MA in Global Communications

Delivering transformative educational experiences since 2006, AUP’s MA in Global Communications is an interdisciplinary, hybrid academic program that produces expert communications professionals and scholars. Taught by a dedicated, inspirational and international faculty made up of intellectual and professional leaders in their fields, the program is designed for you to find a pathway to future success that suits your own needs.

Studying for an MA in Paris with students from around the globe is a unique opportunity for thinking about communication across disciplines and across cultures. Whether our students are looking to hone research skills or improve their career prospects, we believe they leave our program committed to using their education to make a difference. - Prof. Hannah Westley, Associate Dean for Grad. Studies

RNCP Certification and Post-Graduate Work in Paris

Graduates of the MA in Global Communications (MAGC) and the MSc in Strategic Brand Management (SBM) will be awarded two certifications upon successfully completing the degree requirements:

  • The American University of Paris Master’s Diploma certifying the successful completion of the program’s degree requirements, including its 48 credits. 
  • The degree qualification “Manager de la Communication et de Marketing International (Manager of International Communications/Marketing)”. This European-level qualification is recognized by the French state and is recorded in the French national register of professional qualifications (Répertoire National des Certifications Professionelles, or RNCP). The RNCP is the central reference framework for all diplomas, qualifications and titles recognized by the French state. This professional certification allows its holder to demonstrate competency of the skills and knowledge necessary to exercise an activity corresponding to a professional field. It guarantees that the holder is qualified to begin work in that field immediately.

The MA in Global Communications program and the MSc in Strategic Brand Management are both recognized by the RNCP. As part of this certification, all MAGC and SBM students who graduated on or after May 21, 2013, are eligible to apply for the Carte de séjour -Recherche d’emploi/création d’entreprise. This grants students the opportunity to live and work in France, as per the guidelines of the visa.

In the Fall of 2022, AUP launched the MSC in Strategic Brand Management. The MSc in SBM is a hybrid degree combining classes from AUP's Master of Science in International Management with classes from the Master of Arts in Global Communications. Courses in the MAGC program are equally core courses in the SBM program so that the RNCP certification is awarded to both degrees.

Please note that only MA in Global Communications and MSc in Strategic Brand Management students are eligible for the Carte de séjour -Recherche d’emploi/création d’entreprise at this time. It is advisable to apply for the Carte de séjour -Recherche d’emploi/création d’entreprise after you have completed your studies but before your student visa expires. Please contact the Graduate Office (graduateprogramsataup.edu) for more information.

 

Breadth of expertise

The courses in this program take advantage of the extraordinary breadth of faculty knowledge and expertise, in a curriculum always being adapted to meet emerging needs. We welcome students with a wide range of interests and provide expert academic and practical training on topics spanning:

  • Communications Theory – from the development of the field and its major concepts and debates to the latest debates and challenges in a globalized world
  • Digital Media Technologies – from the rise and promise of the Internet to the immersive networks of social media and ubiquitous computing devices
  • Global Media and Media Systems – producing comparative knowledge of structures of ownership, control, influence and innovation
  • Visual Culture – exploring the multivalent power of images and screens and practices of looking
  • The Creative Industries – their increasing role in advertising and branding goods and services, and promoting and disrupting ideas and values
  • Journalism and Public Relations including the challenges and opportunities of producing and sharing compelling content in an attention-based digital economy
  • Fashion and Material Culture – from luxury to sustainability in a rapidly transforming industry and wide-ranging practices of consumption in a consumerist society and beyond
  • Cultural Difference and Cultural Diversity – their complex relationship to changing practices and politics of communication globally, including practices, policies and organizations
  • Activism and Advocacy – in a world of new political stakes and stakeholders and transformative technologies

Developing critical and practical skills

Across these areas of expertise, you will develop a toolkit of critical and practical skills to equip you for the varied and fast-moving communications landscape. Global Communications graduates move into the workplace with core competencies, such as research skills, qualitative and quantitative analysis, writing for different audiences, oral communication and presentation skills, and visual communication methods, including video, visual design, and data visualization.

An international approach to learning

The MA in Global Communications encourages students to take their education beyond the classroom. Your learning experience is deepened by the opportunity of immersive practica and study trips where you will come into contact with experts in the field. Whether networking with communications professionals in New York or London, developing sustainable initiatives in India, or experiencing nation branding in Iceland or cultural heritage in Morocco, we are committed to putting theory into practice.

Program Requirements

The program features core and elective courses, allowing you to focus on various fields of practice. We cover a rich scope of content in the expanding fields of communications, media studies and cultural studies, including:

CM5001 Global Communications

This course introduces students to major theories and practices of communications research, particularly those dealing with the globalization of media and culture. Students learn a mixture of approaches: rhetorical, quantitative, ethnographic and textual. They learn how various disciplines—economics, political science, anthropology, sociology, and rhetoric—deal with these issues. They also study a variety of research methodologies, learn how to create research projects and develop thesis-writing skills.

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Select three courses from the following list:

CM5002 Brands And Belief

This course examines the evolution of critical advertising and brand analysis with a particular emphasis on learning how people come to identify with and believe in brands. It includes an analysis of how brands work as systems for producing differences between themselves by creating imaginary possible worlds associated with brands. Students learn tools of semiotic and linguistic analysis in analyzing brands and how they relate to each other. Each student completes a communications audit of a brand examining all aspects of its communicative strategies from package design to employee behavior, clothing, architecture, and shop design. The course will also examine how branding now has extended beyond consumer brands to such areas as NGOs and politics (political parties as brands and politicians as brands).

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CM5004 Global Digital Cultures

This course provides an introduction to key topics and theories in the study of the Internet and other digital media as cultural and social phenomena. Four main themes guide our approach: space and networks; bodies and identities; objects and practices; and economics and politics. Within the contexts of globalization, we will place particular emphasis on interrogating transformations made possible by the pervasion of digital media, but also restrictions and contestations that arise. Students will develop their individual interests in relevant topics with an independent research project.

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CM5005 Identity Formation In A Transnat'l World

This course examines the theories of self and identity formation in a globalized world where traditional techniques of identity formation coming from religions and schools and family are being supplemented or changed by techniques coming from other cultures and countries. Some of these ways of self-identification are influenced by consumerism, advertising and media. Some are influenced by traditional physical and moral training or globalized martial arts. Some are influenced by the implantation of psychological and therapeutic techniques from the West. Others are linked to the circulation of techniques of self-formation from yoga, tai chi, and kabala that have been taken out of their traditional contexts and globalized, mediatized and modernized. This course looks at people who seek to make and define themselves in various different local contexts. It will also examine the rise of religious fundamentalism, its appeal to youth, and how it uses media. The course also looks at the role of media, institutions and advertising consumer culture in this process.

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CM5025 Communication & The Global Public Sphere

This course focuses on the concept of the/a public. Discusses how media and political actors rhetorically constitute the public; how they (and occasionally governments) constitute “public spaces”(virtual and material) in which public discourse takes place, and how institutional and technological forces constitute “public opinion” and articulate “the public interest.” On the other hand, we will consider how political economy of media and social practices facilitate or stifle spaces, political actors, and publics. The course will also compare contemporary manifestations of public-making with Habermas’s theory of the public sphere, which he thought was an area of social life vital to a legitimate democracy. The potentiality, control, and use of new communication technologies are explored in relation to the existence and future of a global public sphere.

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CM5026 Politics & Economics Of Global Media

This course examines the dynamics of the global media system. Students will gain a critical awareness of how international flows of information, entertainment and lifestyle values play a powerful role in shaping cultural and political realities. The concept of "soft power" is key in examining the influence of Western pop culture, whether as "imperialism" or as "globalization". The course examines soft power in various forms: Hollywood movies, television series, pop music, Disney cartoons, fast food such as Coca-Cola and McDonalds, and social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. The course also analyzes the influence of non-Anglo-American pop culture — from Turkish soap operas to Latin American "telenovelas".

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CM5060 Visual Culture, Theory & Communication

This course explores the power of visual forms of media and communication in forming and transforming our world and society. Through a transcultural survey of materials, contexts and theories, students will learn to study the visual as a place where meanings are created and contested, and understand how culture, ideology, and social norms and values can be conveyed through images. We will engage film, photography, museum exhibitions, advertisement, news reports, and consider the transformation of these media in a globalized digital environment. The rising power of digital vernacular images – images made by ordinary people in ordinary situations – is one of the subjects to be considered. We will address the impact of social media on the redefinition of community and identity, and on the transformation of politics and branding. Ultimately, students will deploy “tactics for studying the functions of a world addressed through pictures, images, and visualizations”. They will learn how visual theories extend across cultures, how visual practices shape the physical and cultural conditions of vision, and how visual media impacts our identity and environment in fundamental ways.

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CM5097 Global Communications Research Seminar

This graduate course focuses each semester on a topic of current research within the field of communications. Each week, the topic will be explored in a dual format: a seminar accompanied by a guest lecture by a different researcher in the field. The course aims to provide a comprehensive overview of debates of contemporary relevance to communications scholarship.

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Explore the full Program Requirements

Critical thinking and professional skills

This degree will prepare you to be a culturally literate, influential and boundary-pushing communications professional.

Program Learning Outcomes:
  1. Understand and be able to use qualitative and/or quantitative communications research methodologies  
  2. Be aware of key issues in debates about globalization and their relationship to forms of global media and culture
  3. Develop critical perspectives on major concepts and theories in media studies, communications, and cultural studies
  4. Develop practical competence in a field of contemporary communications
As a student of the MA in Global Communications you will:
  • Challenge assumptions and weigh up opposing perspectives, to find the right evidence, and to build compelling arguments on complex emerging topics
  • Develop independent research skills to deepen your own topics of contemporary significance in close consultation with faculty
  • Master practical skills in cutting-edge techniques and technologies of communication
  • Gain professional training and experience with industry leaders from a wide range of organizations
  • Be immersed in experiential learning, in the field, in the studio, in intensive workshops and in international locations
  • Explore global and cross-cultural perspectives in a world where human interaction has been both enhanced and fragmented and understand the importance of historical contexts to contemporary challenges
  • Receive intellectual and professional mentorship in intimate classrooms, personalized attention and faculty-student collaboration

Global Communication Tracks

Building on the core program, the MA in Global Communications offers specialized tracks in fashion, development, and digital cultures and industries communication.

Strong Graduate Employment

Close to 9 out of every 10 graduate alumni that graduated from The American University of Paris during the years 2012-2014 have found a job, become entrepreneurs or pursued additional educational routes within one year of graduation. Our graduate programs provide academic excellence and practical knowledge that prepares you to successfully enter the international employment market after graduation. 

Internships

During the course of your study, you are encouraged to build on your education at AUP by applying gained knowledge and skills. An internship provides you with the crucial connection between theoretical knowledge and the real world experience that can ultimately kick start your professional career.

    • 90%
      of students register an internship
    • 24%
      register two internships
    • 34%
      of internships result directly in job offers

Companies where students intern

Women’s Wear Daily

Proximity BBDO

OECD

UNESCO

Lyxor Asset Management

Edelman Intelligence

Rémy Cointreau

L’Oreal SA

Karl Lagerfeld

BBC

Hermès International

Variety

Alumni and Students say...

Experience the Program

Learning methods focus on conventional techniques as well as critical management studies and approaches from other academic disciplines. Courses combine lectures, seminar discussion, case-method and student-directed projects. Within this context, a special emphasis is put on professional skills development and career development. You also have the opportunity to collaborate with each other and program faculty for research projects and specialized directed study courses.