TOP 5 New Media Journalism Doctorate Programs in the USA

[Alexandre Gamela]

I've asked this before at the Faculty Lounge group, but i'm inviting you all to share with me your experiences and thoughts on this:

I'm applying for a fellowship to get a doctorate degree in the USA , and i need to choose up to 5 universities in my application. So , which are the top 5 doctorate programs in new media journalism in the USA?

Any recommendations are welcome

[Ryan Sholin]

You won't find many, if any, Ph.D. programs in Journalism, exactly, in the U.S.

What you will find are either Master's degree programs in Journalism or Ph.D. programs in communication, or mass communications, or communication studies.

For Journalism graduate programs that award a Master's degree, UC Berkeley and Columbia University come to mind as the top two choices.

For Communications Ph.D. programs, there are many more choices. I'd suggest taking a look at some of the large public universities, like U of Illinois, U of Florida, or Ohio University.

Good luck!

[Alexandre Gamela]

Thanks Ryan! I'll take a look into it. And thanks also for WiredJournalists.

[Isabelle Roughol]

I'm a bit hurt that my alma mater — the University of Missouri — didn't make Ryan's list. The J school here awarded the first ever Ph.D. in journalism back in 1934. The education I get here as an undergrad is great, but that said, I don't know much about the doctoral program in general, and new media studies in particular.

Info is here: http://journalism.missouri.edu/graduate/doctoral/

[Alexandre Gamela]

Thank you Isabelle, i'll take a look. Don't take Ryan too bad, it probably slipped his mind hehe. I wanted a new media oriented thing, but there aren't many, i guess...
Thanks again.

[Dave Brooks]

I know nothing about the topic, so take this with a grain of salt, but I can't imagine that an advanced degree in "new media" would be worth the PDF it's embedded in. The topic is too damn new, and way too much in flux, for good rules and theory to have been distilled by academia.

The advanced theory and practical knowledge handed on by a degree is being created at keyboards in newsrooms and homes, not in dissertations - not yet anyway.

[Alexandre Gamela]

yeah dave, maybe i'm just being to optimistic to ask for a new media post graduation. so the question shifts: top 5 post graduate programs in journalism with new media content.anyone? i need the information though.

[Isabelle Roughol]

Missouri does have a convergence program. It started maybe 4-5 years ago on the undergrad level, not sure if anyone's ever got a Ph.D. from it. Though now that I think about it, we do have a whole team of grad students who've been doing citizen media work for years, and one I know is getting a Ph.D. Let me ask around.

[Alexandre Gamela]

Thanks Isabelle, looking forward to hear from you.

[Isabelle Roughol]

From Jeremy Littau, my first news reporting teacher and a Ph.D. new media guy himself at Missouri, as posted on my Facebook wall:

"Our program is attracting a lot of convergence folks, but you have to make your way a little more. This is a good place for an ambitious person who wants a "sandbox" to try new stuff. Other than us, the University of Maryland is doing some good things with tech and innovation (they're the home of J-Lab and the Knight Citizen News Network), it's a place I wouldn't mind working as a professor. If they're more interested in the research side than the innovation side, I'd say the University of Texas or University of Wisconsin, probably in that order.
Oh, and the University and Florida is an up-and-comer. Mindy McAdams is doing a lot of good things with that program, and she's great."

[Ryan Sholin]

Missouri did slip my mind - I'm not at all the last word on these things. But if it's Journalism you're interested in, I'd recommend a shorter Master's program. I think Columbia's is 2 years at this point.

If it's communications research that you're interested in, you should be able to blaze a new media path wherever you go: Even if there's no new media big shot on the faculty, there will probably be an expert in one field or another (organizational theory, or diffusion theory, or agenda-setting, for example) that you could use as an adviser for new media research.

If you want to really get exploratory, the ITP program at NYU is wildly innovative, and not at all anything to do with a conventional "journalism" curriculum, or even conventional research.