Distinctions for College of Communication Arts and Sciences

• The College of Communication Arts and Sciences was established in 1955 as the first of its kind in the United States. Today, it’s one of the largest and most respected communication colleges globally.
• Top initiatives focus on innovative aspects of security and access as they relate to new technologies. Researchers have partnered to examine issues that include consumer privacy and online safety with a grant from Microsoft, the link between investments in broadband for rural America and adoption and usage issues, and detection of deceptive behaviors via communication technologies.
• The Chronicle of Higher Education ranked MSU’s Media and Information Studies doctoral program No. 2 in the category of mass communication in 2007, and the communication doctoral program No. 4 in a separate category of communication in its 2005 Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index, published in 2007.
• The college has had at least eight Pulitzer Prize winners, including faculty member Eric Freedman, and alumni Richard Cooper, M.L. Elrick, Andrew Guy, Howard James, Ariel Melchoir Jr., and Jim Mitzelfeld. Beth McCoy was part of a Times-Picayune (New Orleans team) that won two Pulitzers for breaking news and public service in 2006.
• Many alumni have gone on to successful careers in Hollywood, including movie marketing executive Craig Murray, producer Craig Piligian, director Greg Harrison, and two-time Emmy-award winning recording mixer Michael Olman.
• The Michigan Association of Broadcasters and Broadcast Music Inc. have named MSU’s WDBM Impact 89FM radio station as the College Radio Station for the past seven years. Students at the station also have produced Governor Jennifer Granholm’s podcast since fall 2005.
• MSU is ranked No. 2 in producing and encouraging graduate student publications in journalism and mass communication journals examined from 1999 to 2006, according to a study presented at the Association of Education in Journalism and Mass Communication conference in 2008.
• Capital News Service, a pioneering effort created at MSU and modeled across the country, continues to break news for member newspaper clients around the state.
• The college is home to the Health and Risk Communication Center engages in education, outreach, and research related to risk reduction and health promotion across multiple contexts. Its primary goal is to be a hub for trans-disciplinary communication research and activities that promote healthy lifestyle choices, address environmental risk factors, and maintain food security.

Department of Advertising, Public Relations, and Retailing

• The advertising and public relations master’s programs were ranked in the top 10 nationwide by U.S. News & World Report in 1996 (most recent rankings of these programs).
• The newly established Department of Advertising, Public Relations, and Retailing—the result of several programs being merged—is the only department of its kind in the nation.

Department of Communication

• MSU’s communication department is ranked No. 1 in the nation in terms of research productivity, according to a new analysis of scholarly articles that appeared in the eight academic journals affiliated with the National Communication Association and the International Communication Association, two of the leading academic organizations in the communications field.
• The Department of Communication played a dominant role in developing the new scholarly field of communication study in the 1960s by shaping intellectual directions for theory and research. MSU helped institutionalize the name “communication” as an academic field; the label is now used by a majority of departments nationally.
• The communication department has nearly double the number of PhD graduates who are elected fellows of the International Communication Association as any other university. When current and former faculty members are included, MSU accounts for 15 of the 52 fellows.

Department of Communicative Sciences and Disorders

• For the past several years, graduates of the department’s master’s degree program have scored among the highest in the nation on the national board exam, the ETS PRAXIS exam in speech-language pathology. Graduates in 2007 achieved a 100 percent pass rate. The overall first-time passage rate for MSU graduates averages 95 percent; the national average is approximately 79 percent.
• The Department of Communicative Sciences and Disorders was one of the first programs in the country to be reviewed and accredited under the new standards of the Council on Academic Accreditation of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.
• A team of researchers from communicative sciences and disorders, genetics, and pediatrics and human development identified a gene that is connected to progressive hearing loss and received funding from the National Institutes of Health to continue its work.

Department of Telecommunication, Information Studies, and Media

• The college’s long history of working with digital media has evolved to a new specialty in simulation and game design, including a specialization for undergraduate students and a master’s course of study. A National Science Foundation project in the college looks at girls and gaming, and the Games for Entertainment and Learning Lab is studying the potential of “serious games” to enhance neurocognitive functions of aging adults.
• The Quello Center for Telecommunication Management and Law was founded to assist both the public and private sectors through cutting-edge, multidisciplinary research on telecommunication management and policy; serving as a catalyst for the development and adoption of balanced telecommunication policy solutions; and contributing to the private sector’s alignment with the economic and political realities of communication industries.
• In its first season, the student-produced Telecasters program MSU&U earned a state Emmy in 2006.  

School of Journalism

• The School of Journalism is one of only a few such programs in the nation continuously accredited since 1949.
• The School of Journalism was the first in the country to create a Victims and the Media Program, which now has international reach. The program trains media professionals and students on appropriate tactics for covering victims of violence, natural disasters or catastrophe.
• The Knight Center for Environmental Journalism trains student and professional journalists to cover the environment. The center was founded in 1994 when the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation created the nation’s first endowed chair in environmental journalism. The program offers numerous classes and professional workshops for the study and practice of environmental journalism. Environmental journalism students gain practical experience by writing for EJ Magazine, the center’s award-winning publication.