Home / Graduate Programs / Master's Curriculum

Graduate Curriculum

Students admitted to the Cronkite School’s Master of Mass Communication program attend classes full-time (12 to 15 credits each semester), on Arizona State University’s Downtown Phoenix campus. The program can be completed in as little as 12 months.

First Semester (12 to 15 credits, fall semester)

Required:

  • Journalism Skills “Boot Camp” (8 credits): 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.
  • 21st Century Media Organizations and Entrepreneurship (3 credits): 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.
  • Cronkite School Lab Observation (1 credit): A lab observation class in which students rotate among the school’s professional programs: Cronkite NewsWatch; Cronkite News Service; the New Media Innovation Lab; the Public Insight Network and the Public Relations Lab. The course 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.

Optional:

Students interested in immigration issues and taking part in an international reporting experience in the spring semester should enroll in

  • Latino and Transnational Issues (3 credits) - 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 interested in business journalism and internships with top business outlets including Bloomberg News, Reuters, the Los Angeles Times, CNBC and others should enroll in

  • Issues in Coverage of Business and the Economy (3 credits) - Taught as an in-person/online hybrid, 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.

Second Semester (12-15 credits)

Required:

  • Investigative Data Journalism (3 credits)
  • History, Philosophy and Ethics of Journalism (3 credits)
  • Two intermediate skills classes (6 credits total) in the student’s area of interest

    • Choose from:
    Advanced Online Media
    Advanced Broadcast Reporting – Required for NewsWatch
    Advanced Radio Reporting
    Depth Reporting
    News21 Seminar
    Public Relations Research
    Reporting on Business & Economy
    Spring Training
    Sustainability Documentary
    Writing for Public Relations

Students interested in competing for a spot as a summer Carnegie-Knight News21 Fellow should enroll in the News21 Seminar and Accountability Journalism course taught by former Washington Post executive editor, Len Downie and Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter, Jacquee Petchel.

Summer experiences (optional)

Carnegie-Knight News21 Investigative Reporting Project
Summer internships
Capstones: PIN, Cronkite News Service in Washington D.C., or Cronkite Sports in Los Angeles

Third Semester (12 credits)

Required:

Students work four days a week under the supervision of the faculty member to produce a portfolio of work that demonstrates their skills and proficiency. At the end of the semester, students present their work at a public symposium.

* The New Media Innovation Lab and Public Insight Network can only be selected as part-time experiences and must be combined with an additional professional experience.

Total degree credits: 36 minimum

Contact cronkitegrad@asu.edu for more information about the curriculum.