Academic Conferences & Journals
You'll most likely want to join one or more academic associations, which are member-based groups of scholars with similar academic interests. In Communication the three you'll here about are AEJMC, ICA, and NCA. They have slightly different constituencies, but all are excellent places to network with other graduate students and faculty in various subspecialties of Communication.
In addition to the more general reason for joining an association, once you've done some research you're going to want to get it out to a wider audience. You can do this by "submitting" it to an academic conference, where you will present it live, or to an academic journal, where it will be published for others to read. Neither of these lists is exhaustive.
Communication-related academic associations
Each offers at least one conference per year, where faculty and students can present their research.
– National Communication Association (NCA)
– Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC)
– International Communication Association (ICA)
– Midwest Association for Public Opinion Research (MAPOR)
– Association for Practical and Professional Ethics (APPE)
– Western States Communication Association (WSCA)
– Society for Applied Anthropology (SFAA)
– American Public Health Association (APHA)
– Society for Psychophysiological Research (SPR)
– Broadcast Education Association (BEA)
– Conference on Communication and the Environment (this is somewhat an informal association but it can be tracked through the Environmental Communication Network)
Academic journals with a communication specialty
Communication Law & Policy
Communication Monographs
Communication Quarterly
Communication Reports
Communication Research Reports
Communication Studies
Communication Theory
Critical Studies in Mass Communication
Cultural Studies
Discourse & Communication
Discourse & Society
Discourse Studies
Howard Journal of Communication
Human Communication Research
Journal of Advertising
Journal of Applied Communication Research
Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media
Journal of Communication
Journal of Consumer Research
Journal of Consumer Psychology
Journal of Health Communication
Journal of Intercultural Communication
Journal of Mass Media Ethics
Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly
Journalism & Mass Communication Monographs
Management Communication Quarterly
Mass Communication & Society
Media Psychology
Psychophysiology
Quarterly Journal of Speech
Rhetoric & Public Affairs
Southern Journal of Communication
Telematics & Informatics