Communication Studies, M.A.

The MA program in Communication Studies with its focus on advocacy prepares students for communication-intensive roles in such fields as public affairs, employee development, community relations, and grass-roots movements as well as in organizations dealing with political and health concerns. A significant number of our graduates go on to earn Ph.D. degrees so as to pursue careers in teaching and research. 

Advocacy, speaking on behalf of some pressing concern, occurs throughout the intersections of our public and private lives, often in complex and challenging ways. The practice of advocacy is explored within the MA program in Communication Studies by investigating advocacy across both traditional and emerging contexts.  It is in these contexts we seek to uncover how meaning, symbols, and messages are constructed and arranged through the practice of communication. This approach allows faculty and students to discover and research advocacy in time-honored as well as newly emerging ways.

Advocacy involves working diligently and ethically to create a space, whether public or private, in which others can speak for themselves.  Our students learn to use communication theory and practice to reclaim and provide space for the voice of the other.  Advocacy is a calling to the responsibility we have for others in our global age, an age as much structured by local communication environments as it is by world-wide technology-mediated communication systems. The MA in Communication Studies seeks to provide those interested in advocacy the opportunity to develop the intellectual and conceptual skills necessary to respond to this calling.

Ready to begin? Contact MACS to learn more about the Communication Studies, M.A.