The Jack J. Valenti School of Communication at the University of Houston offers a Master's degree in Communication directed toward professional success in both academic and nonacademic careers. The goal of the program is to produce graduate students who are able to move effectively into professional media positions, advance their current careers, teach in junior colleges or high schools, or enter into top doctoral programs.
To date, our school has placed graduates into top-ranked PhD programs as well as into nonacademic positions in both public and private institutions. Regardless of the career goal, the graduate program broadens each student's communication expertise through courses that improve conceptual, applied, and research skills - all of which are critical for successful careers in today's information-oriented and changing global society.
Areas of Concentration
Within the MA in Communication, there are four specializations from which a student must choose one. The four areas are:
- Health Communication, which focuses on examining the symbolic and organizational processes by which people, individually and collectively, understand, shape, and accommodate to health and illness.
- Journalism & Mass Communication, which focuses on the development of modern media systems and their impact on society, and examines ways in which the media contribute and respond to political, social and economic issues
- Public Relations, which focuses on theory and research that is needed to help advancing practitioners assist organizations to communicate and strengthen relationships with their stakeholders. Emphasis is given to management issues relevant to products, services, image, and public policy issues.
- Global & Intercultural Communication, which focuses on communication patterns and formats between and among people across national borders and cultures with the aim of understanding the transfer of knowledge, opinions, values, and culture across boundaries