Communications and New Media is the only department in Singapore and Southeast Asia that offers a concentration in Communications and New Media studies within a single department.

On the communications front, our students learn about the economic structure and the regulation of the media industry as well as the impact media can have on society and culture. As communication managers, they learn how to create an online presence for an organisation, how to write for the news media and how to create, conduct and evaluate a communications campaign.

On the new media front, our students are exposed to theories which help them understand the impact new media are having on society socially, economically and politically. Students will learn the answers to these and many other questions: How is the rampant use of computers affecting education of young people, how can Asian countries take advantage of new media to advance their economic development, how has the introduction of the internet affected traditionally authoritarian states, how do new and invasive technologies affect our right to privacy as individual etc. Such issues and problems are discussed from various theoretical perspectives such as sociology, social psychology, law, policy and political economy.

Apart from studying the impact of new media, students also engage in content creation through practice learning. For example, they learn how to design multimedia products such as websites, games and virtual environments.

New media is an area of academic enquiry that studies things like Internet studies, online communities and the impact of new technologies in the social, cultural, political and economic landscape of a country and the world. It also includes interactive media like Web design, gaming and virtual reality, among other subjects. In short "new media" includes any form of media that are NOT traditional mass media, such as converged media (the interrelation between telecommunications, computers and electronic media), wireless media, portable devices, wearable computers, etc.

On the other hand, mass communication usually deals with traditional mass media such as print and broadcast journalism. In addition, mass communication (or communication) programmes usually offer courses in advertising and public relations. While some mass communication programmes may offer some courses in new media issues, their focus tends to be on the traditional mass media.

Students need not have any technical inclination/background to successfully tackle the interactive media component of our programme because the primary objective of CNM is to equip students with conceptual knowledge of Interactive Media.

We also welcome technically inclined students who are interested in studying cultural, aesthetic and social aspects of interactive media. Likewise, humanities and social sciences inclined students will have an opportunity to make their own creative projects. In advanced and honours-level courses we provide students with full opportunities to explore either theoretical approaches, creative projects, or both.

In short, CNM welcomes Creative Thinkers who are ready to challenge themselves.

An example of a question that could be explored in one of our courses would be: Why Singapore students play more Japanese-made games than their American counter-parts, and what is the difference between both types of games in terms of cultural or aesthetic interaction?