Ph.D. program in Communication, Information and Media
New Brunswick, NJ
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Fostering Intellectual Autonomy & Excitement
The Ph.D. program in Communication, Information and Media provides you doctoral training in theoretical and research skills for scholarly and professional leadership in the fields of communication, library and information science, and journalism and media studies. The strategic combination of these areas helps prepare you to address key questions facing our society in the 21st century. We focus on the nature and function of communication, information and media institutions, policies, processes and systems, examining their impact on individuals and social, organizational, national and international affairs. In doing so, our program’s interdisciplinary approaches to these issues are strongly supported and encouraged.
Concentrations
The Communication area of the interdisciplinary doctoral program in the School of Communication and Information has faculty with research interests in five interconnected areas:
- Communication and Technology
- Health Communication
- Interpersonal Communication
- Language and Social Interaction
- Organizational Communication
Doctoral students in Communication conduct problem-oriented research that focuses on a variety of prominent contemporary topics, such as:
- Social networks
- Social media
- Online privacy and anonymity
- Children's media use
- Community health programs
- Health campaigns
- Medical provider-patient interaction
- Interaction on emergency and emotional support telephone lines
- Family involvement in palliative care
- Global teams
- Organizational change
- Corporate social responsibility
- Institutional leadership
Multiple centers and labs provide various opportunities for doctoral students, including:
- Center for Communication and Health Issues
- Center for Language, Interaction and Health
- Center for Organizational Development and Leadership
- Collaboratory for Organizing and Social Media
- Network Science Lab
- Rutgers University Conversation Analysis Lab
For more information contact COM area coordinator, Itzhak Yanovitzky.
Library And Information Science
The LIS area of concentration (also known as iSchool) in our interdisciplinary Ph.D. provides an excellent environment for research in such areas as:
- Health Information and Technology
- Human Information Behavior
- Human-Computer Interaction
- Information Institutions, Artifacts and Documents
- Information, Learning, and Technology
- Information Retrieval and Language Analysis
- Social Computing and Data Science
Multiple centers and labs provide various opportunities for doctoral students, including:
For more information, contact LIS area coordinator Nicholas Belkin.
Media Studies
Media Studies examines the role of media—of all types and on all platforms—in culture, society, politics and history. SC&I faculty members are trained in a variety of disciplines (communication, media studies, history, anthropology, and journalism and mass communication) and use a range of research methods including interpretive, qualitative, quantitative, and historical.
Our faculty members work in fields that include:
- Cultural Studies
- Political Economy
- Media History
- Journalism Studies
- Technology and Digital Innovation
- Media and Politics
- Promotional Culture
- Science Communication
Scholars who are seeking to be engaged, and whose work connects with real-world issues, our faculty examines the roles of media in understandings of race, gender, religion, ethnicity, class, and ideology; local, national, and international social movements, politics, and networks; and development and transmission of political and cultural ideas, including through journalism and popular culture. They also consider media law, regulation, and policy; media activism; and technological developments and emerging media forms.
For more information, contact Media Studies coordinator Melissa Aronczyk.
The Ph.D. Program encourages students whose interests are interdisciplinary and fall across these three areas to develop an individual plan of study in consultation with the program director, area coordinators and advisors. For more information, contact Ph.D. Program Director Jennifer Theiss.
Degrees & Awards
Degrees Offered
Degree | Concentration | Sub-concentration |
---|---|---|
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) |
Degrees Awarded
Degree | Number Awarded |
---|---|
Doctoral Degrees | 11 |
Earning Your Degree
Part-time study available? |
|
Evening/weekend programs available? | No |
Distance learning programs available? | No |
Terminal master's degree available? |
|
Degree Requirements
Degree | Requirement |
---|---|
Doctoral Degrees |
Entrance Exam GRE General Test Comp Exam Required Thesis Required Qualifying exams |
Admissions
Acceptance Rate
Applying
applications accepted?
on a rolling basis?
Application Deadlines
Type | Domestic | International | Priority date |
---|---|---|---|
Fall deadline | January 15th | January 15th | Yes |
Entrance Requirements
Exam | Details | |
---|---|---|
Doctoral Degree Exam | GRE General Test | |
Doctoral Degree Requirements | Proficiency in statistics |
Exam | Details | |
---|---|---|
TOEFL: Required |
TOEFL Paper score: 600 |
Tuition & Fees
Financial Support
Financial award applicants must submit: | FAFSA |
---|---|
Application deadlines for financial awards | February 1 |
Types of financial support available |
Fellowships Research Assistantships Teaching Assistantships Institutionally-sponsored Loans |
Student Body
Race/Ethnicity
Hispanic/Latino | 0.98% |
---|---|
Black or African American | 6.86% |
White or Caucasian | 66% |
American Indian or Alaska Native | 0% |
Asian | 25.49% |
Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander | Not Reported |
Two or more races | Not Reported |
Unknown | 0% |
Gender
Faculty
Research
Focus of faculty research: | Information science, media studies |
---|---|
Externally sponsored research expenditures last year: | 739,865 |
Location & Contact
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
New Brunswick, NJ 08901
United States
Director of the Ph.D. Program & Professor of Communication
Email: theiss@rutgers.edu
Phone: 848-932-8719
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