Journalism Track:
Professional Course Profiles

The SJMC's professional journalism track prepares students for such careers as news reporting, editing, production, photography and design in the print and broadcast fields. The program offers a variety of professional courses at the beginning, intermediate and advanced levels that fit each interest. Students should familiarize themselves with the range of skills courses offered and, in consultation with their adviser, plan their programs so that they can move smoothly from beginning courses through the more advanced ones, with concentration in their specific area of interest.

For example, all professional journalism students must take JOUR 3101, a beginning news writing and reporting course. From there, a student’s program should follow a path linked to an area of media specialization:

• For students interested in newspaper careers, a typical next course would be JOUR 3121 (Intermediate News Reporting). They might follow with either JOUR 5131 or JOUR 5155, capstone courses that teach in-depth journalism and advanced reporting methods. They may also want to take an editing course, such as JOUR 3155.

• Students interested in magazine careers would follow JOUR 3101 with JOUR 3173W (Magazine Writing), although they could still benefit from taking 3121 and one of the capstone courses in reporting. They should supplement those courses with the magazine editing and production course, JOUR 5174.

• Broadcast students would follow a similar pattern through the broadcast sequence, moving from JOUR 3451, (Electronic News Writing and Reporting), to JOUR 4451, the capstone course in advanced electronic reporting. Students should take JOUR 3121 before or concurrently with 3451, and must take it before enrolling in 4451. They typically would take JOUR 4452, the capstone course in newscast producing.

• Students interested in visual communication – with an eye toward working in photo, design and graphics – may choose among several skills courses after JOUR 3101, depending on interests. Those courses could include JOUR 3102 (Visual Communication), 3155 (Publications Editing), 3321 (Basic Media Graphics) and, on a more advanced level, 4302 (Electronic Photojournalism).

The above are merely examples of typical course flows. Media convergence is creating a market for journalists with broader skill sets. As such, students might want to create more varied programs. Some print students might benefit from a broadcast course, and visa versa. Finally, program plans allow room for at least one skills course in more specific areas. Those include JOUR 4171, a capstone course on covering the arts, and JOUR 4193 and 4992, which are practicum courses taught at professional news organizations. Students should be on the lookout for such special course opportunities as they arise.