The UO School of Journalism and Communication offers programs leading to bachelors, master's and doctoral degrees. undergraduate students major in one of six areas: advertising, electronic media, communication studies, magazine journalism, news-editorial, or public relations.

The school, which started as a department in 1912 and became a professional school in 1916, is one of the oldest journalism schools in the United States and one of the most broadly conceived. The school is accredited by the national Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications (ACEJMC). The University of Oregon has one of the few accredited programs in the western United States with as many as six fields of study.

The program is based on a premise that the best professional communicator is broadly educated. In accordance with national accrediting standards, undergraduate students must take at least 131 credits in courses outside the School of Journalism and Communication. Of those, 94 credits must be in courses from the College of Arts and Sciences. A maximum of 64 credits in the 180-credit undergraduate program may be in journalism and communication courses. Students learn about the practice of mass communication and its effects. They study the role of communication media in society, the history of journalism, visual aspects of communication, the ethics of media practices, new communication technologies, the economics of the media, and the legal and social responsibilities of the media in modern society.