Searching for the Core of Journalism Education

Abstract

To carry out their mission of preparing students to be successful journalism professionals, educators make important decisions on the core curriculum: the common courses that all journalism students must take to graduate, no matter their area of emphasis or academic constraints. This national study of U.S. journalism program directors shows they agreed that training in writing and reporting is still considered the bedrock of journalism and that knowledge about visual communication has become an increasing priority. After that, however, these respondents disagreed on which specific courses take precedence for all journalism students. The authors offer several hypothetical models of core curricula.