About the Department

dunn hall entrance

Greetings From Our Chair, Dr. Nathan Stormer

Who We Are

The Communication and Journalism Department here at UMaine has been around in various configurations since 1915 which makes us one of the oldest programs in the country.  The Department of Public Speaking opened in 1915, later to become a Department of Speech & Theatre, and then to be combined with Speech Disorders.  The Department of Journalism began in 1948, later to become the Journalism and Mass Communication Department.  Communication and Journalism were combined in 1994.  As a Department we have a long, respected tradition of success and student-centered education.

Our undergraduate  students have gone on to careers in the private and public sectors and to graduate school. Our graduate students have become professionals, teachers, and professors.

Our Department´s mission is to understand and to improve the human condition through the study of communication practices. We offer challenging liberal arts degree programs in Communication, Media Studies, and Journalism, and graduate programs in Communication and Media Studies. Our programs address personal and professional practices, social contexts, and theoretical understandings of human-to-human and technologically mediated communication.

To our many alumni, we extend continued best wishes and, please, don´t be a stranger. To our current majors and graduate students, you are what make this a great Department. To prospective students, what are you waiting for?

Our Mission

The Department’s primary educational mission is to offer challenging liberal arts degree programs that include the personal and professional practices and the social contexts of communication, mass communication, and journalism. Through the study of human communication we seek to understand and to improve the human condition. The Department fulfills this liberal arts mission through its undergraduate programs in Communication, Media Studies, and Journalism, and through its graduate programs in Communication and Media Studies.