Digital and Print Journalism
In the Mayborn School of Journalism, you learn to communicate and tell stories relevant to society’s needs. The digital and print journalism concentration focuses on news reporting and trains you in digital practices currently employed in the industry.
Curriculum Overview
The Bachelor of Journalism degree comprises 120 credit hours, 42 of which must be
advanced.
Students learn to create stories that inform, engage and impact a global audience.
The Mayborn School teaches skills and responsibilities that distinguish professional
journalists in an age where just about anyone can publish on a website or social media
service.
Foundations Courses
In the dynamic landscape of journalism, it remains essential for every student to grasp the foundational aspects of the profession. Acquiring introductory knowledge and skills is crucial, whether one aspires to become a daily beat reporter or aims to excel in a graduate program or corporate setting.
- Mass Communication and Society - Learn the principles of mass communication including historical, economic, social, ethical and legal factors influencing the operation and content of the mass media.
- Introduction to Media Writing - Explore the fundamentals of writing, reporting, and information gathering for a variety of journalism professions.
Skills Courses
Students studying journalism can select from a variety of courses tailored to instill the confidence needed to navigate a dynamic and evolving field. These courses seamlessly integrate the core tenets of effective journalism—reporting, curiosity, and accuracy—along with specialized content crafted to refine individual interests and align with career aspirations.
- News Reporting and Writing - Continued practice in news gathering and writing to develop news judgment, build writing skills and handle complex news stories. Includes regular campus beat and special assignment reporting. Also examines the editor’s role in news copy, with emphasis on writing quality, copy editing, AP style, headline and caption writing, and basic graphics.
- Copyediting - Course introduces students to the theory and practice of editing text for print and digital media, with an emphasis on news stories. The course will focus on fundamental grammar, punctuation and journalistic style.
- Reporting of Public Affairs - Police, court, political and governmental news with typical practical news assignments assigned to professional reporters; background and practice in writing enterprise and investigative stories, including long-form non-fiction narrative writing.
Theory & Concepts Courses
- Comparitive International Media Systems - Study of mass media throughout the world with special attention to how media institutions contribute to building democracy. Comparison of print and broadcast news systems, the sources and flow of international news and the challenges of globalism.
- Race, Gender and the Media: A Methods Approach - Students critically analyze media portrayals of race, gender, sexuality and class and learn to use scholarly research methods to evaluate them. Students examine historical and modern patterns in news media, advertising, television, film, video gaming, popular music, and other mass media.
- History of American Media: Main trends and economic, social, political and technological factors and people that produced the institutions and traditions of the American mass media; emphasis on the changing roles of media and the impact of new communications technologies in the 21st century.
The majority of Mayborn students participate in one or more of our student organizations, from agencies to media, all dedicated to specific areas of interest. Collectively, leaders from these groups come together to serve on the Mayborn's Student Council, a governing body that gives students the opportunity to work across disciplines and learn leadership.
Tour our facilities virtually, no matter where you are. Walk our halls with a guided tour, visit one of our Broadcast Studios, and see where our student producers and reporters work on real-time news assignments in our Broadcast News Lab.