Communication studies focus on how people construct, use, and interpret messages across multiple channels and types of media to inform, persuade, manage, relate, and influence each other within and across social contexts and cultures. Our distinguished faculty offer courses and research opportunities for its more than 1250 undergraduate majors and 30 graduate students in the core areas of interpersonal and intergroup, organizational, and media communication.

Students trained in the communication discipline find employment across a wide range of local, state, national, and global organizations in professions ranging from the media industry, law, education, and social services to management in profit and non-profit organizations.

RESPONDING TO THE NEEDS OF INDIVIDUALS, GROUPS AND OUR LOCAL AND GLOBAL COMMUNITIES
Globalization, increased interconnectedness, new communication technologies, and changing social values are reshaping patterns of social interaction, home and work experiences, domestic and international politics, and economic activity. The Department’s three core areas, interpersonal and intergroup, organizational, and media communication respond to these changes in many ways.

Faculty members and students engage significant social issues: effects of children's exposure to violent and sexual content on television and the Internet, communication processes underlying codependence in relationships where one partner abuses drugs, language-based gender bias, participation via the Internet in grassroots political groups, First Amendment threats, privacy and the Internet, causes of volunteerism and volunteer turnover in hospices, communication correlates of effective multidisciplinary health care teams, lifespan communication issuesÑespecially responses to the aged, improving management practices, hate speech, community policing, terrorism and the role of global organizations among many others.

Our faculty consult with governmental agencies on issues related to the regulation and effects of the media, international commissions on human rights and terrorism, health campaigns and professional groups focused on organizational innovation and change. Faculty are also invited as expert witnesses in congressional hearings on Capitol Hill and interviewed in the print, broadcast, and online media. Communication faculty lead and collaborate with interdisciplinary centers and programs on campus including the Center on Police Practices and Community; the Center for Film, Television, and New Media; the Center for Information Technology and Society; the Technology Management Program and the Graduate Program in Management Practice.

Department of Communication cited again for productivity The January 12, 2007 Chronicle of Higher education featured a report on The Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index. The Department of Communication at UCSB was ranked second in productivity among all departments of communication. This was the third study of productivity in the last two years (see stories below of the Thompson Scholarly Impact study and the JOC study of productivity) to find the department in the top three department’s of communication with respect to productivity and provides additional evidence for the 2004 NCA reputational study which identified the Department of Communication as a top ranked department in the field of Communication. The Chronicle story may be found at http://chronicle.com/weekly/v53/i19/19a00801.htm

UCSB'S COMMUNICATION DEPARTMENT NAMED ONE OF THE TOP HIGH IMPACT U.S. UNIVERSITIES, 1999-2003 Ranked by average citations per paper, among the top 100 federally funded U.S. universities that published at least 50 papers in Thomson Scientific-indexed communication journals between 1999 and 2003. Rank University Number of papers, 1999-2003 Citations per paper 1 University of Wisconsin, Madison 120 3.05 2 University of California, Santa Barbara 75 3.00 3 University of Michigan 79 2.95 4 University of Illinois, Urbana 78 1.95 University of Washington 79 1.95 5 Ohio State University 69 1.93 http://in-cites.com/research/2005/may_9_2005-1.html

UCSB'S COMMUNICATION DEPARTMENT RANKS HIGH IN RESEARCH PRODUCTIVITY UC Santa Barbara's Communication Department has been ranked No. 3 in the nation in terms of research productivity, according to a recent analysis of scholarly articles that have appeared in eight academic journals sponsored by the National Communication Association and the International Communication Association. See the full article at http://www.ia.ucsb.edu/pa/display.aspx?pkey=1412

GRADUATE PROGRAMS IN UCSB'S COMMUNICATION DEPARTMENT RANKED BEST IN NATION BY NATIONAL COMMUNICATION ASSOCIATION SURVEY Conducted in the 2003-2004 academic year, the study asked NCA members to judge the reputations of 132 doctoral programs in nine specialty areas of communication. In the five areas in which it was considered, UCSB ranked first, first, second, fourth and seventeenth. Here are the rankings and those from 1996, the last time that NCA conducted the study.   1996 2004 Interpersonal and Small Group 9 1 Intercultural/International 8 1 Organizational 12 2 Communication and Technology N.A. 4 Mass Communication N.A. 17 These results are an extraordinary achievement for any department, they are truly remarkable for a department of our size. Congratulations are due to one and all. The complete survey may be found at: http://www.natcom.org/nca/Template2.asp?bid=415 The press release from UC Santa Barbara's website may be found here.

I hope these pages capture some of the excitement and pleasure there is in being part of this nationally and internationally recognized outstanding department. Please let me or any other faculty or staff know if there is any further information you would like to have.

Michael Stohl
mstohl@comm.ucsb.edu

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