Master’s Program

The Master of Journalism program is designed to provide graduates with professional experience and academic grounding to help students succeed as a journalist in any medium.

Through a full-time intensive program, students will learn everything from long-form writing to web, video and audio production, social media analytics, investigative reporting skills, and critical analysis of news. Additionally, students will gain hands-on experience through a summer internship as part of the graduate program.

Program Overview

Our distinctive approach to journalism education has two components: academic specialization and applied training. This involves creating a program of study focused on an academic area — relevant to your background and interests —along with courses in media theory and ethics. Paired with the academic specialization is applied training alongside experienced professionals.

The Master of Journalism is modeled after a small Liberal Arts college with small class sizes for more one-on-one attention. Faculty and staff are regularly available in and outside of the classroom, often mentoring students on freelancing opportunities, international internships, and career options.

Degree Requirements

Students pursuing a Master of Journalism are required to complete a minimum of 42 credits of coursework, as well as a three-month internship.

In their first year, students will learn to be journalists across all media: print, online, television, and radio. While most programs separate training by medium, we firmly believe that in today’s digital environment, graduate journalists have to be proficient across many media platforms. Therefore, theory and practice are integrated across the curriculum. This means applying ethics, media theory, and academic knowledge to core journalism skills such as interviewing and reporting in a real-time multimedia environment.

Theory and graduate-level research is integrated into the curriculum through assignments and course content. There is also an option to complete an academic thesis or a journalism final research project, which involves a major project in journalism and journalism studies.

Over the 20 month program, students are required to complete a set of mandatory, core journalism courses: Integrated Journalism, Media Ethics and Leadership, Journalism practice and Standards, Media Law and Internship. Students will have the opportunity to study more specialized, journalism courses and pursue their personal interests of study. These courses are reviewed on an annual basis and may not be offered each year in its current format.

Specialization

Students will have the opportunity to specialize in key disciplines relevant to their professional careers and goals. These include but are not limited to: environmental and health studies, international relations and political science, arts and cultural studies, English, sports, business and economics, and science.

Students also engage in issues surrounding race, gender and ethnicity through partnerships with other UBC departments.

Popular academic specialties include: international journalism and political science, new media and society, solutions-focused journalism and science journalism, which includes specialties in environment, health and social issues, as well as media theory.

Students take these specialties in courses outside of the program in order to obtain the knowledge necessary to report on an increasingly complex public sphere.

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