The Henry W. Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication is a college within the University of Georgia (UGA) in Athens, Georgia, United States. Grady College is one of the oldest and most distinguished communication programs in the country.
The college consists of three departments — journalism, advertising and public relations, and telecommunications. The degrees offered by the college are the Bachelor of Arts in Journalism (ABJ), the Master of Arts ((M.A.) degree (since 1932), and the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree (since 1983).
The Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication's graduate program rank among the top in the nation in rankings compiled by U.S. News and World Report. Grady College graduate program in advertising ranked fifth, and the graduate program in radio/television ranked 12th. The Grady College is ranked fourth among the 16 'Premier Programs' for graduate studies in public relations by Marquette University, which ranks the nation's leading schools offering advanced degrees in public relations.
The Grady College is home to the prestigious Peabody Awards for excellence in electronic media. In the past 64 years, the Peabody Award for excellence in broadcast electronic media has been awarded 1,400 times to recognize the industry's best including Dan Rather, Edward R. Murrow, Bob Hop, Barbara Walters, Jon Stewart and Grant Tinker. The awards program is administered by the Grady College and selection is made by the Peabody Board following review by special screening committees of faculty, students and staff.
The College also houses a number of internationally renowned centers and institutes including The James M. Cox, Jr. Center for International Mass Communication Training and Research, the James M. Cox, Jr. Institute for Newspaper Management, the New Media Institute, the Dowden Center for New Media Studies and the Michael J. Faherty Broadcast Management Laboratory. The Grady College's New Media Institute is a real-world research test-bed for building prototype mobile media systems, experimenting with new devices, and investigating what people want to do with powerful new technology. The Grady College works to educate students at the high level through its Georgia Scholastic Press Association, and it has hosted the Georgia Journalism Academy since 1928.
The first journalism course at UGA was created and taught by Steadman V. Sanford in 1913. From that class, Sanford eventually created Grady College in 1921 and served as its first dean until becoming the president of [[Franklin College of Arts and Sciences|Franklin College and dean of the University in 1926.
The school is named after native Athenian and UGA alumnus Henry Woodfin Grady.
Grady's Mission Statement: To prepare students to be effective users and practitioners of the mass media, to provide the mass media with more and better services for their consumers, and to assist the public in using the mass media to meet personal and community needs.
