What Is Gaylord College?
The Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication is the University of Oklahoma's professional media school, in Norman, roughly 20 miles south of Oklahoma City. Its journalism program traces to 1905, when the first course was taught inside the English Department, and it is the home of OU's journalism, advertising, public relations, and creative media production degrees.
How Did Gaylord College Start?
OU's School of Journalism was formally established on May 24, 1913, making it the oldest journalism program in the Southwest. The curriculum expanded quickly: advertising and newspaper management courses were added by 1921, radio news in the 1930s, and professional writing, public relations, and television news by the late 1950s. In 1961 the school was renamed the H.H. Herbert School of Journalism and Mass Communication, honoring its second director, who led the program from 1917 to 1945 and helped it become one of the first 11 U.S. journalism schools to meet national accreditation standards. In 2000, a $22 million gift from the Gaylord family, longtime publishers of The Oklahoman, elevated the school to college status as the Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication. The gift funded Gaylord Hall, the college's dedicated building on OU's South Oval: Phase I (62,000 square feet) opened in 2004, and Phase II (46,000 square feet) opened in 2009, giving the college more than 100
How Does Gaylord College Rank Nationally?
Gaylord College has been recognized as the nation's No. 1 media program in the 2025 and 2026 Broadcast Education Association (BEA) school rankings. This is the first time in the college's history it has reached the top spot, and the second consecutive year it has held it. The BEA rankings are drawn from the Festival of Media Arts, an annual student-and-faculty production competition; Gaylord competed against roughly 170 academic institutions nationwide for the 2026 result. Alongside the overall No. 1 ranking, Gaylord College placed No. 1 in Film and Video for a fifth consecutive year, climbed from No. 6 to No. 3 in Documentary, and moved from No. 3 to No. 2 in News. The college also held No. 3 in Scriptwriting and No. 4 in Sports, and posted two new results in 2026: its first appearance in the Audio category and a No. 6 debut in Interactive Multimedia and Emerging Technology. "Gaylord College is proud to repeat, to once again be named the #1 Media Program in the nation," said Andrea Mi
What Is Gaylord College's PR and Advertising Program Like?
Gaylord's advertising and public relations sequences sit inside the same accredited college as its journalism and creative media production programs, and share the college's emphasis on producing work at a professional standard before graduation. The center of that model is Lindsey + Asp, the college's fully operational in-house PR and advertising agency, staffed entirely by students under faculty supervision. Students get real-client experience well before Lindsey + Asp: capstone PR and advertising courses place teams directly with paying clients, developing research-based campaigns and presenting the finished work to company representatives. Recent client rosters have included Phillips 66, Titleist, Toyota, Microsoft, Honda, Acura, OG&E, Paycom, the City of Tulsa, and the Oklahoma City Zoo. Gaylord students also compete nationally in the American Advertising Federation's National Student Advertising Competition (NSAC); the 2025 Gaylord NSAC team built a campaign for AT&T. Students al
What Facilities and Accreditation Does Gaylord College Have?
Gaylord College operates out of Gaylord Hall, more than 100,000 square feet of purpose-built space including two television news, video, and film production studios, a focus group room, a podcast studio, an open multimedia lab, multiple computer classrooms and editing suites, and a 175-seat auditorium, in addition to the Lindsey + Asp agency offices. The college is accredited by the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications (ACEJMC), a voluntary standard that Poynter counted at about 125 of 500 U.S. journalism programs in 2017. Gaylord also runs a funded Ph.D. program with a concentration in Public Relations and Strategic Communication (alongside Advertising, Journalism, Mass Communication/Media Studies, and Risk and Crisis Communication), admitting a small, highly competitive cohort of up to five doctoral students a year, giving the college a research base most undergraduate-focused PR and advertising programs don't have.
Where Is Gaylord College Located?
Norman, Oklahoma isn't a coastal media market, and Gaylord College doesn't pitch itself as one. Its answer to the market-access question that shapes most PR-school comparisons is the same one Missouri's AdZou and Boston University's PRLab give: build the client experience on campus instead of waiting for it to arrive off campus. Lindsey + Asp and the capstone client courses put Gaylord students in front of national brands, including AT&T, Toyota, Microsoft, and Phillips 66, while still undergraduates. The program's alumni network runs through Oklahoma City and Tulsa's corporate and energy-sector communications functions as well as into national agencies.
Who Is Gaylord College a Good Fit For?
Gaylord College suits students who want to build a PR or advertising portfolio through real client work rather than case studies, inside an ACEJMC-accredited program with a genuine production pedigree. It's a fit for students targeting Oklahoma and broader Southwest and Southern corporate and agency markets, students who want a funded path into PR research through the doctoral program, and students prioritizing a lower-cost flagship-university route into a nationally recognized media school over a private, coastal one. For how Gaylord stacks up against Missouri, Newhouse, USC Annenberg and San Diego State on exactly this decision, see the Everything-PR Guide to PR Schools. Students who lean toward reporting rather than PR can compare pure journalism programs in Best Journalism Schools in 2026, and the Missouri School of Journalism profile covers a peer program built on the same learn-by-doing model. Students comparing degree levels can use What Can You Do With a Public Relations Degree
Does the University of Oklahoma Have a Public Relations Program?
Yes. The University of Oklahoma's Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication offers accredited advertising and public relations sequences. Students operate the in-house agency Lindsey + Asp, take capstone courses with real corporate clients, and compete in the NSAC and PRSSA Bateman competitions.
Does Gaylord College Have a Student-Run Agency?
Yes. Lindsey + Asp is Gaylord College's fully operational, student-staffed PR and advertising agency. Students also get client experience through capstone courses that have worked with Phillips 66, Toyota, Microsoft, AT&T, and other national brands, and through national competitions including NSAC and the PRSSA Bateman Competition. This profile is part of the Everything-PR Guide to PR Schools. See also the University of Florida profile, the Chapman University Dodge College profile, and Best Journalism Schools in 2026.
