The Institute of Communications Research is an internationally recognized center for interdisciplinary education, scholarship and public service in communications and culture. Drawing broadly on the social sciences and humanities, the Institute seeks to develop critically interpretive knowledge about communications in a global economy.

The Institute offers two degree programs, a bachelor's degree in Media Studies and a doctoral degree in Communications.

• Details on bachelor of science degree in Media Studies
• Details on the Ph.D. program in Communications

 

ICR news

Angharad N. Valdivia, professor of media studies and Latina/o Studies, in collaboration with Ruth Nicole Brown, assistant professor of educational policy studies and gender and women's studies, has been granted a Hewlett Foundation and International Studies Conference Grant for "Global Girl Studies: Media and Pedagogical Approaches," an interdisciplinary conference with scholars from the U.S., Israel, and Germany. The conference will be held on the Urbana campus in May.

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Kent Ono, professor of communications and Asian American Studies, received the 2008 Charles H. Woolbert Research Award given by the National Communication Association. The award is given for excellence in scholarship, specifically for a published essay that has continued to be influential and innovative over time. The award was given for his 1995 essay with John M. Sloop titled, "The Critique of Vernacular Discourse," which was published in the journal "Communication Monographs" (Vol. 62, No. 1, pp. 19-46). Additionally, his book, "Asian Americans and the Media," with Vincent N. Pham Ph.D. '11 COMM was published this month by John Wiley and Sons Ltd., under their Polity list. Finally, with Joy Yang Jiao, Ono co-authored an essay, "China in the U.S. Imaginary: Tibet, the Olympics, and the 2008 Earthquake," published in the journal "Communication and Critical Cultural Studies."

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Core traditions: Critically interpretive knowledge in an increasingly global world

As founder Wilbur Schramm envisioned it, the multidisciplinary Institute of Communications Research is "something very unlike a traditional academic department." The continuously changing nature of communications has provoked shifting relations between scholars in the academy and leaders in industry, policy, external funding agencies and public life.

The Institute's doctoral program is strong in all areas that measure excellence and effectiveness, including reputation among peer programs, acceptance rate, quality of applicants, scholarly productivity, teaching excellence, graduate job placement and reputation of graduates.

Institute faculty are known throughout the world. Among faculty honors, John Nerone was named an outstanding scholar in political economy and media history and Cliff Christians was named the Charles H. Sandage Distinguished Professor of Advertising (and Ethics).

The Institute today is widely regarded as a campus and national leader in successful interdisciplinary research and instruction. The program is highly selective, each year offering seven or eight places to students who come from among more than two hundred applicants. ICR doctoral students are graduates of superior universities across the United States and around the world. The Institute also provides an interdisciplinary home to graduate students from other departments on the Illinois campus.

Visiting international faculty and scholars also participate in the Institute, often remaining in residence for a year or more. Our recent faculty hires include internationally acclaimed senior faculty in media and communications policy, telecommunications history, gender and ethnic studies of media and communication, media globalization, and the political economy of communication.