Department of Media and Communication (COM)

COM started to offer the communication programmes at the Ph.D. level and MA level in 1996 and 1998 respectively in the Department of English. The Department of English was renamed to Department of English and Communication in 2000. In 2008, an independent Department of Media and Communication was formally established to reflect and consolidate its vitality as a fast-developing academic unit.

COM has two BA programmes (Media and Communication; Digital TV and Broadcasting), two MA programmes (Communication and New Media; Integrated Marketing Communication), and one Ph.D. programme. It has about 380 students at the undergraduate level, 180 MA students, and around 35 Ph.D. students. COM has established connectivity and partnership with more than 100 media and communication companies, and has academic collaborations with over 20 universities globally such as undergraduate student exchange programme, master’s education programme and joint Ph.D. programme. In 2016, the Department launched a Collaborative Master’s Education Programme with Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications. To nurture the leaders of tomorrow, the undergraduate plus taught postgraduate programmes under the CityU Talents Programme were launched in 2021, featuring the collaboration with the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign where the elite COM students may pursue their studies in the Master of Science in Advertising programme offered by the College of Media. 

COM provides the Ph.D. students with financial support during their study, either from the Hong Kong Research Grants Council via the Hong Kong Ph.D. Fellowship Scheme or from CityU or other sources. Admission to the Ph.D. programme is highly selective. The Ph.D. students have regularly published in renowned peer-reviewed journals, including top-tier Q1 SCI/SSCI publications. The PhD graduates have staged as rising stars in teaching and research when they work as faculty members in local, mainland China and overseas universities such as Michigan State University, University of Pittsburgh, and University of Houston in the US, the University of Groningen in the Netherlands and University of Leeds in the UK. 

COM’s faculty is an international team with 20 dedicated faculty members who publish in top tier academic journals and play leading roles in academic activities worldwide. Professor Jonathan Zhu and Emeritus Professor Chin Chuan Lee were inducted as Fellows by the ICA at its annual conferences held in 2018 and 2019, respectively. There are five research clusters: computational communication, new media and technology, political communication, health communication, and strategic communication. COM is particularly known for its computational and interdisciplinary approaches that are supported by the Web Mining Lab and the college-level Centre for Communication Research, respectively.

The 2006 and 2014 Hong Kong Research Assessment Exercises affirmed the Department’s excellence in world-class research and its leading position in the discipline of media and communication in Hong Kong. COM’s accomplishment in communication and media studies was further recognised by QS World University Rankings as the Department was ranked No. 27 in the subject in the world in three consecutive years in 2017, 2018 and 2019.

COM’s international collaboration strategy follows the lead of the University policy to strengthen internationalisation and global partnerships. It has engaged in local and international collaboration to achieve its teaching and research strategies. COM has made persistent efforts to produce research outputs that have significant impact on a variety of beneficiaries, predominantly practitioners and policymakers in media and communication. The graduates of COM have also demonstrated their distinction through their roles as industry leaders in different sectors.

 

Milestone of the Department of Media and Communication