Narrative and Emerging Media, MA
The Los Angeles-based Master of Arts in Narrative and Emerging Media focuses on the development of a creative practice in emerging storytelling and immersive experience content creation in AI, augmented, virtual and extended reality, and short-form digital, streaming and virtual production using the latest spatial technologies. The program is a collaborative effort between the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts and the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
Program description
Narrative and Emerging Media graduate students will learn the methodologies, tools and techniques they need to tell impactful emerging media stories with integrity. Students will acquire production skills and create a professional portfolio using the latest innovations, learning to capture and create content for workflows in multiple industries while obtaining professional-level competency to lead teams of producers, engineers, writers and artists across different verticals. Students will gain an understanding of how to produce for new and established industries using emerging technologies, and how to engage in festivals and marketplaces, while integrating principles of fairness, inclusion and community impact into their research and professional practice. Remaining cognizant of the needs of communities affected by their work, Narrative and Emerging Media creators tell stories from their own perspectives. Central to the program will be enhanced insight on research and development as well as a heightened grasp of finance and business models in emerging media.
Ultimately, the curriculum arms students with a deep understanding of how to deploy cutting-edge techniques in visual storytelling, reaching beyond traditional documentary film and animation formats. Students learn how to use game engines for virtual production, including creating the type of digital backdrops for cinema that are used in Hollywood productions like the "Mandalorian." The program also teaches the skills necessary to make compelling nonfiction and fiction narratives in augmented, virtual and mixed reality content, which plays back spatially like video games. The Narrative and Emerging program also offers hands-on 360 video instruction, flat video captured using a camera that can film in every direction. All of these creative techniques require learning how to deploy artificial intelligence for spatial content creation, and students emerge with a future-proof understanding of how to create and interact with a field radically changed by AI.
For degree requirements, admission requirements, deadlines and more, visit ASU degree page.
ASU Charter
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ASU California Center
Students earning this degree will study at the ASU California Center at the Herald Examiner Building in downtown Los Angeles. The center was custom-designed with emerging technology curriculum in mind, including two studios, one with a large green screen that allows for virtual reality productions, virtual sets and a control room, and another with a large Planar LCD wall, which allows for immersive film and video shoots (such as those used in “The Mandalorian”). MA-NEM students will have the opportunity to learn and work in these spaces to create compelling visual storytelling.
Program director
Peabody winner and XR pioneer Nonny de la Peña is leading the Los Angeles-based Narrative and Emerging Media graduate program.
STEM designation
This degree has STEM designation, and students earning this degree are eligible for STEM specific Scholarships and OPT extension for International Students.