The Media and Cultural Studies Programme (KBM), Graduate School of Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta is a master and doctoral program on multi-disciplinary or cross-disciplinary. This programme aims to respond to and anticipate increasingly mediated and commodified cultural developments in the context of the global economy and technology. For this reason, the KBM programme develops sensitivity in understanding and explaining the implications of mediated and commodified cultural products.

To become a program that inspires critical and reflective socio-humanities thoughts for Indonesian society development based on Pancasila, as well as to be considered by the academic community on the international level.

• Hold a quality research-based postgraduate program in media and cultural studies fieldwork to develop the intelligent, critical, and wise to various changes in modern society.
• Support research in media and cultural studies fieldwork that contribute to community empowerment against the weakening of the autonomy and independence of the community in expressing themselves in their daily life.
• Encourage and develop interdisciplinary dialogue habits in the academic communities on local, national, regional, and global scales, especially among the disciplines of social sciences-humanities, the political sciences, and economics.
• Participate in developing an intelligent, critical, and wise society towards increasingly mediated media and culture through media literacy education.

DirJen DIKTI Nomor 2963/D/T/2005 supported by Keputusan Rektor UGM Nomor 593/P/SK/HT/2011.

1. Develop education, research, and community service needed in the process of mediation and commodification that occurs in a sustainable and cross-sectoral manner.
2. Producing postgraduate graduates of Media and Cultural Studies fieldwork who can play an optimal role in the theoretical and methodological models development, based on empirical experience regarding the implications of mediated and commodified cultural products, and able to compete with graduates of similar study programs, both domestically and internationally.
3. To produce Media and Cultural Studies professionals who have theoretical and critical knowledge and can implement it in society.

Improve the quality and relevance of education to produce competent postgraduate graduates in media and cultural studies fieldwork who can understand the process of mediation and cultural commodification.

The processes of mediation and commodification of culture in modern society create two conflicting needs. The first need is a greater need for community members to be involved in the mediation and commodification process. The second is a greater need for maintaining local cultural identity while adapting to the development process of economic and information globalization.

Media and Cultural Studies, which this field of study considered as a relevant interdisciplinary approach in the global education environment, is one of the solutions to the above trends. Thus, the existence of the Media and Cultural Studies program answers both of these needs at once.

In response to the above trend, the Media and Cultural Studies Program proposed by the Center for Cultural Studies of Gadjah Mada University, several lecturers of the Faculty of Cultural Science, the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, the Faculty of Philosophy of Gadjah Mada University, and various disciplines in each of the faculties concerned; to the Graduate School of Gadjah Mada University.

Furthermore, the Media and Cultural Studies Program has become a separate study program since 29 August 2005, approved by Dirjen DIKTI Nomor 2963/D/T/2005 tentang Ijin Penyelenggaraan Program Studi Kajian Budaya dan Media pada Universitas Gadjah Mada. The implementation permit was then supported by Keputusan Rektor Universitas Gadjah Mada Nomor 526/P/SK/HT/2008 tentang Penataan dan Penetapan Kembali Ijin Penyelenggaraan Program Studi di Universitas Gadjah Mada.

At the beginning of its implementation in the 2005/2006 academic year, this program only opened a master program with five students registered. Every academic year the interest increases so that in the 2014/2015 academic year, 192 master's students have been recorded, which produce 117 graduates.

The doctoral program opened in the 2007/2008 academic year as the response to increasing critical understanding of media and cultural studies as well as the interest in higher education.