The Mass Communication Department is an energetic and progressive department focusing on undergraduate education in print and broadcast journalism, video production, media management and sales, and public relations. Housed in the Dan Rather Communications Building, the department is home to an award-winning student newspaper, 24-hour student radio station, and student operated community television facility. Students produce television and radio news programs for the SHSU and Huntsville communities and broadcast the only university Spanish-language television newscast in Texas.
We are dedicated to providing our students with a variety of experiences both inside and outside the classroom that will prepare them for a career in the mass communication field. Students are encouraged to participate in the department’s co-curricular activities and to complete at least one industry-related internship.
The department faculty currently consists of 11 full-time faculty and five adjunct and part-time instructors. We are in the process of hiring two endowed chairs, as well as two new tenure-track professors; all will come on board in Fall 2009. Mass communication is one of the most popular programs on campus, with more than 600 majors and 80 minors. One of the fastest-growing departments at SHSU, the Mass Communication Department saw an increase in enrollment of almost 11 percent in Fall 2008.
Our mission as a department is to acquire, synthesize, and disseminate knowledge related to mass communication, for the purpose of producing media literate, socially aware, and professionally competent graduates. Through their education in the Mass Communication Department, our graduates acquire the skills they need for today's media marketplace and also develop the broader, theoretical background for:
* negotiating convergence in the communication field
* serving and communicating with diverse populations
* understanding the economic and political pressures on professional integrity, and
* intelligently assessing and interpreting unfolding events
The Mass Communication Department emphasizes the education of ethical and technologically proficient communication professionals who are capable of making a positive impact on their environment and on society. Through their work in our program, students grow to become informed, responsible, creative, and critical communicators capable of participating broadly in a diverse, multi-cultural, and rapidly changing media world.