The Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications is the undergraduate and graduate college dedicated to the study of journalism, mass communications and media at Pennsylvania State University. Re-established in 2017 under its new name after the producer, screenwriter and benefactor Donald P. Bellisario, the Bellisario College is home to four departments: Advertising/Public Relations, Journalism, Film Production and Media Studies, and Telecommunications and Media Industries. Offering five undergraduate majors, a master's degree in media studies, and a Ph.D. program in mass communications, the college is the largest accredited program of its kind in the United States. The college's facilities are located on the University Park campus.

Undergraduate programs

Undergraduate majors Undergraduate minors

Graduate programs

History

The college dates to 1911, when the first journalism course was offered at Penn State. Though the Department of Journalism was first founded in the 1930s under the School of Liberal Arts, initial course offerings eventually led to the establishment of the School of Journalism in 1955. This new school brought together the advertising program, which dates back to 1936, and the journalism program to form what became the School of Communications in 1985. Joining the advertising/public relations and journalism programs to form a more comprehensive communications school were programs in film-video, media studies and telecommunications. The film-video program, originating in the College of Arts and Architecture, and the media studies program, previously a communications studies major housed in the College of Liberal Arts, were both introduced at Penn State in the 1960s. The telecommunications major was born in the College of Liberal Arts, dating back to the mid-1970s. After its establishment in 1985, the School of Communications was upgraded to the College of Communications in 1995, followed by the departmentalization of the college in 2000. On April 21, 2017, the college was renamed the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications, after the acclaimed writer, producer, director and alumnus Donald P. Bellisario gifted $30 million to support students and faculty in the college, and to establish the Donald P. Bellisario Media Center, which opened in 2021. The college is the largest accredited mass communications program in the United States.

Research

Student organizations

The college has more than forty media opportunities and student organizations, both on and off campus. These include CommAgency, CommRadio, and Centre County Report.

Facilities

The college has facilities located in several buildings on the University Park campus. The Donald P. Bellisario Media Center (or Bellisario Media Center) opened in 2021. The media center is located in the Willard Building, and brings many of the college's facilities under one roof. The 63,000 square-foot (5,853 sq m) media center contains classrooms, offices, television studios, and spaces for film and video creation, and houses student-media operations. Funding for its construction was supported by University funds and a $30 million dollar gift from Donald P. Bellisario. Construction began in 2019. Classes were first held in the media center in August 2021.

Alumni

There are some 30,000 alumni. The program's more prominent graduates include: