From social media posts to face-to-face conversations and from television and film narratives to the stories of our everyday lives, communication is a fundamental social and cultural process that both shapes and reflects who we are as people and societies. The UMass Amherst Department of Communication emphasizes an understanding of communication as the primary process through which persons, societies, and cultures are formed and changed.  

Here, our prominent faculty and curious students research media, technology, and social interaction at global, national, institutional, group, and interpersonal levels. Our students combine theory and practice in order to become more informed citizens in an increasingly tech-centered world and more accomplished practitioners with public speaking, research, writing, and digital media production skills. 

Together, we aim to address matters of pressing social and cultural concern through the lens of communication as a process that is essential to our survival in a global world.