Masters of Arts Program

The Department of Communication provides opportunities for advanced study in both theoretical and applied communication. The Department emphasizes the analysis and design of messages and symbol systems and the consequences of particular message strategies in face-to-face interaction, mediated interaction, organizations, and political life. Areas of study include interpersonal and intercultural communication, organizational communication, political communication, and health communication. The Department also focuses on information technology within the aforementioned contexts.

The MA program is designed to meet the educational needs of two sets of students: those who wish to advance to a Ph.D. program and those who intend to apply the MA degree in non-academic or two-year college settings. Students with applied career interests are encouraged to use theories and research learned in the classroom within practical settings. Students may fulfill the requirements for the Masters degree either by completing an internship practicum or by working closely with a faculty member in conducting research for a thesis.

Students work closely with faculty members in four communication subfields:

• Interpersonal and Intercutural Communication
  Involves the process and effects of communication in personal relationships, groups and organizations, and addresses the influence of different cultural and social backgrounds, including health care contexts.
• Organizational Communication
  Considers the role of messages in achieving coordination and cooperation within organizations and their social and economic environments, through both personal channels and new technologies.
• Political Communication
  Involves methods of stating and defending policy, assessing and responding to public opinion, and exchanging information and decision-making between political figures and their publics. The uses of new technologies in political contexts are featured.
• Health Communication
  Focuses on three levels of health communication: interpersonal (doctor-patient communication); organizational (how health care organizations shape messages); and mass media health campaigns.  Of particular interest are ways that health communication shapes, and is shaped by, people's health, and institutional aspects of health care.

For more information about the program and faculty contact the Director of Graduate Studies: