New Media and Digital Design Department

Linking theory and practice to enable students to create, succeed and lead in an array of digital technology areas and careers.

Fordham’s undergraduate program in New Media and Digital Design combines the forces of Communication and Media Studies, Computer and Information Science, Visual Arts, Creative Writing, and the Gabelli School of Business.

This interdisciplinary major aims to develop innovators whose career success will be propelled by a fluent understanding of the cultural, aesthetic, and economical applications and implications of design theory and practice in a digital age.

Our faculty are leaders in the fields of digital communication, graphic design, video and multimedia storytelling, computer and information science, and digital business strategy and development. Throughout the program, students will engage a mix of disciplinary areas and learning modes. Through critical analysis, digital research, collaborative discussion, a required internship experience, and hands-on work including an exhibited Capstone Project, they will learn to use contemporary technologies for digital design and production, data management and analysis, expression, persuasion and storytelling, digital marketing, digital entrepreneurship and e-commerce. With our ethical orientation and coursework, all students will explore the ethics and values embedded in contemporary paradigms for designing digital media that operate at intimate, local, and global scales.

  • Learning Goals for the Program in New Media and Digital Design:

    Students will learn the cultural, aesthetic, and economic implications and applications of design theory and practice in a digital age.

    Students will learn to utilize contemporary technologies for digital production, data management and analysis, successful expression, persuasion and storytelling, digital marketing, digital entrepreneurship and e-commerce.

    Through critical analysis, research, discussion, and hands-on projects, students will learn the visual, conceptual and applied digital design skills needed to develop graphic design that will inform, persuade and engage.

    Students will learn how to critically analyze and intervene in the design of information systems and infrastructures within economic, institutional, cultural, and community contexts.

    Students will explore the ethics and values embedded in contemporary paradigms for designing digital media that operate at intimate, local, and global scales.

Our major offers three concentrations, each comprised of a distinctive mix of courses from contributing departments and programs:

Student interns take pictures and video for social media

Art, Text and Design Concentration

The Art, Text and Design concentration incorporates courses offered by the Visual Arts Department. From Visual Thinking to Logos, Branding, and Presentation, this concentration allows students to explore the intersections between art and design through the creation of intentionally designed and aesthetically pleasing digital objects. This concentration will prepare students for roles within interactive design and new media art.

Two Male Students Sitting at Computers, One Smiling at Camera.

Commerce Concentration

The Commerce concentration incorporates courses offered by the Gabelli School of Business. By combining the fundamentals of marketing, entrepreneurship, business strategy, and more with the core New Media & Digital Design courses, this concentration effectively prepares students for careers within the commercial areas of new media.

Information Concentration

The Information concentration incorporates courses offered by the Computer and Information Sciences Department.

AR/VR Experiences at the Gabelli School

Explore the technical side of information through programming and information systems, or venture into the production side of information communication and design through new media content creation. This concentration effectively prepares students for careers in information management and communication within the new media landscape.

Up to two courses may be selected from other concentrations or from outside the program entirely, allowing students some customization in their course study.

When you are ready to declare your major or minor, go directly online to Fordham.edu > Electronic Forms.  There will be a Major/Minor/Concentration Form to fill out and submit.  This then goes to the Advising Center for review.   Once it is completed, the student will see it in DegreeWorks.

If you would like to get more information, please contact the program at [email protected].