Students in the Ph.D. Program in Communication, Library and Information Science, and Media Studies may elect to focus their study in any of the following areas:

1. Communication Processes
2. Library and Information Science
3. Media Studies

Communication Processes reflects faculty research and scholarship focusing on three interrelated core areas: Social Interaction; Organizational Communication; and Mediated Communication. Problem-oriented research at the intersection of these areas includes such prominent contemporary concerns as health, gender, globalization, identity, leadership and policy. Health communication and leadership research are particular emphases, as is reflected in the Communication and Health Issues Partnership for Education and Research and the Center for Organizational Development and Leadership. Also emphasized is mediated and especially mobile communication as reflected in the Center for Mobile Communication Studies.

Library and Information Science (LIS) provides academic training for students seeking theoretical and research skills for scholarly and professional leadership in the library and information fields. LIS offers concentrations in Information Science and Library Science. Information Science concentrates on information behavior and systematic responses to it. Students in this area develop understanding of, and research capability in, human information-seeking activity, information retrieval systems and information structures. Library Science concentrates on libraries and information centers as part of a diverse global information environment. The concentration considers the design, management and evaluation of information systems and services responsive to users' information and cultural needs.

Media Studies is concerned with the political, social, psychological, and economic impact of the media, as well as with the cultural and historical conditions that give rise to contemporary media. The area includes the study of both the "traditional" mass media and newer electronic technologies and telecommunications. Research and coursework cover media content and effects; audience reception and interpretive processes; the emergence of audiences understood in terms of race, age, gender, class, and politics; the sociology and production of culture; communication law, regulation, and policy; and the media's roles in political and international communication and in educational systems.