About the School
History of the School
The history of communications degrees offered at Temple reads like a history of the communications field in general. Since the founding of the Journalism Department in 1927, the structure and curriculum of the communications program have been evolving to meet the demands and expectations of a changing media landscape.
1927 The Department of Journalism was founded in the School of Business.
1931 Theater courses began.
1947 The Department of Radio-Television was added.
1967 Film was added to form the Department of Radio, Television and Film.
1967 The departments combined to form the School of Communications and
Theater.
1967 The Master of Fine Arts in Theater program was created.
1971 The School introduced the Master of Arts in Film and Video.
1995 Radio-Television-Film was divided into the Department of Film and Media
Arts and the Department of Broadcasting, Telecommunications and
Mass Media.
1995 Journalism was renamed Journalism, Public Relations and Advertising.
1997 The School introduced the Communications Interdisciplinary Major.
2000 The School added several new media specialists to the faculty and
formed the New Media Interdisciplinary Concentration.
2004 The Department of Journalism, Public Relations and Advertising split into
the Departments of Journalism, the Department of Advertising, and the
Department of Strategic and Organizational Communication
(which combined rhetoric, communications, and public relations).
