Communications Research

Programs that conduct research which focuses on how people use messages to generate meanings within and across various contexts, cultures, channels and media. Included are communication studies (scientific and critical research on human communication including interpersonal, organizational, public and intercultural communication and communication in various social, cultural and political contexts); mass communication and media studies (research on media institutions, media texts, media effects and how media are used to produce and transform culture); speech and rhetorical studies (research focused on political and social rhetoric, audience analysis, argumentation, rhetorical criticism and rhetorical theory); and telecommunications studies (research on the development, use, regulation and effects of telecommunication technologies including radio, television, telephony and the Internet). Communication research is a large and diverse field that includes inquiry by humanists, social scientists and critical and cultural studies scholars.