At the core of the Graduate School of Journalism curriculum is a comprehensive program to provide students the skills they need to report for newspapers. Many faculty at North Gate share both a love of newspapers and a conviction that mastering the challenges of daily reporting—self-discipline, accuracy, and clarity under tight deadline pressure—is vital for every working journalist.
The School does not have a formal sequence of courses for writing, but suggested courses after J200 Reporting the News are J298 Writing Workshop: Short to Mid-Length Narrative, J243 Tackling the Longform. Students who wish to pursue writing are encouraged to take topical reporting classes such as J230 Business Reporting or J228 Political Reporting to continue working on their writing skills in these and other courses.
Classes are offered regularly in specific newspaper skills such as opinion writing and copy editing; specialized topics such as legal affairs, business, health and sports reporting; and methods such as feature writing, profile writing and investigative reporting. To meet the demands of 21st-century newsrooms, the J-School teaches reporting in a multimedia environment, in which students learn video and audio editing, digital photography and other tools, and advanced multimedia reporting to broaden traditional storytelling beyond the printed page.
There are myriad opportunities to write for Bay Area and national newspapers as freelancers and as part of formal classes built around specific reporting projects. Students regularly get their news and features published in both national news outlets and local newspapers.
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