- <a href="/live/image/gid/64/width/650/86530_RHMS_main_image.jpg" class="lw_preview_image lw_disable_preview" tabindex="-1"><picture class="lw_image lw_image86530"><source media="(max-width: 500px)" type="image/webp" srcset="/live/image/gid/64/width/500/height/479/crop/1/86530_RHMS_main_image.rev.1607735612.webp 1x" data-origin="responsive"/><source media="(max-width: 500px)" type="image/jpeg" srcset="/live/image/gid/64/width/500/height/479/crop/1/86530_RHMS_main_image.rev.1607735612.jpg 1x" data-origin="responsive"/><source media="(min-width: 501px)" type="image/webp" srcset="/live/image/gid/64/width/720/height/690/crop/1/86530_RHMS_main_image.rev.1607735612.webp 1x" data-origin="responsive"/><source media="(min-width: 501px)" type="image/jpeg" srcset="/live/image/gid/64/width/720/height/690/crop/1/86530_RHMS_main_image.rev.1607735612.jpg 1x" data-origin="responsive"/><img src="/live/image/gid/64/width/720/height/690/crop/1/86530_RHMS_main_image.rev.1607735612.jpg" alt="Professor Mitch Reyes describes the department using these three words: Intellectual, engaged, dynamic." data-max-w="758" data-max-h="791" loading="lazy" data-optimized="true"/></picture></a> <div class="hero-split_image_caption collapsable-caption">Professor Mitch Reyes describes the department using these three words: Intellectual, engaged, dynamic.</div>
Rhetoric and Media Studies
We study the making and sharing of meaning through rhetoric and media. Our program is designed to help you gain effective theoretical and methodological tools for understanding how public messages, images, texts, stories, conversations, and symbols work.
Why Choose a Degree in Rhetoric and Media Studies?
Imagine working at Nike, Intel, or Widen & Kennedy helping to craft messaging around a new product. Alternatively, you could work as a legislative aid in Salem, or lead a grassroots campaign to protect the environment. Portland is a great location from which you can put your skills to use. Ours is one of the first programs in the United States to offer a major that integrates training in film and television studies with training in media and rhetorical analysis. As a rhetoric and media studies major, you will join an inclusive community that enjoys a challenging curriculum, works collaboratively on innovative research, and applies their skills and knowledge across campus and beyond.
What You’ll Study
We offer a major and a minor. Through our curriculum, you will make short narrative films and documentaries, videographic essays, and a variety of other media. You’ll also study how historical figures and events come to be represented in public memory, how sound and image in motion pictures can frame reality, and the stories we tell each other about personal health. In addition, you will explore how these processes and issues interact with gender, race, and culture.
We believe in collaborating with students on research projects, course development, and creative work—whether through classes during the academic year, a paid humanities research summer program, or both—and helping them find and secure internships in Portland and beyond. Many of our students also earn course credit while on an overseas program.
Outside the classroom, qualifying students can join our local chapter of Lambda Pi Eta, the largest international honor society in the communication field. Lewis & Clark’s annual Festival of Scholars and Artists includes an entirely student-run film festival. Our students have successfully submitted their work to competitive regional and national conferences, such as the Rhetoric Society of America biennial convention, the National Communication Association’s annual convention, and the Pacific Northwest Annual Symposium on Race, Rhetoric, and Media. We also offer a debate class to incarcerated individuals at Oregon State Penitentiary. To cap off each semester, we host a senior presentation night followed by dinner and trivia.
Complement Your Education With One of These Minors
The most popular minors for our rhetoric and media studies majors are art and art history, dance, and entrepreneurial leadership and innovation.
What Students Are Saying About Lewis & Clark
- Venus Edlin BA ’23
There is a lot of freedom in what you can study as a RHMS major, but also a good balance with practical skills. I love how important the field is, because how meaning is conveyed impacts every person’s life.
Rhetoric and Media Studies | Dance | San Jose, CaliforniaMore about Venus - Jermisha Hinton BA ’25Computer Science | Rhetoric and Media Studies | Washington, D.C.More about Jermisha
- Tadao Kumasaka BA ’21
My favorite spot on campus are the steps outside of JR Howard, right at the center of the academic side of campus. Nothing makes me as happy as basking in the sun and socializing.
Rhetoric and Media Studies | Flagstaff, ArizonaMore about Tadao
What Can You Do With a Degree in Rhetoric and Media Studies?
Our alumni use their BA in rhetoric and media studies to pursue graduate study and a wide range of exciting careers in public relations, communications, marketing, user experience design, finance, journalism, law, politics, activism, publishing, and film.
Dedicated Faculty
Our expert professors are your expert mentors. You will learn directly from faculty (no graduate assistants here!) that are nationally recognized in their fields of study and who love to work with and learn from their students. Your professors will inspire you to be a thoughtful and passionate participant in a diverse world. Your small classes will support you as you explore new ideas, find your voice, and speak your truth.
- Equity
We are the only liberal arts school in Oregon on Colleges of Distinction’s “Best Equity and Inclusion” list for 2023–24.
- 19
Average class size for undergraduate students
- Top
Lewis & Clark earned a spot on Princeton Review’s 2025 “Best Colleges” list.
- 125
of our undergraduate students are Third Culture Kids.
- 16%
first-generation students at Lewis & Clark College
Invest in Yourself
A private liberal arts education is often more affordable than you think. Last year, Lewis & Clark distributed over $74 million in assistance from institutional, federal, state, and private sources. Additionally, we’re so confident that our first-year students will graduate with their bachelor of arts degree in four years that if you don’t, we’ll cover the extra semester of tuition.
Speech and debate scholarships are available for students with exceptional records of commitment to and success in forensics.
Find Your People
Our department hosts Lewis & Clark’s award-winning speech and debate squad. Our forensics students regularly place in the top ranks in high-level national competitions and conferences. Each semester, as many as 60 of our students are involved with KPH, Lewis & Clark’s student-run campus radio station.
- Amy Natori BA ’21
L&C gave me many opportunities to intern and gain experience in entrepreneurship.
Psychology | Rhetoric and Media Studies | Yokohama, JapanMore about Amy - Marjorie Pichon BA ’14
My liberal arts education taught me to think critically from multiple perspectives. This skill has been invaluable to me ever since.
Psychology | Rhetoric and Media Studies | Seattle, WashingtonMore about Marjorie - Greta Burton BA ’22
Lewis & Clark gave me the confidence to pursue new opportunities and embrace any and all experiences as an opportunity to challenge myself.
English | Rhetoric and Media Studies | Portland, OregonMore about Greta