Department of Journalism and Mass Communication - University of Calicut was also known as DJMC, University of Calicut was established in 1977 under the leadership of Prof. Maxwell Fernandez.

It was the first university teaching and research department for Mass Communication in Kerala to impart quality education in the field of Mass Communication.

In 1978, the department launched the one-year Bachelor Degree programme in Journalism (BJ) with Prof. M R Dua as the Head of the Department, when Prof. Maxwell moved to Kerala University to set up Department of Journalism there.

Later,  in 1979, Prof. Dua left the department and Dr. Syed Amjed Ahmed assumed the charge of the Head of The Department and took initiatives to impart modern journalism education with the help and support of the media industry in the state.

In 1986, given the demand from the diverse communication fields, the department upgraded its programme to Masters in Communication and Journalism (MCJ) in 1986.

Focusing on print media, the Department set up hand-composing unit and photography lab for training and production. In 1987, even before leading newspapers in India introduced digital design and production, the Department launched Desk Top Publishing on Macintosh platform with an imported Apple system.

In 1995, the Department started Ph.D. programme and many scholars were conferred with Ph.D. In 1998, the interest of the Department in education visual media led it to the setting of Educational Multimedia Research Centre under the directorship of Prof. Syed Amjed Ahmed.
 
In 2005, under the headship of Sri. V.S. Sasibhooshnan Nair, the media laboratory in the Department got a facelift with the introduction of digitized news tracking service and online editing system. Dr. Sucheta Nair led the Department from 2008-2010 and Dr. Muhammadali N. has been heading the Department since 2010.

In 2012, the Department launched a refereed research journal titled’ Communication and Journalism Research’.

Now the Department is equipped with modern facilities for print and visual media production.