Degree Requirements and Core Courses

The course of study for the M.A. degree in Journalism is challenging and requires full-time attendance. Students complete 45 units of course work in three semesters, participate in a comprehensive summer internship, and produce a substantial final or capstone project.

The curriculum is built upon a core of seven common courses, followed by a wide range of courses in different media formats and options for subject matter concentrations. The core courses stress the foundation skills and knowledge that all good journalists must have, including reporting, writing and editing skills, and analytic thinking needed to deal with complex subjects. Other core courses cover journalistic ethics and legal issues, broadcast fundamentals, and fundamentals of interactive media such as online journalism, multimedia presentation, web site design, and blogging.

Media Courses

All students learn the multimedia skills every journalist is expected to have in today’s converged newsroom. Students may concentrate in print, broadcast, or interactive journalism, but they are also free to mix and match media courses, depending on their interests and career goals. They may customize their media course schedule in the second and third semesters. However, keep in mind that some third-semester media courses have second-semester prerequisites: Interactive III requires that you have taken Interactive II; Television News Magazine Production requires that you have taken Craft of Journalism II – Broadcast; Narrative Journalism requires that you have taken Feature Writing.

Students get their media instruction inside the classroom and from professional writers, broadcasters, multimedia experts, and photographers who work one-on-one with students on their projects. These media coaches not only give individual guidance on course assignments but they help students draft pitches and get their work published or shown in media outlets beyond the School.

Subject Concentrations

In their second semester, students will choose a subject matter concentration, selecting from:

* Arts & Culture
* Business & Economics
* Health & Medicine
* International
* Urban Reporting

Students will take three courses in their subject concentration that build upon one another. However, they will also have the flexibility to take a course that interests them in another concentration or select from a handful of electives.

The purpose is to develop an expertise in an area that could be pursued following graduation. Once students develop the skills required to be an analytic journalist in one specialty area, those skills can be applied to covering any specialty or beat area in the future.

Capstone Project

To graduate, students must complete a “capstone” project – a professional-level piece of work – in any media format they choose. A broadcast piece will be at least a nine-minute segment prepared to air on CUNY TV. For the print format, it will be a publishable article of at least 3,000 words. An interactive project will be a major web site package that is multimedia and interactive or a new media product developed by the student. Print and new media capstone projects will be posted on the NYCity News Service web site operated by the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism.

January Academy

Between the first and second semesters, the School offers a variety of optional enrichment courses for students who choose to take advantage of them. Examples include workshops in freelance writing, copy editing, travel reporting, food writing, covering personal finance, Excel for journalists, time management, and Flash.

Click here to see the January Academy Schedule.

Fourth Semester Option

All students now have the option to stretch their studies into a fourth semester. They may choose to pursue this option for any of the following reasons:

• To take additional media courses or electives at the J-School that don’t fit into a three-semester program.
• To take related courses at other CUNY colleges. For instance, a student in the international concentration may want to study Arabic or Chinese at City College; someone in the J-School’s business & economics program may want to take MBA-level classes in the Zicklin School of Business at Baruch College.
• To allow more time to complete their M.A. in Journalism degree requirements.
• To take part in an exchange program at a foreign journalism school.

Please note that students who pursue this option must pay full tuition for the extra semester. For maximum flexibility, those who are interested in a fourth semester should consult their academic adviser as early as possible.