Curriculum
Master of Journalism Curriculum
Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism requires students to complete four semesters with a full-time course load. The first semester is devoted to core curriculum courses (J200, J211, and J215) which teach the fundamentals of reporting using a variety of different media. The remaining semesters allow students to choose a combination of advanced reporting courses, special topics courses, and long form (thesis project) courses. Students are also encouraged to enroll in courses offered by other departments on campus. Each student can tailor coursework choices to the types of media and topics that best suit his/her interests and career goals. Many students become experts in several media platforms and topic areas -- and it's not unusual students to begin the program with a specific focus and then expand into additional areas not previously considered.
Below are the courses required for the Master of Journalism degree. Since students generally take 3-4 courses each semester, there is typically room for at least two elective courses during the second, third, and fourth semesters. To get an idea of all the courses available, please visit our Journalism course schedule and Berkeley course schedule.
Required Core Courses
J200 / Reporting the News
J211 / Reporting the News Lab
Journalism 200, Reporting the News, is a foundation course that immerses students in the basics of reporting fundamental to every journalism medium, and serves as the prerequisite to all advanced reporting and broadcast courses. In Reporting the News Lab (J211), students work on assignments with their J200 instructors and classmates in a newsroom. Each J200 class is assigned to an urban area to report all the news -- in most cases, the reporting done by the J200 students is the only reporting being done in these communities, so students are learning and improving their craft while operating with the same expectations as a professional journalist. Each class must work together as a news agency to produce comprehensive and fresh online coverage that community members can turn to as their local news source. By the end of the semester, each student will have the skills needed to write and produce mulitmedia supported online news for any community in the world.
J215 / Multimedia Reporting
This is an intensive class taught at the very beginning of the first semester so that all students learn the fundamentals of using digital audio, video and photo equipment, editing digital video, audio and photographs and creating multimedia Web sites. Instruction includes using digital video cameras; editing digital video with iMovie and FinalCut Pro; doing voiceovers and stand-ups for video and understanding professional standards in broadcast journalism; using minidisc digital audio recorders; editing digital audio with ProTools; using digital photo cameras; editing digital photos with PhotoShop; using Flash to create photo slide shows with audio, and creating multimedia Web sites using Dreamweaver. Students apply all of these tools to online reporting throughout their first semester.
J255 / Law and Ethics
This course is an introduction to legal and ethical conflicts faced by working reporters. Using case studies, in-class discussions, readings and guest lectures, the course examines some of the murkier conflicts that don't necessarily make it to court but nevertheless force difficult newsroom decision-making. The course is co-taught by a practicing lawyer who specializes in First Amendment law and a regular faculty member. Most students opt to take this course in their second semester.
J294 / Master's Project Seminar
J-School culminates in a final master's project, a capstone of each student's experience at Berkeley. Students submit an in-depth reporting project of professional quality prior to graduation. Newspaper series, magazine articles, long-form pieces for radio, TV, new media, photo exhibition, or a documentary film can meet the requirement. During the second year, students meet regularly with a faculty advisor to discuss their progress. Many of our students publish or broadcast their projects in major media outlets.
J297 / Internship
A cornerstone of our program is ensuring that students expand their professional experience. In J297, students receive two units of credit for a summer internship between their first and second year, or during the academic year. Students in our program have interned at major newspapers, TV and radio stations and new media outlets, including the The Washington Post, The New York Times, ProPublica, The Sacramento Bee, the San Jose Mercury News, the Anchorage Daily News, Al-Jazeera, NPR, MarketWatch.com, ABC and WIRED magazine. Our career services director and permanent and visiting faculty assist students in finding a challenging internship in print, broadcast or new media. News organizations provide written evaluations of all student interns, providing useful feedback. Students also write reports on their internship experiences and share this information with their colleagues.
Additional Requirements
The Master of Journalism degree requires 36 semester units of graduate or upper-division courses and submission of a master's project. A minimum of 24 units must be earned in the Graduate School of Journalism and 12 units of credit toward the Master of Journalism degree may be earned in graduate or upper-division courses in other departments on campus. In the spring of the first year, and in both semesters of the second year, each student must enroll in at least one advanced reporting course. For the breadth requirement, students must take at least one course in another focus. For example, if the majority of the student's classes are in longform writing, they must also have one class in radio, multimedia, photography, etc. All students must enroll full-time (at least twelve units each semester) and must fulfill the four-semester residency requirement.