The M.A. is a traditional academic program involving a minimum of 24 semester hours of course work plus a 6-hour thesis, for a minimum of 30 graduate hours. The thesis, an extensive and well-documented research paper, is designed to demonstrate that the student is capable of independent research on a meaningful topic under the supervision of a faculty committee. A minimum of 21 hours must be earned in graduate-level journalism and mass communications courses, including the basic M.A. core listed below. With the approval of the faculty advisor, the M.A. student may take 9 semester hours of course work outside the School of Journalism and Mass Communications. The M.A. degree is especially appropriate for those students with extensive professional experience in journalism and mass communications who are interested in teaching and/or research careers in mass communication and those who may want to pursue a doctorate.

Learning Outcomes

• Students will demonstrate effective writing skills. Students will be able to write clear and correct English. Beyond mechanical competence, their writings should reflect intelligent application of such concepts as diction, economy, syntax, sentence and paragraph structure, transition, organization and tempo. The writing should also capture color, lend credibility and create interest. The student must be able to present complex ideas in understandable terms.
• Students will demonstrate a familiarity with research designs, data collection methods (e.g., surveys and polls) and sampling techniques and should be able to organize and conduct basic market research and audience measurement studies. The students also should become familiar with and understand current journalism and mass communications research studies reported in Journalism and Mass Communications Quarterly, Public Opinion Quarterly and other scholarly publications serving the discipline.
• Students will demonstrate a thorough knowledge of mass communications theory. Students will become familiar with contemporary scholarship involving major mass communications theories.
• Students will demonstrate a thorough knowledge of mass media law. Students will demonstrate a familiarity with current trends in and interpretations of mass media law, including such areas as libel, privacy, access to public information, regulation of commercial speech, copyright and related matters, as well as an understanding of the philosophical considerations involved in free speech issues.
• Students will demonstrate a thorough knowledge of mass communications history. Students will demonstrate a familiarity with the lessons learned from the study of the mistakes and successes of past mass media practitioners as well as the opinions of mass media critics who have helped shape the discipline.
• ” Students will demonstrate an understanding of the mass media as social institutions. Students should be able to relate mass communications processes and effects to politics, culture and society in general. Students will demonstrate a familiarity with attitude and public opinion formation. Students should be able to discuss such matters as violence in electronic media, freedom to advertise versus consumer rights and expectations, and issues related to audience diversity.”
• Students will demonstrate an understanding of professional ethics and ethical issues. Students will be able to competently discuss current ethical issues related to the mass media, including conflicts of interest, sensationalism, misleading advertising, perpetuation of sexist and racist stereotypes in the media and relationships with news sources. Students will be able to think through and take a personal position on contemporary ethical problems and begin to develop a personal philosophy of professional behavior.

The M.A. is a traditional academic program involving a minimum of 24 semester hours of course work plus a 6-hour thesis, for a minimum of 30 graduate hours. The thesis, an extensive and well-documented research paper, is designed to demonstrate that the student is capable of independent research on a meaningful topic under the supervision of a faculty committee. A minimum of 21 hours must be earned in graduate-level journalism and mass communications courses, including the basic M.A. core listed below. With the approval of the faculty advisor, the M.A. student may take 9 semester hours of course work outside the School of Journalism and Mass Communications. The M.A. degree is especially appropriate for those students with extensive professional experience in journalism and mass communications who are interested in teaching and/or research careers in mass communication and those who may want to pursue a doctorate.

Learning Outcomes

• Students will demonstrate a familiarity with research designs, data collection methods and sampling techniques and should be able to organize and conduct basic market research and audience measurement studies. The students also should become familiar with and understand current journalism and mass communications research studies in scholarly journals.

• Students will demonstrate a thorough knowledge of mass communications theory. Students will become familiar with contemporary scholarship involving major mass communications theories.

• Students will demonstrate a thorough knowledge of mass media law. Students will demonstrate a familiarity with current trends in and interpretations of mass media law, including such areas as libel, privacy, access to public information, regulation of commercial speech, copyright and related matters, as well as an understanding of the philosophical considerations involved in free speech issues.

• Students will demonstrate effective writing and critical thinking skills and the application of those skills in journalism and mass communications scholarship.

• Students will demonstrate a thorough knowledge of mass communications history and will demonstrate an understanding of the mass media as social institutions. Students should be able to relate mass communications processes and effects to politics, culture and society in general.  

The three graduate programs of the School of Journalism and Mass Communications were named inconsistently, causing great confusion among students and applicants. We are changing the names of the three programs in a more consistent way:

Journalism and Mass Communications, M.M.C.

Journalism and Mass Communications, M.A.

Journalism and Mass Communications, Ph.D.

We are also making changes to the learning outcomes to reflect a new set of learning outcomes that the School crafted over the summer of 2016.