Media and Communication Studies

Media and communication shape how societies understand themselves, exercise power, and navigate change. This PhD program offers an opportunity to investigate these processes across areas ranging from political and strategic communication to media history, audience studies, journalism, big data, AI, and marketing. Unique in Czechia and closely connected to international scholarly networks, the program will give you the conceptual, analytical and methodological expertise needed for careers in academia, research, and communication analysis in the public and private sectors.

Application deadlines

30 April 2027

The applications will open on 1 January 2027.

Important note for visa-seeking students: Please read about the visa process before applying. You are responsible for organizing your legal stay in Czechia and the visa process can be quite lengthy.

Program description

This PhD program is designed for candidates deeply interested in the study of media and their audiences, discourse, culture and the social construction of reality, media history, political communication and participation, visuality, strategic communication, marketing and PR, journalism (and in particular sports journalism), and big data, algorithms and artificial intelligence.

The study contributes to critical thinking about the nature of modern and late modern societies, about the nature of opportunities and risks of society-wide communication processes, and changes in their institutionalization in the past and in the present.

We are the only faculty in Czechia to offer a doctoral program specialized exclusively in media and communication studies. We have an extensive network of contacts with foreign universities, which you can make use of, and we are members of some of the world’s most important professional organizations in the field, namely the European Communication Research and Education Association (ECREA) and the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR), who welcome our PhD students as their members.

For more information about the program, please click here.

Tuition fees and scholarships

Tuition fees: 500 EUR per year

Important information

Degree: PhD

Form: full-time or combined

Duration: 4 years

Language: English

Teaching: on campus

After graduation

As a graduate of this program, you will be able to apply a wide range of analytical methods to study communication and media, including media production, media products, content, audience, and users. You will become experts able to contextualize communication and mediation processes (historically, socially, politically and culturally), synthesize knowledge in the social sciences and humanities, and interpret current trends in communication and media development. As a result, you will be prepared for academic careers and for employment as communication and media analysts. As scholars familiar with the social sciences and humanities, you can work in a wide range of university departments, in academy institutes or in other scientific workplaces. You can also act as communication experts or communication process analysts in political, commercial or civil society organizations.

APPLY: FULL-TIME FORM APPLY: COMBINED FORM

Admission requirements

Dissertation project proposal
Dissertation project proposals need to have the following components: Name of the applicant Title in English and in Czech Abstract in English and in Czech Name of the academic ICSJ member who was consulted Objectives, main research question and secondary research questions Context of the proposal Theoretical framework Methodologies, methods and research design Time plan Relation to the research performed at ICSJ Confirmation that no text has been generated (partially or in full) by AI Reference list The minimum required length of the dissertation project (including the list of literature) is 10 pages. Dissertation projects submitted for the admission procedure must relate to the field of communication and media research. The project preferably connects with research done at the Institute of Communication Studies and Journalism (ICSJ), but applicants may submit projects on other topics as well. In all cases, candidates are very strongly advised to consult with a potential supervisor in the preparatory phase and have their project proposal endorsed by this potential supervisor before submitting the project proposal.: List of literature
A list of literature that you have studied.: Structured CV
Structured CV in English.: Certificates of graduate education (to be submitted upon the enrolment at the latest)
Certificates of graduate education, i.e., finished Master’s degree. A certificate of completion of a Master’s degree does not have to be included in the application. It must be submitted upon enrollment at the latest. If you studied abroad, you will need to go through nostrification assessment (a process of recognizing the validity of your diploma).