About

Situated in the heart of Atlanta, one of the world’s most vibrant media centers, the Department of Communication at Georgia State University offers quality educational programs at the undergraduate and graduate level, with the goal of producing productive and socially responsible citizens who understand communication theory and deploy communication skills to improve the human condition. With main degree programs in journalism, speech, and media production, the Department reflects the convergence in a fast-transforming media industry.  Among the subjects explored by communication students are the relationship between journalism and democratic citizenship, the ethical problems associated with the practices of public relations, and communication with the young and elderly at the undergraduate level; community-based media, political speech writing, or gender and violence at the masters level; identity construction, media effects, international journalism, or rhetorical studies at the doctoral level. The Department’s faculty are dedicated to teaching students about the crucial role communication processes play in the quality of human life.

Communication programs at Georgia State University also reflect the extraordinary diversity of the region, and aspire to make the media industries they serve more diverse. Georgia State is an urban campus with a diverse student body, including undergraduate and graduate students from around the world, and its location in the heart of downtown Atlanta, Georgia, brings together all of the amenities of a major urban center. Diversity is also reflected in the department’s growing faculty; its more than 40 tenure track faculty includes scholars from Italy, Poland, China, Kazakhstan, Japan and Israel, and 10 full-time lecturers who teach in a wide range of communication subjects.

Students can earn undergraduate majors in journalism (with specialties in multiplatform journalism and public relations) and speech (with specialties in public and political communication and communication across the lifespan). Students in these programs are able to take advantage of the outstanding internship opportunities only a world media capital can offer. In addition, graduate students can earn a Masters degree in mass communication and human communication and social influence. Doctoral programs build upon these specialties; students can pursue Ph.D.s in media and society or rhetoric and politics.

The university’s location in downtown Atlanta could not be more ideal for undertaking studies in communication. GSU is located within ten minutes of major communication centers such as CNN, Turner, Cox Enterprises, Clear Channel, Georgia Public Broadcasting, the city’s major TV news, radio outlets and public relations firms, and the region’s thriving production and post-production companies. The Martin Luther King Center for Non-Violent Social Change and the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library are also nearby. Departmental partnerships with the Atlanta Film Festival, the Atlanta Press Club, CNN, and dozens of media companies that provide GSU students withinternships, provide further opportunities for professional networking and career advancement.