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The Communications Ph.D. Program is offered by GSAS and administered by the Graduate School of Journalism in cooperation with various other departments and divisions, including Political Science, Sociology, and the Graduate School of Business.

With its long tradition of scholarship on the media, its wide range of relevant course offerings in a variety of disciplines, and its location in the communications capital of the world, Columbia is the ideal place for the marriage of research and teaching, theory, and practice in this important area. Students craft individual courses of study, drawing on the University’s resources in the humanities, the social sciences, business and economics, the law, public and international affairs, education, and engineering. The interdisciplinary program provides a unique preparation for students who wish to conduct original research in communications, to teach in colleges and universities, or to pursue research careers in government and industry.

Each student’s program is designed, in conjunction with an advisor, to reflect and further his or her individual interests. Each candidate must select a major field of study—the area in which she or he expects to write a dissertation—from the following areas:

Economic, Legal, and Policy Aspects of Communications emphasizes the economics, organization, regulation, and management of communications. This field brings the resources of economics, law, business, and the policy sciences to bear on questions of communications.

Journalism and Public Life brings the resources of the humanities and the qualitative social sciences to bear on the social practice of journalism in the creation and maintenance of the public sphere and cultural life.

Social Impact of Media brings the resources of the social and behavioral sciences along with the arts to bear on the problems surrounding the social consequences of media and technical systems for the production and distribution of culture.

Degree Requirements

The requirements listed below are special to this Ph.D. program and must be read in conjunction with the general requirements of the Graduate School.

For the M.A. Degree

All students accepted into the Ph.D. program must first earn the M.A. degree unless they are awarded advanced standing for an appropriate master’s level degree earned at Columbia or elsewhere. The Subcommittee on Doctoral Studies must judge that the previous degree is the academic equivalent of the Columbia M.A. and has contributed substantially to the fulfillment of the requirements for the M.Phil. and Ph.D.; the formal decision to grant advanced standing is made after the student has completed a full year of study at Columbia.

For students entering without advanced standing, a minimum of 30 points (approximately ten courses), to be approved by a faculty advisor chosen by the chair of the Subcommittee on Doctoral Studies is required for the M.A.

Core course: M.A. students must complete JOUR J8040. Proseminar in Communications: Contemporary Issues in Theory and Research in Communications.

M.A. essay: M.A. students must complete an M.A. essay.

For the M.Phil. Degree

Beyond the M.A. degree, students must complete 54 points (for a total of 84), to include the core curriculum and other courses that constitute a concentration in one of the three major areas designated above. The program of study is to be designed in conjunction with a faculty advisor, chosen by the chair of the Subcommittee on Doctoral Studies, to reflect and further each student’s individual interests.

Core courses: All students must complete four core courses: JOUR J6030.017. Social Impact of Media; JOUR G8210. Management of Information, Communication, and Media; JOUR J9042. Communication Research Problems; and POLS G8247. Mass-Mediated American and Global Politics.

Research methods: Students must demonstrate preparation in research methods appropriate to the area of the proposed dissertation research through the successful completion of a course or equivalent work or qualifying examination in appropriate subjects such as quantitative methods (including experimental or survey methods and social statistics), analytic methods for networks and systems, econometrics, qualitative and historical methods, and other subjects appropriate to the research. See the advisor for a list of appropriate courses.

Languages: Students must demonstrate a reading knowledge of one foreign language from among those in which a significant literature in communications is written. Appropriate languages include Spanish, French, German, Italian, Japanese and Russian. Competence can be demonstrated either by written examination supervised by a faculty member or by the Educational Testing Service written test.

Examinations: Students choose one of two options. The first is a traditional set of exams that assesses the student’s mastery of the significant literature in his or her fields of concentration. The second is a series of tasks modeled on the kind of work normally carried out in an academic career. In either case, the student proposes, and the program chair must approve an advisory committee of three faculty members, at least one and preferably two of whom must be members of the Communications Ph.D. faculty subcommittee; if appropriate, the committee may include members from outside Columbia. Students are strongly encouraged to finish this requirement no later than the end of the semester following the one in which they have finished all coursework, but they must finish this requirement by the end of the second semester after coursework

For the Ph.D. Degree