Media & Communication Psychology Master’s – shaping media for people and culture

Life without communication via digital channels, as well as the media landscape, is no longer imaginable today. In the media industry, success lies in designing and building professional and sound strategies that are closely intertwined with the psychology behind them. Whether it’s Google, social media, artificial intelligence or traditional media formats such as print or media use and its impact – all of this requires a high level of expertise.

A Media & Communication Psychology master’s degree enables students to understand the broad spectrum of media, to create differentiated analyses of media use and to design new media formats and content that trigger a defined effect on the customer in the form of advertising campaigns. A critical view of the impact of media on people and culture is also required.

What to expect in your Master’s in Media & Communication Psychology

In your Master’s programme in Media & Communication Psychology, you will deal with marketing communication and examine it with regard to psychological effects. You will learn about general topics of psychology such as perception, learning, memory, cognition, motivation and emotion as well as social psychological theories and models. In addition, you will gain insights into the different effects of media formats and know how to classify them.

The Master’s in Media & Communication Psychology deals with numerous questions, such as:

• What influence does media choice have on people?
• How is content from advertising experienced by target groups?
• How does digitalisation influence user behaviour?

Objectives of the Media and Communication Psychology Master’s

For example, you acquire the ability to recognise the interplay of psychological methods and advertising activities to design or optimise advertising media and campaigns based on this. The focus is on research into media use and the associated impact on the individual and on society, as well as the examination of the media of the future.

Your advantages with a Media & Communication Psychology Master’s

The ISM’s Media & Communication Psychology Master’s combines aspects of the media landscape with the fundamentals of psychology, preparing you for work in research or in companies in the media industry. Your advantages:

• treatment of central topics in general psychology
• acquisition of knowledge about media psychology models and research questions on media choice
• comprehensive examination of media reception, media effects and media-mediated communication
• consideration of the design of learning media
• development of communication-psychological models of individual communication and mass communication
• linking theoretical considerations and practical reflections on media and communication competence
• insight into current research in the field of media and communication psychology
• application of quantitative and qualitative research methods and statistical analysis procedures of scientific psychology
• independent scientific work on media or communication psychology issues

Requirements for the Media & Communication Psychology Master’s programme

The Media & Communication Psychology M.Sc. programme is aimed at graduates of a Bachelor's programme with at least 50 ECTS in the field of economics who are interested in the psychological aspects of the media. Here, a certain curiosity about human motivation is required when it comes to such exciting questions as: on what basis do people make purchasing decisions? How can advertising influence them? What is the significance of digital media today and in the future? Equally advantageous is the ability to approach the subject critically.