From Theory to Practice: New Digital Media Analytics Certificate Fuses Data and Communication

In today’s fast-paced digital landscape, the role of analytics has become increasingly important for businesses worldwide. Data removes the guesswork from business strategies and decisions, providing concrete insights into consumer behavior, content performance and market trends. Monitoring this data through digital media analytics is not just beneficial – it’s essential for staying competitive in a rapidly changing market. In preparing students for the real world, two J-School professors have taken the lead in developing the Digital Media Analytics Certificate this year.

The 12-credit program equips students with data analysis skills and a theoretical understanding of how digital media function in contemporary society, particularly within journalism, strategic communication, and mass media contexts. Students complete a foundational course, skills course, social impacts course and lastly a capstone class on concepts and tools for data analysis and visualization.

Doug McLeod, Evjue Centennial Professor

Evjue Centennial Professor Doug McLeod was motivated to start the program after his successful experience creating the Sports Communication Certificate over 3 years ago. Many faculty members and graduate students are studying computational approaches to things like social media, providing the necessary teachers for undergraduate students who want to learn how to develop these skills.

Highlighting the significance of knowledge in media analytics in various industries, McLeod underscored the critical role that the J-School plays in preparing students for the job market.

“More and more people are being expected to do [digital media analytics] and have those skills and understand the pitfalls of those skills being literate and what works and what doesn’t work. It’s just such an omnipresent part of daily life that, more and more people, more and more professions require that kind of knowledge,” McLeod said.

Echoing this sentiment, assistant professor Sijia Yang drew inspiration from insights about industry professionals and student surveys, indicating the need for a certificate of this kind.

“I think the goal for this certificate program is that they actually have the hands-on experiences of actually applying these conceptual and analytical tools to address some kind of a concrete problem,” Yang said.

Sijia Yang, Associate Professor

Yang’s research applies experimental, computational and community-engaged approaches to the study of message effects and persuasion on digital media. One line of his research aims to identify and evaluate persuasive features in multimodal messages through causal machine learning. This makes Yang an ideal teacher for the program’s capstone course, where students take their learning and apply it to industry.

Grace Jiang is a senior double majoring in Communication Arts and Journalism and is currently enrolled in J677, the capstone course in the DMA program. Jiang has learned to apply the concepts and techniques learned through her digital media analytics coursework and apply it to real-world scenarios, further enhancing her understanding of data-driven journalism.

“The DMA certificate has provided me with invaluable skills and knowledge in the realm of social media analytics. The program has not only complemented my major studies but also equipped me with practical tools and insights that I believe will be essential in my future career,” Jiang said.

Beyond its core in the J-School, students from all different majors are able to complete the DMA certificate. According to McLeod, the certificate serves several different kinds of students: journalism majors interested in developing their media research skills and students in data and computer sciences who also have an interest in learning media and storytelling skills.

“We want to not only serve our majors well, but we want to serve other majors around campus who might be interested in or benefit from the skills that we teach,” McLeod said.

Agreeing with McLeod, “I think the certificate program is a good way of offering a pathway for non-majors to take classes that are offered from the J-school,” Yang said.

As the DMA certificate sees continued growth, Yang has plans to delve into the impact of artificial intelligence on digital media analytics. AI focuses on creating machines capable of performing tasks that typically require human intelligence. The analytical skills learned in the certificate program complement AI by providing a foundation for interpreting vast amounts of data generated. Yang understands how critical it is to incoporate AI in the program. “With the rise of generative AI and AI tools, bridging this analytical world and the media world, I think a bit more course offerings in touch on that area will be very useful,” Yang said.

Reflecting on his experience in the J-School and starting the DMA program, McLeod emphasized the quality of students and learning.

“One of the things I love about the School of Journalism and Mass Communication here at UW-Madison is we have some of the best students in the world. Of the students that we get, they’re smart, they’re motivated, they’re unselfish, they want to learn and that makes my job really super easy. So when we develop different programs or different courses, students pretty clearly, pretty quickly understand the utility of those courses and the vision,” McLeod said.

The Digital Media Analytics Certificate program stands as a testament to the evolving landscape of media and increasing demand for data-driven decision-making. By providing students with a comprehensive understanding of data and the skillset to apply that to the real world, the certificate equips students with marketable skills in the job market.