It is one of the first schools to grant a doctoral degree in mass communication, and its PhD program has produced several scholars in the field, including Guido Stempel, Donald Shaw, Richard Perloff, and Pamela Shoemaker.
At present, the School offers more than 50 courses to nearly 500 undergraduate majors and about 100 graduate students.
In 1904, Willard Grosvenor Bleyer developed the first Journalism course offered at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
[2] The first sequence in advertising was developed in association with courses offered by the School of Business.
Public relations developed under Professor Scott M. Cutlip, from a single lecture course in the 1940s to an established sequence by 1970.
The School moved to its first permanent, dedicated home in 1972, with the opening of Vilas Communication Hall.
Along with five other departments, the School offers the interdisciplinary Digital Studies Certificate program.
As reported by NRC, the School received the following high-low ranks: In a study of prestige of communication doctoral programs based on faculty hiring patterns, the UW-Madison ranked first in terms of "placement centrality.