The School of Journalism and Communication was founded in September 2020 as a distinctive school integrating research and education. It inherits and builds upon two long-established bodies: the Institute of Journalism and Communication at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) and the Journalism Department of the Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (GSCASS), both established in 1978, alongside the School of Media of the University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (UCASS), founded in 2017. As a national benchmark institution for journalism and communication research and talent training in China, the School is currently headed by Professor Hu Zhengrong, Director of the Institute of Journalism and Communication of CASS.
As one of trailblazers for the studies of journalism and communication in China, the Journalism Department of GSCASS stood as a core cradle for postgraduate training in the field in the early decades following China’s reform and opening up. Over more than four decades, it has forged a distinctive teaching model and nurtured a large cohort of high-caliber talents, including senior Party and government cadres, experts and scholars well recognized at home and abroad, industry pioneers, as well as presidents and editors-in-chief of major central media organizations. It is widely hailed as the “Huangpu Academy” of Chinese journalism. The predecessors of the School were respectively authorized to award second-level discipline master’s degrees in journalism and communication in 1983 and second-level discipline doctoral degrees in 1998. Postdoctoral research stations were approved for establishment in 2012. It secured the right to confer master’s and doctoral degrees under the first-level discipline of journalism and communication in 2018.
The School has a faculty of 69 members, comprising 22 professors and 33 associate professors, with 16 doctoral supervisors and 51 master’s supervisors. Its distinguished faculty include two current and former conveners of the Journalism and Communication Discipline Advisory Panel of the State Council Academic Degrees Committee, one chief expert for key textbooks under the National Marxist Theory Research and Development Project, three recipients of State Council Special Allowances, one National Leading Talent in Journalism and Publishing Industry, oneYoung Outstanding Talent in National Communication, Ideological and Cultural Development, five scholars serving as editor-in-chief or deputy editor-in-chief of high-profile domestic and international journals, and seven holding vice-president or executive director positions in national first-tier academic societies. In addition, the School boasts one National Huang Danian-style Teaching Team for Institutions of Higher Education.
The School provides three undergraduate programs: Journalism, Radio and Television Studies, and Network and New Media. Among them, Journalism and Radio and Television Studies have been recognized as national first-class undergraduate programs. At the postgraduate level, it offers academic master’s and doctoral programs in journalism and communication, as well as the professional Master of Journalism and Communication. It hosts one provincial-level research center - the New Media Research Center - and one laboratory which is accredited as a Beijing Municipal Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching Laboratory. The School also runs several influential academic journals, including Journalism and Communication Studies, and manages a range of laboratories and research centers at the university and CASS-institute levels.
Empowered by in-depth research–education integration, The School has set up three departments offering coherent undergraduate through doctoral programs: the Department of Journalism, the Department of Communication, and the Department of Audiovisual Communication. The School’s discipline development focuses on cutting-edge areas and promotes interdisciplinary integration. It has developed distinctive strengths and advantages in areas such as Marxist journalism, international communication, communication studies (cross-cultural communication), and new media. The School endeavors to make new contributions and achievements in the new era to building an independent academic knowledge system for Chinese journalism, communication and publishing studies, as well as in advancing high-caliber talent cultivation.
Over the past five years, the School has been approved for or is undertaking 28 projects funded by the National Social Science Fund of China (including three major projects, two key projects, and one special commissioned project), and five major provincial and ministerial-level projects. Faculty members have published 22 papers in journals classified as “top-tier” under China’s academic evaluation system. The School has won over 80 awards for excellent policy advice and research achievements from CASS, including more than ten first prizes (including those for blue books) and one special prize. The School has also been honored with three National Model Courses, three National Excellent Teaching Teams, and 23 Provincial and Ministerial-level Education and Teaching Awards.
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