History
The Department of Communication was formed in 1964 from the merger of the Department of Journalism and the Broadcasting sequence from the Department of Speech. Robert A. Mott was the founding chair. The initial areas of emphasis at the undergraduate level were Newspaper Editorial, Radio & Television, Radio & Television News, and Media Management. In 1973, the Department began an association with WSU alumnus Edward R. Murrow, with the Murrow Communications Center opening as the home of the department and the first annual Edward R. Murrow Symposium being held, bringing Eric Sevareid, Henry Loomis, and Harry S. Ashmore to the WSU campus. This began a tradition of bringing prominent media figures to campus each year, a trend that ultimately became the awarding of the Edward R. Murrow Award.
The 1980s saw a period of rapid growth for the Department. Under the guidance of Professors Glenn Johnson and W. Neal Robison, the Department began a weekly television newscast in 1980. This would be the origins of what was to become Cable 8 Productions, an entirely student-run television channel, launched in 1986. Meanwhile, the Department strengthened its academic offerings by the 1983 merger between the Departments of Communication and Speech Communication, which allowed the Department to begin offering a graduate degree in Communication. The Department granted its first M.A. degree in 1985. In 1986, Dr. Alexis S. Tan joined as chair and led efforts to have the Department designated as the Edward R. Murrow School of Communication, with the new title approved by the WSU Board of Regents in 1990.
Into the twenty-first century, the School began offering a Ph.D. in Communication in 2002 and separated from the College of Liberal Arts in 2008, becoming an independent College of Communication. Dr. Lawrence Pintak, a veteran of more than 30 years in journalism and a prominent expert on America's relationship with the Muslim world, was hired as the Founding Dean of the new College.
Read more about this topic: Edward R. Murrow College Of Communication
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