UC Berkeley Undergraduate Minor in Journalism

Get Your Minor Online This Summer

Our hands-on curriculum offers real world experience in engaging your audience with specialized reporting and writing skills, video production, photography, audio storytelling, social media, and cutting-edge communication tech.

Session A: May 20 to June 28
Session D: July 1 to August 9

View undergraduate journalism courses in the catalog

For UC Berkeley Students

Undergraduate Minor in Journalism

The Undergraduate Minor in Journalism is open to all Berkeley students. It consists of 15 total units across five 3-unit courses: two core required courses and three electives. You may complete courses in any order.

  • Core Course: J100 Introduction to News Reporting
  • Core Course: J110 Introduction to Multimedia
  • At least 3 Elective Courses (see list below)

Courses providing credit for the minor are primarily offered during the summer, and there are limited course options during the fall and spring semesters. Summer Sessions provides students with the option to complete all five courses in a single summer.

Required Courses

REQUIRED CORE COURSE

J100 Introduction to News Reporting

Summer Session A & D, Online
Fall/Spring, In-Person
This is an intensive introduction to the principles, practices, and fundamentals of what it means to be a journalist. Students will learn classic forms of reporting and news writing—including learning how to conduct interviews, gather information, and write quickly, concisely and accurately in a style that engages mass audiences. Students will meet professional practitioners and newsmakers, and will examine ethical issues that may arise in reporting, verifying and publishing information.

REQUIRED CORE COURSE

J110 Introduction to Multimedia

Summer Session A & D, Online
Competence in the use of new media tools is essential for any communicator in the 21st century. This intensive introductory course teaches foundational skills for understanding multimedia and creating multimedia news packages. The course consists of lectures, guest-speakers, seminar-style discussions and lots of hands-on instruction: in video, photojournalism, audio, data and other elements that go into the creation of effective visual multimedia stories. No equipment is required; student smartphones will be their primary newsgathering tool.

Elective Courses

ELECTIVE COURSE

J111 Social Media and Journalism

Summer Session D, Online
Social media has entered a new age of relevance, making it of critical interest to journalists and communicators of all kinds. This course will help students better understand and use social media by focusing on how social networks, conversational media, and associated digital media tools and platforms can be used to develop new sources, converse with end users, identify new ideas and emerging trends, aggregate and curate the work of others, and promote their own work.

ELECTIVE COURSE

J112 Intro to Podcasting

Summer Session D, Online
During the last decade, led by expert journalists reporting for audio news productions such as Code Switch, Serial, and This American Life, podcasts have exploded in popularity, amassing huge national audiences and emerging as a captivating and influential new form of journalism. This course is designed to give students a look at reasons behind the success of podcasts, help them develop or sharpen their skills at developing podcasts, and train them to pitch podcast ideas to established producers.

ELECTIVE COURSE

J113 Photojournalism

Summer Session D, Online
Photojournalism has played a critical role in democracy, showing the public unseen images from around the world; from conflict zones, capturing frozen moments in time that the public can reflect upon. In this course you'll gain the skills to identify and create meaningful, truth-telling visual stories. Students will learn about composition, lighting, framing, movement, and how to capture a story from a portrait and moment to moment. You’ll learn the tradecraft of photography, but more importantly, you’ll appreciate the role professional photojournalism plays in society, in the media ecosystem, and its impact on society.

ELECTIVE COURSE

J115 Advanced Multimedia

Summer Session D, Online
This advanced course provides hands-on instruction in digital storytelling techniques, lessons on capturing multimedia, and how to build websites. Curriculum begins with considering how to choose which media forms-video, audio, photo, graphics or text-are best for a particular story or story segments. This is followed by lessons on capturing video, photo, and audio, and in working with live subjects. Equipment for this class will consist primarily of student- owned smartphones.
ELECTIVE COURSE

J122 The Future of Visual Storytelling

Summer Session D, Online
360 degree video, Virtual Reality, drones and mobile. The future of video journalism is here and presents journalists with powerful new options in crafting stories. This course explores digital narratives as they are designed, produced, and consumed in various electronic and "virtual" formats. The course will lay the foundation for understanding new trans-media environments and explore best practices for creating non-fiction narratives on emerging platforms.

ELECTIVE COURSE

J124 Data Journalism

Summer Session D, Online
Data analysis skills are now part of the standard repertoire for many journalists. But like all evidence, data needs context and interpretation. In this class, we'll use brainpower and software to interrogate data, question its veracity and collection methods, and perform analyses to understand the ways it describes our world, and ways that it does not. In addition to working with data, this course will also cover storytelling methods for communicating the essence of a dataset for the general public. We will use storytelling techniques, including visualizations, interactive graphics, and narrative techniques to tell engaging stories in a variety of media.

ELECTIVE COURSE

J130 Special Topics: Race & Journalism

Summer Session D, Online
This Special Topics course explores the intersection of race and journalism, and how power, privilege, and identity affect reporting. Learn background and techniques for deepening your journalism skills and gain subject-matter expertise through intensive coverage of a single topical area. This course will explore the concepts and methods used by specialists to conduct inquiries that go beyond general reporting– including source development, finding and interpreting key documents, understanding important issues and how key institutions function.

ELECTIVE COURSE

J134 International Journalism

Summer Session D, Online
In a globalizing world local stories often become international ones. From politics to financial markets to terrorism and climate change, a more closely connected world means critical issues do not stay put. Events in Russia, China, Iran and Venezuela regularly occupy headlines in the U.S. Learn the specialized techniques international journalists use to cover wars, political change, and social turmoil. Learn how to develop reliable sources, overcome language barriers, and perform their job safely of keeping readers around the world informed of critical issues emerging in foreign lands.

ELECTIVE COURSE

J136 Media Ethics

Fall/Spring, In-Person
Explore the ethical challenges that media practitioners face. While we will pay particular attention to journalism, we will also examine the ethics of public relations, photography, advertising, documentary, social media, and entertainment programming. The course offers some basics of moral reasoning to help with understanding some of the traditional ways people sort out right from wrong. It then introduces professional ethics, both as a source of guidance to communication practitioners and as a way media institutions position themselves before the public. You will become acquainted with the values that media professionals try to honor, grapple with some of the perplexing real-world problems that they face, and apply the principles discussed in class to actual cases.

How To Enroll

FOR UC BERKELEY STUDENTS

Undergraduate Minor in Journalism

To Enroll

UC Berkeley students who wish to take individual journalism courses without completing the minor may enroll through CalCentral, and do not need to fill out the Minor Declaration Form or notify the School of Journalism. 

To Declare for the Minor

  1. Choose your journalism courses and enroll through CalCentral.
  2. Fill out the Minor Declaration form to add the minor in Journalism to your Academic Plan.
  3. Once you have completed the core and elective course requirements for a total of 15 units, your minor requirements will be satisfied, and no further action is needed.
FOR NON-UC BERKELEY STUDENTS

Certificate of Completion

To Enroll

Non-UC Berkeley students who wish to take individual summer journalism courses without completing the minor requirements may apply and enroll through Berkeley Summer Sessions, and do not need to notify the School of Journalism.

To Complete:

  1. Choose your journalism courses and enroll through Berkeley Summer Sessions. Enrollment opens in February.
  2. Once you have completed the two core and three elective course requirements for a total of 15 units, please fill out this Certificate of Completion request form.

Get Updates & Learn More About the Undergraduate Minor in Journalism

Frequently Asked Questions

The Journalism minor at UC Berkeley debuted in 2016 as a summer-only program. In response to increasing student demand, the minor was expanded in 2021 to include the fall and spring semesters, making the program year-round. The summer curriculum, which offers students the option of completing the minor in a single summer, remains unchanged. The addition of selected courses to the fall and spring semesters now gives Berkeley students three options: complete the minor in summer-only, in fall and spring only, or by combining them. Each year students from every campus departmental major enroll in the journalism minor, including students from Engineering, Chemistry, Microbiology, Cognitive Science, Economics, Psychology, Media Studies and more.

The Journalism Minor is housed in the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, which is widely regarded as one of the top professional journalism programs in the United States. Its teaching faculty is composed of distinguished current and former professional journalists who bring real-world expertise to the classroom. The Master of Journalism program was launched as a professional school at UC Berkeley in 1968.

A minor degree is available to matriculating UC Berkeley students upon successful completion of five journalism courses.

The academic requirements for the certificate are identical to the requirements for the journalism minor, but the certificate is available to non-Berkeley students only. Like the minor, the certificate represents a standard of achievement that is recognized by employers.

Courses are open to all UC Berkeley students as well as visitors, including all University of California system students, out-of-state students currently enrolled in a college or junior college, college graduates, as well as international visitors from around the world.

Courses are open to all UC Berkeley students as well as visitors, including all University of California system students, out of state students currently enrolled in a college or junior college, college graduates, as well as international visitors from around the world.

Enrollment for Summer Sessions opens in early February for UC Berkeley students and 2 weeks later for visiting students.

Fill out the Minor Declaration form to request adding the Minor in Journalism to your Academic Plan.

Berkeley Journalism minor classes can always be found in UC Berkeley’s class catalog.

There are no prerequisite courses for enrollment.

Yes. Students may complete the Certificate in Journalism in one summer or over multiple summers. UC Berkeley students may complete the Minor in one summer, over multiple summers, during the academic year or a combination.

For UC Berkeley students seeking the minor: Berkeley Journalism graduate courses are restricted to graduate students in the Masters of Journalism program. Exceptions can be made at the consent of the instructor.

If you’d like to use a graduate class toward your course requirements for the minor, please contact journalismminor@berkeley.edu with an explanation of how the graduate class replaces one of the undergraduate classes.

Journalism Minor classes have no restrictions. If you are not able enroll, it could mean that there is an issue at the campus level. These could include: a hold on your account, the enrollment period is not open, or you have reached the maximum amount of units allowed.

If you are still having issues, reach out to journalismminor@berkeley.edu.

Both the Undergraduate Minor and the Certificate in Journalism consist of 15 total units across five 3-unit courses: two core required courses and three electives. You may complete courses in any order.

Both the minor and the certificate require the successful completion two core courses and three electives, for a total of 15 units of credit. Students may complete these courses in any order. 

No. Students may take courses in any order or combination as long as they satisfy the requirements of two core and three electives.

Students must receive a "C" or better in each of five courses in order to qualify for the minor or certificate.

No.

That decision is up to the student's home college or university.

No. Students intending the minor or certificate cannot opt out of the required courses.

Typically no, but students are expected to bring an iPhone or Android phone with working audio, video, and photography capability. Required equipment may vary depending on the class.

This is a writing-based curriculum that also demands plenty of class participation. All students must demonstrate reasonable fluency in written and spoken English.

This program prepares students to succeed in a world where skilled communications is vital. Students will learn how to craft engaging narratives and create visibility and build audiences for their professional work, whether they are in the sciences, business, humanities, the arts, or other fields.

This program prepares students to succeed in a world where skilled communications is vital. Students will learn how to craft engaging narratives and create visibility and build audiences for their professional work, whether they are in the sciences, business, humanities, the arts, or other fields.

Summer Sessions Information

What Students Are Saying...

Thank you for a summer to remember and for this opportunity! I'm glad I was able to take advantage of this program before my senior year at Cal.

As a political science major, I have found that the journalism courses have taught me how to concisely articulate information on politics when people ask me questions.

Gives international students more time to learn new skills and digest them, as well as get used to the American media system.

My communication skills improved greatly! In fact, I believe the multi- media story I worked on in J110 helped me obtain a job at a non- profit that focuses on helping non-citizens.
I have become a better writer and learned how to effectively voice my views. Furthermore I thoroughly enjoyed the multimedia classes with the focus on Adobe Premiere and Photoshop.
I am a media studies major so the production aspect of digital communication can complement the theoretical approach of the media studies program at Berkeley.
The great professors! It was amazing to gain from the J school's professors experience. They were great!

Contact Us

Got Questions?

Got questions on what courses to take, what professors to seek out, or how to succeed in the summer journalism minor?

Write us at:
journalismminor@berkeley.edu

Visit Us

Journalism Minor Program

Room 132 - North Gate Hall
University of California
Berkeley, CA 94720

Riah Gouvea
rgouvea@berkeley.edu

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