Graduate Curriculum
Students admitted to the Cronkite School’s Master of Mass Communication program attend full time for 15 months, excluding summer sessions, and take 12 credits each semester.
Graduate students must maintain a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.0 to remain in the program. If a student’s GPA falls below this level, the student is placed on probation. If the GPA is not raised to at least a 3.0 by the completion of the next semester, a recommendation for withdrawal from the program will be sent to the ASU Graduate College.
Students take:
- An eight-credit hour “boot camp” that teaches basic journalistic skills, including: news writing and reporting; editing for print and online; broadcast production techniques; multimedia storytelling skills, interviewing; and basic reportorial research. The class is taught four days a week and includes both lecture and lab experiences.
- A one-credit hour lab observation class in which students rotate among the Cronkite School’s professional programs: Cronkite NewsWatch; Cronkite News Service (print); Cronkite News Service (broadcast); Strategic Media and Public Relations lab; the Knight Center for Digital Media Entrepreneurship; the New Media Innovation lab; and a Borderlands experience. This is designed to expose students to the school’s professional programs so they will better be able to select an area on which to focus.
- A three-credit hour Media Law class.
Students take:
- A three credit-hour intermediate skills class in the student’s area of specialization (print, broadcast, digital media or strategic media/public relations).
- A three-credit hour Media Research Methods class. This class has a strong professional focus and covers online and library research, getting and using public records and investigative journalism techniques.
- A six-credit hour class, “21st Century Media Organization and Entrepreneurship.” This class is taught as a symposium and focuses on the future of journalism, the future of journalism business organizations and entrepreneurship, new media experiences, online solutions to popular media problems, financial realities of the media, media innovation and ethics, law and specialized reporting.
Students take:
- A three-credit hour class in the history, philosophy and ethics of journalism.
- A nine-credit hour professional capstone experience. Students select from: Cronkite NewsWatch; Cronkite News Service (print); Cronkite News Service (broadcast); Strategic Media and Public Relations lab; the Knight Center for Digital Media Entrepreneurship; the New Media Innovation lab; and a Borderlands experience. Students work four days a week under the supervision of the faculty member overseeing that program. Students produce a portfolio of work that demonstrates their skills and proficiency, and present their work at a public symposium at the conclusion of their program.
Students may apply for and do an optional internship during the summer between the second and third semesters. Although students may receive credit for their internships, the credit is not included in the students’ programs of study.
