Graduate Portfolio Program in Communication, Information, and Cultural Policy

Graduate Portfolio Program in
Communication, Information, and Cultural Policy

GENERAL INFORMATION

Policy and the means by which it is crafted, analyzed and evaluated have become increasingly important and highly sought skills for students pursuing advanced degrees. As a general category, policy has been a consistent area of interest for graduate students at the University of Texas . Over seven hundred reports, theses, and dissertations produced at the University of Texas in the last thirty years have taken policy as their subject to some extent, including seventy such projects since 2000. A recent report by the Chronicle of Higher Education stated that the job market for public policy degree holders was likely to remain strong in the foreseeable future as governmental, non-profit, and non-governmental agencies confront shrinking resources and growing public need (March 19, 2004).

Policy discussions around issues of communication, information, and culture have become especially prominent in public discourse in recent years. Rapid changes wrought by digitalization, corporate conglomeration, and other trends in the technological and economic spheres are judged by many to be a significant factor in reshaping systems of law and regulation. Resulting legislation and policies, such as the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998, and the USA Patriot Act (2001) have engendered broad debates on many subjects of critical interest to scholars and policy makers, from structures of ownership and control in media content and distribution, to the role of intellectual property and the public domain, from the future of access and privacy in telecommunications, to new forms of media literacy, museum design, and educational technique. A diverse array of organizations such as the Federal Communications Commission, the Congressional Research Service, Electronic Frontier Foundation, and the Ford Foundation have supported these discussions by commissioning research and hiring policy analysts, and major universities are already offering programs to address this need for trained policy thinkers, including the Quello Center at Michigan State University, The Media Center at New York University, and the Center for Internet and Society at Stanford, among others.

Similarly, concerns regarding national and international cultural policy prompted the creation of the Cultural Policy and the Arts National Data Archive. This organization supports an archive that helps researchers access and develop information regarding the relationship between the cultural sectors and artists, communities, and economic development. Its focus on policies that influence culture extends from the local artist to national cultural identities, from art in public places to national or international programs to support cinema, from traditional media to cyberspace. Several universities have established programs or centers to explore cultural policy (e.g., the Center for Arts and Cultural Policy Studies at Princeton, the Research Center for Arts and Culture at Columbia University ).

The Graduate Portfolios in Communication, Information, and Cultural Policy offers students at the University of Texas a means to enter this vital field of study by focusing on the theory, history, and comparative aspects of policy. The program supports students’ preparation for careers in academic research or practical careers in policy-making arenas. Study in Communication, Information, and Cultural Policy is well-suited to a portfolio certificate program because it is a multi-disciplinary subject that can find students drawing on public policy, economics, communications, art, community planning, and information science. This program invites students to integrate these disciplines into their particular course of study and provides an institutional home for scholars with these shared interests.

Updated Monday, March 20, 2006