What Can You Do With a Phd in Communications

As I travel and encounter new people inside and outside of academia, I often get this question. It is a good 1, but that I can never seem to respond it in a sufficiently concise answer or ane-liner. IS there a unproblematic answer to this question? One simple answer might be: teach. The mutual and traditional thinking involves earning a Ph.D. in a item discipline in order to teach that subject to future undergraduate and/or graduate students. For example, once I graduate, I could teach science and environmental writing courses to futurity university students. Just other than learning how to teach what you lot learned in your own classes every bit an undergraduate and/or graduate student, what practise you do with a Ph.D. in Mass Communication (of science)?

But my Ph.D. goes far across educational activity my field to others. Equally a Ph.D. pupil, I take classes that are likely only ever taught to other aspiring graduate students. Here are just a few of the classes and topics I have learned equally a Ph.D. student:

- Crisis communication: Certainly a topic useful both inside and exterior academia, and extremely important to any industry or company faced with a crisis. Crisis communicators are an absolute staple in today'southward earth of social media and global networks – and to exist a crisis communicator, you lot must know what works, what doesn't piece of work, and why. And if yous come up with new tactics as a crisis communicator, how practise you know that they are working, and working meliorate than previous tactics?

- Research Methods: Conducting a survey? Market research? Probing public opinion on an issue? Learning best practices from elites in a item field? All these require knowledge of inquiry methods – how to both inquire and answer questions with rigorous research.

- Statistics: Whatever project that requires assay of large sets of data, for case a national poll or survey, is going to require someone well-versed in statistics and data analysis.

- Political Communication: Want to investigate or predict voting behavior? Response to a political issue among certain key publics? Yeah, you might want a Ph.D. for that!

- Public Opinion and Media Furnishings: How practise you tell a scientific discipline story amend to engage the public or change people'south opinion on an of import issue such as the demand for vaccinations, for case? What attributes of your bulletin are people going to exist attentive to? What are they going to tune out, and how do you know? How exercise your audiences' pre-conceived notions and cognition of an issue affect how they translate your story on climate change? Can a climate change video game actually help people learn about the upshot and appoint in pro-environmental behaviors? How do yous know? If you are going to prove me the prove, you lot'll probably demand a Ph.D. to do it.

I comport research in the field of mass communication, and my ain area of specialty, science communication.  What does that mean? It means I ask the questions how and why behind current practices in science communication. Other journalists may be taught or come to know through experience the norms and routines accustomed in the field. Scientific discipline writers are often experts in their area of science and talented communicators. But how did those norms and routines we have as journalists come into being? Why exercise the work, or not work, when applied to science and ecology issues? How do y'all know what best persuades your readers to engage in pro-scientific discipline and pro-ecology attitudes and behaviors, if you don't ask them or observe their subsequent behaviors in a systematic fashion?

And this is simply the tip of the iceberg to my Ph.D. I've besides learned how to write better, how to present issues ethically, how to interview, and how the media works when it comes to scientific discipline and environmental issues.

Exterior of my Ph.D. research, I love writing virtually science and environmental problems in whatsoever form I can – blogging, journalism, PR, educational activity. Even if I practise enter a career as a research professor in scientific discipline communication, I won't want to give up my work as a scientific discipline blogger and freelance announcer.

So what could I do with my Ph.D.? Piece of work for an environmental Think Tank? Conduct public opinion enquiry for a national research center, individual company, non-profit, or university? Consult with science communicators on best practices in the field? Become a inquiry professor? Become a full-time science journalist, editor or science museum communicator? Who knows? But I have a feeling my piece of work and learning as a Ph.D. educatee in mass communication won't be lost or wasted on whatsoever of these career paths.

If y'all take other examples of what y'all've done, or seen others do, with a Ph.D. in (scientific discipline) mass communication, please comment below!

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Source: http://www.fromthelabbench.com/from-the-lab-bench-science-blog/what-does-one-do-with-a-phd-in-mass-communication-of-science

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