Program Description

The journalism major at Purchase College is designed to provide students with the intellectual bases and skills to gather, assess, and disseminate information and ideas. This equips students for careers in journalism and a wide variety of other fields, including law, government, business, and public relations. Journalism at its best exemplifies the open and honest inquiry that marks the liberal arts and sciences.

Students are offered a central set of skills courses in journalism, electives in specialized areas in a variety of media, and courses that explore the broader context of journalistic practice. Students also take advantage of the broad offerings of Purchase College and are encouraged to have internships. The studies culminate in a senior project, an extended work that allows students to showcase the full range of their talents.

Program Faculty

Requirements for the Major

• Introduction to Media
• History of Journalism
• Journalism I and II
• Freedom and the Media
• Three journalism electives, selected from an approved list of courses
• Five designated liberal arts electives, selected from one of the following areas or from an approved list of courses in these areas:
  Humanities:
  History, Language and Culture, Literature
  Natural Sciences
  Social Sciences:
  Economics, Political Science, Sociology
  Interdisciplinary Studies:
  Gender Studies or other approved area studies
  
• Junior Seminar in Journalism
• Senior Project in Journalism

Representative Elective Courses

Advanced Broadcast News
Broadcast Writing
Covering the Arts
Criticism/Reviewing Workshop
Environmental Journalism
Feature Writing
International Issues Reporting
Introduction to Broadcast Journalism
Multiple Platform Writing
Narrative Journalism
News Editing
Photojournalism
Race, Gender, and the Media
The Art of Sportswriting
The Beat of Music Journalism
The Literature of Journalism

Representative Alumni

• Jared Albert ’07, junior publicist, Animal Planet and TLC, Discovery Communications
• Allison Esposito ’05, MA, Graduate School of Journalism, City University of New York; communications manager, Whittier and Associates
• Stephen Miraglia ’09, production assistant, WCBS 880 and the New York Yankees Radio Network
• Jessica Mola ’09, associate editor, recruitment and training, About.com
• Yuridia Peña ’05, MA student in corporate communications, Baruch College, City University of New York; editorial/communications assistant, CSA News; www.yuridiapena.blogspot.com
• Joshua Pramis ’06, online associate editor, American Express Publishing, Travel + Leisure Magazine

For more information, visit the Journalism site in Academic Programs.

Updated June 6, 2011

Updates
Please direct updates for this page to the managing editor in the Office of the Provost and Academic Affairs. Because internal and external links may change or expire from time to time, please report any changed or broken links to the managing editor as well.