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<p><font color="#3333CC" size="+3">Ph.D. in Communication, Rhetoric, and Digital
Media</font></p>
<p><font size="+3" color="#3333CC">Interest Survey</font></p>
<p align="left"><i><font size="+1">We are creating an interdisciplinary Ph.D.
at NC State University, the broad outlines of which are described briefly
below. We would highly value your responses to just two questions about the
potential attractiveness of such a program. When you submit your responses,
they are sent <b>anonymously</b> as numerical data. If you would like more
information about the program, please contact Chris Anson (chris_anson@ncsu.edu)
or Carolyn Miller (crmiller@ncsu.edu). Many thanks in advance for your help.</font></i></p>
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<p align="center"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="3">OVERVIEW
OF PROPOSAL </font></p>
<p align="center"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="3">Ph.D.
IN COMMUNICATION, RHETORIC AND DIGITAL MEDIA </font></p>
<p align="center"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="3">NORTH
CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITY</font></p>
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<p align="left"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="3">• <u>Program
Objectives</u>: To prepare future faculty, researchers, and professionals
to optimize the uses and applications and understand the effects of new
communication technologies, in which the spoken and written word and visual
images are combined in unprecedented ways. By integrating the traditionally
separate disciplines of written, oral, and visual communication within the
context of changing technologies and cultural relations, this innovative
program will provide students with new theoretical tools, multiple research
methods, and experience in practical problem-solving relevant to the communication
practices and problems of the digital age. </font></p>
<p align="left"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="3">• <u>Need
for Program</u>: Information technology is recognized as the driver for
economic growth, globalization of markets, and continuing technological
innovation. The report by the President’s Information Technology Advisory
Committee identified ten "Grand Challenge Transformations," the
first three of which are transformations in the way we communicate, the
way we deal with information, and the way we learn. These challenges will
require research, theory, and the training of new specialists in the social
and human sciences to complement the technical developments in materials,
network engineering, and programming. Without attention to the human dimensions
of information technology, these transformations will not be complete or
effective. </font></p>
<p align="left"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="3">• <u>Demand
for Graduates</u>: In higher education, graduates of the program will contribute
to undergraduate instruction in the communication arts, being particularly
qualified to help adapt such instruction to information and communication
technologies, changing demographics, and shifting articulations between
secondary education, higher education and the workplace. Graduates will
also be prepared to carry out scholarship that works at the intersections
of traditional disciplines. The program can be justified on the basis of
the need for faculty with this type of integrated training in the coming
decades–the number of such positions has blossomed in the past three
years, yet there are only a handful of doctoral programs that offer any
kind of preparation in these areas. There is additional demand from industry,
government, and nonprofits, where graduates will contribute to the research
and policy development necessary for understanding and accommodating the
human dimensions of information and communication technologies.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="3">• <u>Enrollment</u>:
Students will be admitted from master’s programs in Communication,
English, Rhetoric, or other relevant fields.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="3">• <u>Curriculum</u>:
The program curriculum will provide a core grounding in traditional and
emerging theories of communication in all its modes and media; it will also
offer flexible elective options to permit students to develop specializations
in areas such as computer mediated communication, technology and gender,
technologies in organizations, literacy for the information age, human-computer
interaction, instructional design, visual communication, and writing and
speaking across the curriculum. The program will draw on faculty expertise
in the Departments of English and Communication, specifically faculty in
media studies, technical communication, rhetorical studies, organizational
communication, written composition, and film studies. Teaching assistants
will contribute to the teaching mission in freshman writing, technical and
scientific writing, oral communication, and to the Campus Writing and Speaking
Program.</font></p>
<p align="left"> </p>
<p align="left"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="3">We invite
your responses to just two questions about this proposal: its attractiveness
as a Ph.D. program, and your potential interest in it. Responding to the
questions will take 60 seconds or less.</font></p>
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<p><font size="+3">Please go to the following URL to answer the two questions:</font></p>
<p><font size="+3"><a href="http://www2.chass.ncsu.edu/cwsp/PHDsurvey.html">http://www2.chass.ncsu.edu/cwsp/PHDsurvey.html</a></font></p>
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<p><font size="+3">THANK YOU!</font></p>
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