Admitting highly qualified students with degrees in a wide range of disciplines, the Graduate Program in Journalism aims to build onto that diverse post-secondary educational preparation the knowledge and abilities of the graduate professional journalist in an intensive one-year program of study. The approach to achieving this is three-pronged. First, students must have preparation in the intellectual foundations of journalism: the theory, history, ethics, law, and research methodologies relevant to the discipline. Second, they must also have a solid foundation in the different media of contemporary journalism, since the convergence of the media now resulting from the electronic revolution means that flexibility and versatility in all the media constitute the best preparation for the new graduate. Finally, individual interests are encouraged by the availability of a variety of courses preparing the student in the issues and distinctive requirements of different journalistic and media-related work settings.
1. Foundations of Journalism
The courses offered within this framework will provide students with the necessary tools to come to an understanding of the issues and intellectual framework that constitute the field of journalism and its role in the wider contemporary world of mass communications and new technologies. In order to enter the profession and to succeed within it, modern journalism students must be exposed to an intensive study of the historical evolution of the field; be equipped with the intellectual tools to grapple with difficult and often contradictory issues in the realm of ethical practice; have a solid grounding in the work of major theoreticians such as Harold Innis, Marshall McLuhan, Noam Chomsky, and Neil Postman and the interpretational tools they provide for handling texts of all kinds; and as well operate within the framework afforded by a fundamental knowledge of the law as it affects media practice and content. Students will be required to be familiar with the contemporary literature in each subject area as well as being required to be familiar with major journalistic approaches and issues as they appear in the media. Students must be able to apply the media concepts discussed in classes in history, theory, ethics and law to journalistic practice. Students will also be required to undertake research projects subject to the standards applicable at the graduate level which will be designed to further increase their comprehension of the field that they are about to enter.
2. Media-Related Professional Courses
The production of hard and soft news in print, including both newspapers and magazines, and in radio and television is studied and practised. The program of instruction in media-related courses will consist of two components, an intellectual and academic approach to the media in which style, content and issues will be examined and discussed through lectures and demonstrations, and practice in which the issues discussed within the classroom setting will be put into practice in the field. Students will not only be exposed to journalism as a major contemporary player in democratic society, but as a system of professional practice as well where the skills of the profession will be taught. Students will be expected to demonstrate excellence in writing and reporting as well as electronic literacy in the creation and reporting modes demanded in sound and pictures.
3. Journalistic Specializations
As with other contemporary enterprises, journalism now supports more complicated and necessary structures. Although reporting the daily news continues to be a very important function in journalism, modern reporters are expected to have at least a working knowledge of a number of other areas which would have been restricted only a short time ago. The Master of Arts in Journalism program offers elective courses that enable students to gain knowledge in some of these areas. Elective courses may be offered in the fields of magazine reporting, international reporting, medical and science reporting, political issues, media management, reporting business, finance and industry, and newspaper editing, as circumstances permit. The courses contained in this component of the program will allow students to add elements of new expertise to their educational portfolios. All these courses will combine the essence of modern journalism education at the university level, a combination of theory through classroom lectures, demonstrations and discussion and practice which will require the student to put into practice the issues discussed and analyzed in the classroom setting.