Curriculum
In Newspaper: Courses Faculty Careers Events
Newspaper
At the core of the Graduate School of Journalism curriculum is a comprehensive program to provide students the skills they need to report for newspapers. Many faculty at North Gate share both a love of newspapers and a conviction that mastering the challenges of daily reporting—self-discipline, accuracy, and clarity under tight deadline pressure—is vital for every working journalist.
"I can still hear J-200 instructor (now Dean) Neil Henry laughing uproariously as he read our stories aloud to the class. It was an infectious laugh, and it made all of us nervous, self-conscious writers lighten up and laugh with him. Journalism is not a skill that one develops in private, and Neil Henry's gentle, amused humor made that abundantly clear. The class truly was a boot camp, with relentless story assignments, tight deadlines, high expectations and a lot of camaraderie among the dozen students who went through it together. It was a great crash course in the basics of good journalism."
Carolyn McMillan, MJ 1995, metro editor, Contra Costa Times
Classes are offered regularly in specific newspaper skills such as opinion writing and copy editing; specialized topics such as legal affairs, business, health and sports reporting; and methods such as feature writing, profile writing and investigative reporting. To meet the demands of 21st-century newsrooms, the J-School teaches reporting in a multimedia environment, in which students learn video and audio editing, digital photography and other tools, and advanced multimedia reporting to broaden traditional storytelling beyond the printed page.
There are myriad opportunities to write for Bay Area and national newspapers as freelancers and as part of formal classes built around specific reporting projects. Students regularly get their news and features published in both national news outlets and local newspapers.