PhD in Communication
Program Overview
Goal
Our goal is to offer an exceptional interdisciplinary doctoral-level health and strategic communication curriculum spanning the health care, public health, and strategic communication disciplines. This program of study reflects a growing emphasis area for the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of Defense, as well as for various other Federal, industry, and private agencies with major new research and outreach programs that are reflected in the numerous new research funding initiatives of the past several years.
The GMU program is unique because, although there are other health communication programs and other strategic communication/public relations programs, no other program emphasizes a strategic approach to health, risk and crisis campaigns, and none has as firm a multidisciplinary foundation. This unique program gives the Department of Communication and George Mason University the opportunity to provide the Commonwealth, the nation and the world with graduates able to contribute as teachers, researchers and practitioners as well as in the policy domain.
Demand
The demand for doctorates in communication is high and is growing. Communication is one of the most popular undergraduate academic majors nationwide. Department of Labor projections indicate that jobs in communication and related fields will grow faster than average (21-35%) in the next seven years further increasing the demand for students with baccalaureate degrees in this field and, thus, increasing demand for PhD trained university faculty to meet the teaching demand (See: U.S. Department of Labor, http://www.bls.gov/emp/). Demand for such faculty has outrun supply in recent years with many positions in health and strategic communication going unfilled, particularly positions for health communication and public relations/strategic communication assistant professors (see, for example, job postings at http://aejmc.org/jobads/, http://lamar.colostate.edu/~pr/vacancies05.htm and www.natcom.org).
Federal agencies that focus on health and strategic communication are also seeking researchers with doctorates in the social sciences. For example, the National Cancer Institute, within the National Institutes of Health, recently created the Health Communication and Informatics Research Branch within the Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences to address the growing need for communication research in healthcare settings. Similarly, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have announced a major organizational redesign of the agency that will highlight health communication and social marketing. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health established the Health Communication Research Branch. The creation of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, alone, has opened up many more opportunities for professionals with specialized training in risk and crisis communication.
Defining Health and Strategic Communication
Health Communication is the study of the important influences of human and media communication on public health, health care, and health promotion. Informed health communication practices and policies can help save lives and reduce human pain and suffering.
Strategic communication is the study of how message design, information practices, and planned interventions are used to influence behaviors and policies to achieve key objectives. Strategic communication is critical to achieving many kinds of objectives (including in political campaigns, marketing, public relations, climate change communication, public diplomacy and a host of other areas) but is particularly important for achieving health outcomes which is our specialty.
Full and Part Time Students Take Advantage of Resources in the National Capital Region
The program takes advantage of George Mason University’s proximity to many relevant public and private organizations at the federal, state, and local level in the Capital Region. The curriculum is structured to give students the skills to conduct policy-relevant research and to work with agencies in the region to exercise those skills and serve the needs of those agencies. The program is designed to accommodate full-time and part-time students. Part-time students already working for various associations and organizations contribute a wealth of knowledge grounded in direct experience, and they often create opportunities for collaborative research projects with the agencies, associations, and organizations where they are employed. In short, both full-time and part-time students have much to contribute to the life of the program. However, given the nature of the program, except in extraordinary circumstances, only full-time students will be eligible for assistantships and fellowships.
Assistantships and Fellowships
The program does offer a limited number of assistantships and fellowships of various kinds, including some at the post-doctoral and visiting scholar levels. The number of these and their specific duties vary greatly from year to year, particularly in the case of those funded through grants and research or training contracts held by the department, one of our research centers or an individual faculty member.
Program Structure
Students in the PhD program take a set of core courses in theory, methods, and the substantive areas of health and strategic communication. After successfully completing the course requirements and qualifying examinations, students complete a dissertation of original research.
- Those admitted with an approved master’s degree must successfully complete a minimum of 60 hours of work. Because specific classes taken during the MA degree program may not fit the individual doctoral student’s plan of work, or the program degree requirements, a student’s advisor may require that they complete more than the minimum hours required of doctoral coursework.
- Those admitted without a master’s degree are required to complete the Communication master’s degree as an integral part of the Communication doctoral program, in addition to the doctoral work specified. Thus, students entering without an MA degree must complete a minimum of 90 total hours.
Program Requirements
The following discussion assumes a student enters with an MA or has won admission without an MA and has since completed that degree. Full-time students coming into the program with an MA are expected to graduate within four years, part-time students within six years, although it is certainly possible – and sometimes desirable -- for students to complete the PhD program in less time. Distribution of the 60 hours of credit in the PhD can be graphically depicted as follows,
The two primary foundations of social science research are theory and empirical methods. These core areas in the curriculum provide students with solid grounding in a variety of new and established theoretical traditions, as well as in the major social scientific research methods. The theory core ensures that students graduating from the program are familiar with the theoretic foundations of the field and are proficient in understanding and using existing empirical research with a critical eye. The methods core ensures that students graduating from the program are well qualified to both consume and produce scholarship relevant to their field and specialty. In particular, the methods core prepares students do conduct their own original research in the form of a dissertation.
Summary of Requirements
Theory Core 12 credits
All students must complete COMM 600, Introduction to graduate
studies and select three other courses from the four core theory
courses (COMM 602 Mass Communication Theory: COMM
605 Intercultural Communication Theory; COMM 634 Interpersonal
Communication Theory; COMM 635 Organizational Communication
Theory).
Research Methods Core 9 credits
All students must take Graduate Research Methods COMM 650)
and at least two other methods courses from among Research
Methods II (COMM 750), Content Analysis (COMM 675),
Qualitative Methods (COMM 725), or other courses inside or
outside the department. Each student must complete at least two
research methods courses at the 70 level or higher.
Substantive Fields 18 credits
Each student chooses between chooses to focus primarily
in either the health communication area or the strategic
communication area. An area specialist must complete three
of the four core courses in their area (Health Communication =
COMM 620, COMM 705, COMM 720, COMM 820) (Strategic
Communication = COMM 706, COMM 630, COMM 705,
COMM 735) and complete another nine hours of work in that
area with classes offered in Communication or another department.
Representative options are listed in the diagram above.
Practicum 3 credits
Each student will acquire actual hands-on research experience
by completing a research practicum working directly with a
faculty mentor. Practicum hours may take the form of
COMM 604 (Research Practicum), COMM 890 (Special
Topics), or COMM 896 (Independent Study) depending on
the nature of the research being conducted.
Comprehensive Examinations
Each student must pass both a written or oral qualifying
examination.
Dissertation Proposal and Research 18 credits
Each student must complete the Dissertation Proposal class
(COMM 998, 3 credits) and 15 hours of dissertation work by
taking COMM 999). Each student must also pass a public
oral defense of the dissertation.
Explanation of Requirements for the PhD Program
- Practicum. In addition to the courses listed in the diagram above each student must complete three (3) hours of research practicum. Practicum credit must be approved by the Program Director, with consent of the advisor or advisory committee, prior to registration. This research practicum requirement provides students with hands-on experience conducting research either with, or under the supervision of, an individual faculty member.
- Required classes. There are only two specific required classes (COMM 600, COMM 650) but students must complete a 12 hour theory requirement by also selecting three of the other four core theory courses (e.g., COMM 600 plus 3 from among COMM 602, 605, 634, 635). In addition, half the hours (three courses) in a concentration must be selected from among a set of four courses constituting the concentration core.
- Outside (“multidisciplinary”) course work. Each student must take a minimum of six, but no more than 15, hours of course work outside the Department of communication and one member of the dissertation advisory committee must be a graduate faculty member from outside the department.
- Prior graduate work. With the written approval of the PhD Program Director and the Dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences [CHSS] a doctoral student may apply up to 12 hours of directly relevant course work earned in another approved graduate program and not previously applied toward a degree. A student must have a minimum of 48 hours in GMU credit to receive a PhD from this program except under very unusual circumstances when the Program Director, Department Chair and Dean of CHSS acting jointly may, on a case-by-case basis, exceed the 12-hour limit.
- Research methods. Each student must complete at least 9 hours of research methods, with at least six hours at the 700 level or above. The advisor, advisory committee or program director may require more than 9 hours of methods (or more than 60 total hours of doctoral work) as needed to meet a student’s needs. Research methods is required for both concentrations.
- Waiving courses. With the written consent of the program director, any required course may be waived, and three (3) credits of elective taken in its place, if a student demonstrates through standard procedures outlined in the GMU catalog that they have successfully completed comparable course material elsewhere.
- Overlap in substantive areas. Because the health and strategic communication areas are distinct -- but highly complementary -- they have generally different required courses but substantial overlap in acceptable elective courses. (e.g., COMM 820 Health Campaigns is a core class in the Health Communication but might well be included in a plan of work for a student in the Strategic Communication area as well.)
Admission Requirements
Application to the program is by electronic submission only at: https://patriotweb.gmu.edu:9977/ pls/prod/bwskalog.P_DispLoginNon. Admission to the program is competitive. Applicants must demonstrate interest in and the ability to study at the doctoral level in communication emphasizing health and strategic communication contexts. The faculty committee on admissions will evaluate admission candidates based on the strength of their academic backgrounds, standardized test scores (GRE’s), writing ability, prior work experience, letters of recommendation and “fit” with the program and faculty research interests and expertise. Although the GRE is required, it is only one of several areas of evaluation in the admissions process.
Applications are considered on a fall admissions cycle, check CHSS website for dates. Late applications are considered on a space-available basis.
Doctoral Dissertation
The Ph.D. dissertation entails independent research course work. The work must represent an achievement in research; it must be a significant contribution to its field; and it should be deemed publishable in refereed journals or a well-respected press.