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 to 15 credits each semester.

First Semester (12 to 15 credits, fall semester)
Students are required to take:

  • An eight-credit hour “boot camp” that teaches basic journalism 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 three-credit hour class, “21st Century Media Organizations 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.
  • A one-credit hour lab observation class in which students rotate among the Cronkite School’s capstone experiences: Cronkite NewsWatch; Cronkite News Service; 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.

It is recommended that students also choose one of the following three-credit hour seminars:

  • Latino and Transnational Issues—Taught by Rick Rodriguez, former executive editor of the Sacramento Bee, students in this class explore Latino communities and U.S.-Mexico transnational issues. Students can move on to the Carnegie-Knight News21 Initiative in which they develop sophisticated multimedia reporting projects.
  • Digital Media Entrepreneurship—Taught by digital media pioneer Dan Gillmor and entrepreneur in residence CJ Cornell, this class teaches students how to think like an entrepreneur and understand the trends that are redefining journalism. From this class, students can move on to individualized instruction in which they develop their own new digital media products.
  • Issues in Coverage of Business and the Economy—Taught by Andrew Leckey, a longtime syndicated investment columnist for the Chicago Tribune, this class teaches students to “follow the money” and gives them the training to cover the No. 1 news story of our time. The class is the first step in the Cronkite School’s Business Journalism specialization and qualifies students for summer business journalism internships at the Los Angeles Times, CNBC, Dow Jones, Reuters and elsewhere.

Second Semester (12-15 credits, spring semester)
Students are required to take:

  • A three credit-hour intermediate skills class in the student’s area of specialization (print, broadcast, digital media, business journalism reporting).
  • A three-credit hour Media Research Methods class. This class has a strong professional focus and covers online and text research, getting and using public records and investigative journalism techniques.
  • A three-credit hour Media Law class.
  • A three-credit hour elective. Students select from: News 21 Seminar, New Media Innovation Lab, Digital Media Entrepreneurship or Advanced Online.

It is recommended that students also choose one of the following three-credit hour seminars:

  • Latino and Transnational Issues—Taught by Rick Rodriguez, former executive editor of the Sacramento Bee, students in this class explore Latino communities and U.S.-Mexico transnational issues. Students can move on to the Carnegie-Knight News21 Initiative in which they develop sophisticated multimedia reporting projects.
  • Digital Media Entrepreneurship—Taught by digital media pioneer Dan Gillmor and entrepreneur in residence CJ Cornell, this class teaches students how to think like an entrepreneur and understand the trends that are redefining journalism. From this class, students can move on to individualized instruction in which they develop their own new digital media products.
  • Issues in Coverage of Business and the Economy—Taught by Andrew Leckey, a longtime syndicated investment columnist for the Chicago Tribune, this class teaches students to “follow the money” and gives them the training to cover the No. 1 news story of our time. The class is the first step in the Cronkite School’s Business Journalism specialization and qualifies students for summer business journalism internships at the Los Angeles Times, CNBC, Dow Jones, Reuters and elsewhere.

Third Semester (Fall) (12-15 credits)
Students are required to 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; 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.

It is recommended that students also choose one of the following three-credit hour seminars:

  • Latino and Transnational Issues
  • Digital Media Entrepreneurship
  • Issues in Coverage of Business and the Economy

Summer experiences:
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.