The William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications has offered a Ph.D. degree since fall 2012. The school has a solid reputation in the field, and our faculty study issues and uses of real-world media communications that advance the discipline and impact audiences at local, regional, national, and international levels. We seek junior colleagues who share those interests.

Our Ph.D. program is small and, therefore, selective. We admit 4 to 6 students per year to ensure close work with the faculty. We expect our students’ scholarly and research interests to intersect with those of our faculty.

The school’s Ph.D. is a rigorous scholarly research degree requiring mastery of theory and methodology. We expect our Ph.D. program graduates to possess advanced knowledge in the following areas necessary for all scholarship in the discipline:

• Scholarly inquiry and methods of discovery;
• Current theory and research methods of the discipline;
• Statistics appropriate to the discipline;
• Media use by society, historical and current;
• Media roles in society, including issues of diversity;
• The First Amendment, legal and ethical issues of the discipline.

Additionally, we expect our Ph.D. program graduates to possess advanced knowledge in one or more of the following areas as necessary for scholarship in their chosen area of expertise and with the advice and guidance of their respective faculty advisors:

• Advanced practice of theory, methods, and concepts in mass communication;
• Advanced practice of theory, methods, and concepts suitable to the student’s area of concentration;
• Advanced quantitative and qualitative data analysis and interpretation;
• Specific uses and impacts of media, such as in public health, in education, in politics, in the military, or in traditional mass media roles;
• The business of the media, historical and current;
• Innovation and entrepreneurship.

The following courses must be completed by the end of the semester of the oral comprehensive exam and must be completed with a grade of B or higher. Additional requirements for the degree, including enrollment in dissertation hours for doctoral candidacy, are described below the grid.

Coursework Requirements 

Year 1: Complete required coursework (15-18 credit hours)
Fall: JMC 801, JMC 802, JMC 901 (1 credit), One (1) main research topic area 
Spring: JMC 803, JMC 805, JMC 806 or JMC 807 (whichever is offered)

Year 2: Complete required coursework (15-20 credits)
JMC 901 (1 credit), JMC 804, JMC 806 or JMC 807 (whichever is offered)
EPSY 710-711 (statistics -- 3 credits, 1-credit lab), Three (3) courses in main research topic area
One (1) elective

Year 3: Complete dissertation hours (18 credit hours) 
JMC 999 (9 credit hours; fall and spring semesters) 

Research Skills & Responsible Scholarship
The University requires that every doctoral student receive training in responsible scholarship pertinent to the field of research and obtain research skills pertinent to the doctoral level of research in their field(s). These requirements must be completed by the end of the semester that the student takes the oral comprehensive exam. For students in a PhD in Journalism and Mass Communications, this requirement is satisfied by completion of: JMC 801, JMC 802, JMC 803, JMC 804, JMC 805, JMC 806 or JMC 807.

Oral Comprehensive Exam
When course work has been completed, the student in good academic standing will complete a written comprehensive exam that requires an oral defense. Generally, doctoral students take the comprehensive exam at the end of the sixth or beginning of the seventh semester of their program. At least five months must elapse between the successful completion of the comprehensive exam and the final dissertation.

Enrollment Requirements Post-Comprehensive Exam
Upon passing the comprehensive examination, the student becomes a candidate for the Ph.D. degree and is approved to proceed with their dissertation research and project. Starting the semester following successful completion of the oral comprehensive exam, students must enroll in accordance with the Office of Graduate Studies’ Doctoral Candidacy Policy. This enrollment includes, but is not limited to, at least 1 dissertation hour every semester until graduation. See the Doctoral Candidacy policy for more information about this University level requirement.

Dissertation and Final Oral Defense
The dissertation must be an original work of research that advances the field of [discipline] and complies with the Office of Graduate Studies’ Doctoral Dissertation policy. Upon approval by the students committee that the student’s dissertation research and written document is complete, the student must defend the dissertation before all committee members in the “final oral examination,” or dissertation defense. The final dissertation defense includes a public presentation of the dissertation research by the candidate and concludes with a period of questioning by the committee, faculty, and public in attendance. After posing questions to the student about the dissertation work, committee members deliberate and vote on a grade of Satisfactory or Unsatisfactory. A grade of Satisfactory requires a majority vote, and may be contingent on the completion of specific revisions by a designated due date. The committee may also recommend that a student earning a satisfactory grade be considered for Honors by the Department. Honors are conferred at graduation by the Department, reflecting outstanding work in all aspects of the doctoral program.

Identify a committee chair no later than the third semester of your program.
During the third or fourth semester, the remainder of the committee from the School of Journalism and Mass Communications should be established. The majority of committee members must be tenured or tenure-track faculty in the School of Journalism and Mass Communications. Committees generally include five members but can be larger. Each committee must include a Graduate Studies Representative. The Graduate Studies Representative must be a member of KU’s graduate faculty who is authorized to serve on doctoral committees by a KU department or school other than the School of Journalism and Mass Communications. All committee members should be members of the KU’s graduate faculty authorized to serve on doctoral exams. See the Doctoral Student Oral Exam Committee Composition Policy for more information and a complete list of requirements for doctoral committees.

• The Graduate Studies Representative should be identified by the fourth semester in the program.
• The Ph.D. comprehensive exam should be completed early in the fifth semester of the program.
• The Ph.D. comprehensive exam oral defense should occur no sooner than 10 days following the written exam, but no longer than 30 days after. 
• The Ph.D. dissertation proposal should be approved by the committee within 60 days of the successful oral defense of the comprehensive exam.
• The dissertation should be submitted to the committee no less than two weeks prior to its defense.
• Defense of the dissertation should occur no later than May 1 in the Spring and December 1 in the Fall.

For additional information, refer to the Graduate Handbook.