About Us
| A University Exemplary Department |
The Department of Communication at Virginia Tech is a two-time winner of the University Exemplary Department Award. Given to only two departments each year, only Communication and Engineering Education have earned the distinction twice since the program's inception in 1994.
| Brief History of Communication at Virginia Tech |
The first Bachelor of Arts degree in communication at Virginia Tech was conferred in 1976. Communication was a program in the Department of Communication and Fine Arts until 1980 when the Communication program gained departmental status. We now have more than 3,300 alumni and rank among the top six largest majors at Virginia Tech. To learn more about the undergraduate program, click here.
At the graduate level, the department launched a Communication Studies option within the Master of Arts in English in 1999. In Fall 2003, the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors and the State Council of Higher Education of Virginia approved the Master of Arts in Communication at Virginia Tech as a stand-alone program. To learn more about our graduate program, click here.
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Our work encompasses two broad areas of teaching and research: mass communication (print and electronic journalism; media effects and criticism; film studies; communication history and law) and public communication (public relations and issue management; public advocacy; political communication; organizational communication).
Members of the Communication faculty graduated from top programs in Communication in the U.S. and share their knowledge and expertise through research and teaching. To see the full list of faculty, click here. Our tenured and tenure-track faculty have published a number of scholarly books, refereed journal articles, book chapters, and other research publications in recent years. Communication faculty members also serve on the editorial boards of a number of scholarly journals hold editorial leadership positions in others. To see some samples or recent works, click here.
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Communication faculty and students extend their expertise to the community through student consulting and continuing education. For example, students in the public relations area create promotional materials and campaigns strategies for campus and community clients. Recent clients include New River Land Trust; Montgomery County Habitat for Humanity; Montgomery County Humane Society; The Lyric Theater; Newman Library; and The College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences. Communication faculty offer seminars and workshops for groups such as the U.S. Forest Service; Virginia Accounting and Auditing Conference; the American Water Works Association; the Virginia Association of Local Government Managers; and New River Leadership.
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Blacksburg is a prototypic college town located in the Western part of Virginia and is close to many scenic areas of the Eastern United States. Blacksburg is recognized as a high tech town (the Blacksburg Electronic Village is internationally known) and was named ten years ago as "America's Most Wired Town". The Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center is an active and thriving research park next to campus. Blacksburg has many nearby outdoor recreational options. In September 2001, Outside Magazine named it one of 10 U.S. "Dream Towns" and called it "an uncrowded ground zero for backpackers, boaters, climbers, and cyclists."
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