Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism: Encyclopedia II - Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism - Curriculum

Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism - Curriculum

In 1935 the undergraduate curriculum was dropped and the School adopted a program at the graduate level. Today, the School offers three degree programs: a Master of Science (M.S.) in journalism, a Master of Arts (M.A.) in journalism, and a doctoral degree (Ph.D.) in communications.

The school includes courses in radio, television, magazine, newspaper, and, most recently, new media journalism. The School has the highest percentage of technology resources, per student, of any school at Columbia.

The school's graduate curriculum for the Master of Science degree is considered to be a rigourous hands-on course which is taught during a one-year program. All students take Reporting and Writing One, a School staple, where they are taught journalism techniques. In RW1, students are assigned a neighborhood in New York City to cover as a reporter and write stories on various topics and issues. These stories are then critiqued by professors and classmates. In addition to beat coverage, RW1 students cover breaking news and do long term investigative projects. RW1 classes are limited to no more than 16 students and classes are known to become close knit. Broadcast students take a special RW1 that combines print and broadcast techniques.

Students also take speciality classes in various aspects of reporting with options including, political reporting, education reporting, arts reporting, opinion writing, copy editing, and sports reporting. All students are required to take a law class, an ethics class, attend weekly all class lectures, and write a master's project.

There is an ongoing debate over whether the j-school should include academic studies along with classes that emphasize the craft of journalism and, most especially, writing. The school's alumni and many professors, troubled by possible changes to the current curriculum, consider the teaching of "shoe-leather" reporting to be more constructive than woolly-heady theories on mass communication.

Though such theory-oriented programs are popular at other journalism schools, Columbia has eschewed unproven these media studies, regarded as nonsense to many veteran journalists, sticking instead to its tried and true news-gathering techniques that have served generations of its alumni in writing the first draft of history.

Still, many students find it difficult struggling under onerous debts attending the program, which approximately costs around $40,000 a year if all expenses are included. However, there are plenty of scholarships available and the school tries its hardest to be generous.

During the spring semester, students take a specialty class, either in newspaper, radio, television, magazine or new media. Newspaper concentrators work either on the Bronx Beat, which is a weekly newspaper serving the South Bronx or on the Columbia News Services, a wire service of feature stories, serving 500 newspapers nationally.

In 1984, George T. Delacorte (Columbia College, Class of 1913) endowed the George T. Delacorte Center for Magazine Journalism at the School. The Center’s purpose is the teaching of magazine writing and production, to sponsor scholarships for magazine journalism and to study the exciting and competitive business of trade journals and glossy up-market publications. The Delacorte Center is located on the Journalism Building's 8th floor.

The Master of Arts program is debuting in September 2005 as a way to add a new academic approach to the school. Open only to graduates of the MS program, the students will participate in a one year program to obtain a second MA degree. Students in this program will take classes in both the Journalism School and in other parts of the University. They will concentrate in either Arts, Science, Business, or Politics. Classes will be taught in a cross disciplinary approach with an academic bent.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Curriculum", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki