We advance our mission through four central goals:

• Producing and disseminating cutting-edge scholarly research designed to advance the discipline's theoretical and empirical understanding of the role of communication in public and private life.
• Producing and disseminating high-quality applied research designed to advance the public's understanding and effective use of communication, and policy-makers' ability to create a media environment that fosters the personal and collective development of its citizens.
• Educating doctoral students in the theories, substance and methods of communication research and placing them in leading academic and professional positions in the field.
• Providing a first-class liberal arts education to undergraduates, designed to help them become better consumers and producers of public information, strengthen their understanding of the role of communication in their personal, professional and civic lives, and prepare them for private and public-sector leadership positions in communication-related and other fields.