a term ("mass") that has restrictive connotations for many within the research discipline. Yet another advantage is that the new name will differentiate more clearly the program from the MA program in Communication (the similarity in names creates a good deal of confusion among potential applicants). A fourth advantage is that by including the word "media," the new program name will highlight our focus on the media and help to attract graduate students who are interested in studying the media. A final advantage is that the name "Media Studies" would parallel our undergraduate Media Studies submajor, which is designed to prepare students for research in graduate programs such as ours.