Have you ever wondered if a career in journalism is the right path for you? Journalism is a competitive and ever-evolving field, but if you are interested in storytelling, researching and writing, then it may be a major you want to consider. Many schools have strong journalism programs, but these five colleges stand out for having the best journalism programs around.
Boston University
The College of Communication at Boston University has an excellent amount of opportunities both in the school and outside. BU’s journalism program allows students to focus on online journalism, broadcast journalism, journalism, magazine journalism or photojournalism.
Many classes journalism students take are outside of the College of Communications because the school wants their journalists to graduate with a well-rounded liberal arts background combined with the skills and experience a journalist will need in the field.
Emerson College
Located in Boston, Massachusetts, Emerson College provides a unique approach to their Journalism course. After adopting a new multimedia curriculum back in 2011, students now learn to tell stories and report the news through many different mediums. The college works on improving students’ reporting skills through audio reports, video reports and on the web so that when students finally begin working in the field, they are fluent in different media forms. Graduates have landed jobs at The Boston Globe, Detroit News, NBC, Inside Edition and more as reporters, producers, writers, editors and press secretaries.
Ithaca College
The Roy H. Park School of Communications at Ithaca College gives students the chance to immerse themselves in the field of journalism with their many resources. The student-run weekly newspaper, The Ithacan welcomes everyone from freshmen to seniors. ICTV is the school’s notable television station which covers a wide range of topics from hard news to Hollywood gossip. Many journalism classes at Ithaca teach students to look deeper into topics such as ethics, economics and media history, which can be extremely helpful down the road.
Syracuse University
At the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, students have many choices in the journalism field. They can decide to focus on broadcast and digital journalism or magazine, newspaper and online journalism, or they can major in photography. In any of the majors falling under journalism, students will get hands-on experience in the classroom using the same equipment that is used in professional newsrooms. Newhouse’s student-run newspaper, The Daily Orange, and the school’s entertainment site, The NewsHouse, tests students’ abilities to write and report with deadlines. This prestigious program offers many opportunities to experience real journalism situations.
The University of Texas at Austin
From the day a journalism student enters the Moody College of Communication at The University of Texas at Austin, they will begin learning all of the skills a journalist will need to succeed. In 2012, the Moody College of Communication opened the Belo Center for New Media, which helped launch the university’s digital-based undergraduate curriculum. The program starts at Level 1, teaching students the “critical values and sensibility at the heart of the journalistic method.” Each level of journalism progressively moves deeper into the field until the student reaches Level 5. This is where the journalists must complete a professional internship or take part in the school’s multimedia news website. The Moody College of Communications also offers a sports journalism track.
