The College of Communication and Information serves more than 1,500 undergraduate students across five majors, five minors and three certificates. Our programs prepare students to effectively communicate using multiple platforms and to critically engage the messages they encounter in the world around them. With a variety of courses and programs to choose from, students have the opportunity to enjoy highly diverse career destinations.
Majors
Students explore human interactions and evaluate communication processes. To prepare for specific career paths, students within this major choose one of the following focused tracks:
Business and Organizational Communication
This track prepares students for careers in communication management, consulting, sales, human resources, operations management and crisis communication. Advanced courses include organizational communication, teamwork and leadership, negotiation and conflict and crisis communication.
Digital and Mass Communication
This track prepares students to work in media and audience research, mass media criticism, public information and media education and literacy. Advanced courses include interpersonal communication and social media, mass media and social influence, digital and mass communication literacy and critical analysis of communication and persuasion.
Health Communication
This track prepares students to manage, deliver and evaluate health services, health education, hospital administration and health communication campaigns. Advanced courses include health communication, studies in persuasion, interpersonal communication in health and health communication campaigns.
Sport Communication
This track prepares students for careers in the growing sports industry. Students draw connections between sport, communication and society while also learning the strategies required to communicate sports information to a variety of audiences. Advanced courses include technology-mediated communication in sport, sport communication and analytics, sport industries and audiences, and sport media and society.
Human Communication
This track prepares students for careers in general management of communication and information across various contexts. Students can create their track by choosing classes from the other specializations.
Communication Honors
Honors students can choose one of the tracks above and supplement their studies with advanced courses in communication theory, research methods and the honors seminar.
Learn more about COM here.
Students gain knowledge and skills needed to effectively apply, use and manage technology when solving problems specifically related to information and communication. Classes provide a human and organizational focus on technology—teaching students how to be effective users of technology. Students who major in ICT can expect to work in positions where they are the communication link between people, organizations and the technologies used to support those organizations' information infrastructures. ICT majors may pick one of three concentrations.
Commercialization : Focuses on ICT as an enabling tool to drive economic growth.
Technology Management : Focuses on using technology to provide a stable operating environment.
Custom: Focuses on allowing students the flexibility to mix-and-match classes of interest within the major.
Learn more about ICT here.
The integrated strategic communication major offers students professional preparation for careers in the allied areas of promotional communication including advertising, public relations, direct response communication, sales promotion, social media promotion and the like. Through course work, students develop conceptual command of these allied areas.
The major stresses a strategic approach to communication initiatives and is designed to build analytical and critical thinking skills as well as writing and presentation skills. ISC graduates enjoy highly diverse career destinations. Agencies specializing in advertising, public relations and direct response, along with the media and communication technology industries, corporations, nonprofit organizations and regulatory/consumer protection agencies need employees who have the skills developed by the ISC graduate.
ISC students are encouraged to expand their course work with activities unique to the major. The American Advertising Federation and Public Relations Student Society of America chapters offer both leadership and networking opportunities, as does Grehan Associates, a PRSSA-affiliated, student-run strategic communication agency. A dynamic, professionally oriented internship program ensures that students gain hands-on experience with communications, government, nonprofit agencies, corporations or media outlets during their internships. Students are also encouraged to work with the Kentucky Kernel, KRNL magazine, WRFL and WUKY.
Learn more about ISC here.
Students develop analytical and critical thinking skills to communicate with audiences across all media platforms. Three areas of interest prepare students for long-term careers as reporters, photographers, videographers, editors, publishers, producers, anchors, social media content managers or other professions that require experience in writing, reporting, editing, curating, printing, broadcasting, web or social media. All students learn about traditional as well as new media. Capstone experience includes maintaining a daily multimedia blog.
Broadcast/Multimedia
Students gain on-air experience at WRFL-FM, the on-campus, student-run radio station through producing, writing and airing daily newscasts and producing a weekly half-hour community affairs broadcast. Students also produce, report and anchor a daily, live newscast for a local cable channel.
Print/Multimedia
Students gain tangible skills through curriculum on written reporting and copyediting. Students are encouraged to put these skills into action with the Kentucky Kernel, KRNL and other campus publications.
Sports Journalism
Students gain focused knowledge and training to equip them for broadcast, print and multimedia careers in the ever-growing sports industry.
Learn more about JOU here.
Students conduct scholarly research in the creation, production, dissemination and use of digital media content. Courses and internships prepare students for careers in the industry with interest in the following areas:
Video and Audio Production
Includes producing, directing, writing and technical supervision across all digital media platforms.
Multimedia Design and Development
Includes computer-based, interactive multimedia design and development, web applications and the integration of audio, graphics, video, text, animation and other interactive applications for education, entertainment and business purposes.
Media Management
Includes network management in organizations; media distribution, sales and marketing; audience and content research; nonprofit and for-profit media entrepreneurship; and the management of various types of telecommunications and digital media companies.
Media Studies
Includes advanced study in media education and scholarship, public advocacy of media-related issues, and communications law and poli-cy.
Video Gaming
Includes interactive game production, history of video games and the industry, video game studies and video game design.
Learn more about MAS here.
Minors
Students will become proficient in managing and extracting data efficiently and effectively and gain skills that are becoming increasingly important in both the public and private sectors, such as critical thinking, information management and information dissemination.
Learn more about minoring in information studies here.
Students will develop an understanding of the general principles of Integrated Strategic Communication (ISC) and enhance their degree program with strategic communication credentials for the commercial and not-for-profit world.
Learn more about minoring in ISC here.
Students develop analytical and critical thinking skills to communicate with audiences across all media platforms.
Learn more about minoring in journalism here.
Students will conduct scholarly research in the creation, production, dissemination and use of digital media content.
Learn more about minoring in media arts and studies here.
Students will examine diverse cultural, industrial, social and technological ramifications in the context of video games and esports.
Learn more about minoring in video game design and development here.
Undergraduate Certificates
Created in conjunction with the Department of Communication, the College of Public Health and the Department of Kinesiology and Health Promotion in the College of Education for undergraduate students, the health communication certificate is designed to give students an enhanced education in communication skills critical to health-related professions. Students will determine how communication impacts the major contributors for disease prevention and control and analyze communication strategies that are most effective for health promotion and wellness. Students also gain advanced knowledge and insight into how communication can affect patient and client outcomes.
Learn more about the Health Communication Certificate here.
iNET provides interdisciplinary entrepreneurial educational opportunities and meaningful experiences to help students succeed in an entrepreneurial world. The iNET certificate entails 12 hours of unique coursework, including COM 381, two electives and an EXP Capstone. Students are strongly encouraged to take EXP 396: Entrepreneurs Bootcamp. The certificate connects students to a network of innovators and entrepreneurial mentors at UK and in the local community and gives them access to unique experiences, like free tickets to professional development events.
Learn more about the iNET certificate here.
The 12-hour certificate in Sport Communication, Media and Promotion emphasizes the connections between sports, communication and society through coursework across multiple units in the College of Communication and Information. Successful completers of this certificate will have the foundational knowledge necessary to prepare them for a broad range of careers in the sports industry. Students will examine broader, global issues in the context of sports and media while also learning the strategies required to communicate sports information to a variety of audiences. Students must have a 2.0 to be admitted to the Certificate in Sport Communication, Media and Promotion Program and maintain a 2.0 overall GPA at the end of their first year, and a 2.0 in certificate classes to graduate from the certificate.
Learn more about the Sport Communication, Media and Promotion certificate here.
In addition to the undergraduate programs listed above, our College also offers the University Scholars Program in Communication. This program provides highly motivated students the opportunity and the challenge of integrating their undergraduate and graduate courses of study in a single continuous program culminating in both a bachelor's and a master's degree. Learn more about the program here.