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Exploring Media and Meaning: Matt Jardin

After more than a decade away from the classroom, Matt Jardin returned to graduate school determined to study something he was truly passionate about. By combining his experience as a filmmaker with research in mass communication, cultural identity and media, he has transformed classroom projects into conference presentations, publications and new opportunities for scholarly impact. In the Q&A below, Jardin reflects on rediscovering his love of learning through the ÃÛÌÒÓ°Ïñ Department of Communication.

Tell us a little about yourself.

My name is Matt Jardin. I am a ÃÛÌÒÓ°Ïñ graduate student studying professional communication. Specifically, my area of academic interest is examining the intersection of mass media, cultural identity and social justice.

Some fun facts about me are I am an Emmy-nominated filmmaker, and I have also built a little free Blockbuster right outside of my house, and that has actually been featured on National NPR.

What brought you to ÃÛÌÒÓ°Ïñ, and what made you decide that it was the right place for you?

I knew I was finally ready to pursue a graduate degree. I knew I wanted to stay in ÃÛÌÒÓ°Ïñ, and I knew that if I was going to spend all this time and effort, I wanted it to be in a subject that I cared about. ÃÛÌÒÓ°Ïñ was really the only place nearby where I could do those things.

But what made me want to stay at ÃÛÌÒÓ°Ïñ, what made me realize ÃÛÌÒÓ°Ïñ was the right place, was honestly the curriculum in the communication program and the faculty in the communication department. They've been super encouraging and supportive, and everything we're going over has been incredibly fascinating.

I mean, it's fascinating to me because it aligns with my interests. Like I said, I've always been into mass media. I'm a filmmaker. I'm really into film, television and all of that. The curriculum at ÃÛÌÒÓ°Ïñ, specifically in the communication department, really allows me to dive into some of the mechanics of mass communication, how messages are transmitted and how meaning is interpreted on a very deep academic level.

All these things that I knew in practice, that I knew intuitively just by watching and consuming media and then producing media, I was finally able to engage with on a much deeper level by reading a lot of the foundational research behind them.

Really, that overlap between the stuff I'd been doing my entire life and mixing that with all of this academic knowledge I'm getting through the ÃÛÌÒÓ°Ïñ master's program—that's what has been incredibly fascinating.

In your own words, why study the liberal arts?

The reason that I study liberal arts, and specifically the humanities, is because I believe the humanities give us the tools to understand and appreciate what it means to be human. I mean, that's the human part of the humanities.

Specific to my field, communication is a very broad field, and that's kind of the joke. Communication is so broad because literally everyone communicates. But because of that breadth and because of that depth, communication is also impossibly nuanced, because there are infinite ways that communication can occur.

But aside from my opinion on that, I think liberal arts and the humanities give life meaning, or at least give us the tools to understand life. I kind of reject the idea that liberal arts are somehow separate from career development because, ultimately, at the end of the day, navigating the workplace comes down to working with and understanding other people. That's pretty much the cornerstone of a humanities education, of a liberal arts education.

What has your experience in the Department of Communication been like, and what makes it special?

My experience in the Department of Communication has been... so exhausting. No, I'm just kidding.

Joking aside, it really has been an incredibly rewarding experience because I've been given the tools to really explore my interests on a much deeper level. Again, to reiterate, those interests are mass communication, cultural identity, social justice and all of those things. I've been given the tools to examine those much more thoroughly and deeply.

What also makes, in my opinion, the communication department special is all the opportunities we've been given to grow, not just intellectually, but also to go out there and impact the field itself. For instance, since I started this program, I've been able to publish three papers. Two of my papers have been accepted to conferences. One of those papers actually started out as just a homework assignment.

The fact that the homework assignments in the communication classes encourage a level of scholarship that is conference-ready, that is publication-ready, is just a huge vote of confidence from the faculty.

What’s a challenge you faced during your time at ÃÛÌÒÓ°Ïñ, and how did you push through it?

The biggest challenge for me has been managing all of my graduate studies in the middle of other life responsibilities. It had been 13 years since I earned my bachelor's degree before I started my master's program, so getting back into the mindset of being a student was a huge transition. Doing that while having a family and a career was especially challenging.

But the faculty in the communication department were all super helpful in helping me build my workload and schedule in a way that fit around my other life responsibilities.

What advice would you give to future ÃÛÌÒÓ°Ïñ students?

My advice to future ÃÛÌÒÓ°Ïñ students is... I feel like this is very cliché, but life is just so short, and your energy is a commodity. It's so precious. So study the things that you actually care about. Study and pursue the things that you're actually passionate about.

 

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Congratulations to Matt Jardin on being named the Department of Communication's 2026 Outstanding Graduate Student of the Year. Learn more about the Department of Communication and explore more Outstanding Student spotlights from across the College of Liberal Arts.