MA Program at Columbia Journalism School

7/29/2019 MA Program at Columbia Journalism School

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master ofarts


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The M.A. program is for experiencedjournalists who arent satisfied

merely by competency. Theywant to go deeper, to navigatecomplicated terrain and to cover itin a sophisticated, nuanced manner.Students emerge with the subject-matter grounding that enables them

to situate news events in theirlarger context, to ask more informedquestions, and to authoritativelyevaluate claims made by sources.

Which program is right

MASTER OF ARTS PROGRA

The prestigious, nine-month M

program, inaugurated in 2005

who can demonstrate profcie

essential skills o journalism:

reporting and clear writing. Un

Master o Science program, won teaching basic reporting an

the M.A. is designed or exper

journalists who are eager to im

themselves in a specifc area o

to be mentored by journalists

among the most accomplished

Successul applicants usually

three and fteen years o pro

journalism experience.

M.A. or M.S


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Choose your path.Applicants choose one o our concentrat

during the application process:

The M.A. program is built around four concentrations: arts and culture, business and

economics; politics; and the Robert Wood Johnson Program in Health and Science Journ

Each concentration is overseen by two ull-time members o the Journalism School acul

who pull in subject-area experts rom Columbia and beyond, creating seminars that mar

deep subject knowledge with journalism. These courses include heavy reading, case stu

feld trips, journalistic assignments, and other exercises. Regardless o concentration, ev

M.A. student takes three core M.A. classesEvidence and Inerence, The History o Ame

Journalism, and The Future o Journalism.

Each student also takes three electives outside the Journalism School.

Students may take virtually any course at the University that will deepen their subject

knowledge. Each student also completes a masters thesis, an ambitious reporting proje

that results in a written piece o 8,000 to 10,000 words, or its multimedia equivalent.

To educate new generations o

journalists and uphold standards

o journalistic excellence has

been the mission o the ColumbiaUniversity Graduate School o

Journalism since it opened a

century ago. The quality, vitality,

and innovation o our degree

programs remain unsurpassed,

providing the oundation or

students not only to succeed, but

to shape the uture o journalism.

Ten years ater Joseph Pulitzer

frst proposed a world-class

journalism school at Columbia,classes began on September 30,

1912. Seventy-nine undergraduate

and graduate students enrolled,

including a dozen women.

Classes convened at several

locations around campus until

the Journalism building opened in

1913, and in 1917 the frst Pulitzer

Prizes were awarded.

Learning theColumbia wa

Arts and Culture

Business and Economic

Science, Health andthe Environment

Politics

M.A.

PAGE 2

PAGE 4

PAGE 6PAGE 8

MASTER OF SCIENCE PROGRAM

The M.S. program, which began in 1935,

is the cornerstone o the Journalism

School. It oers aspiring and experienced

journalists the opportunity to study the

skills, the art and the ethics o journalism

by reporting and writing stories ranging

rom short news pieces to complex narra-

tive eatures. Students acquire a core set

o sophisticated newsgathering skills thatwill emphasize in-person, interview-based

reporting as well as other means o ac-

quiring and assessing inormation. They

take courses rom each o three modules:

The Written Word; Images and Sound;

and Audience and Engagement, which

ocus on topics ranging rom deadline

newswriting to interactive graphics, rom

social media to video skills.

Explore sem


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PROFESSORS

Historical knowledge, analytical under-

standing, and nimble thinking across a

range o artistic disciplines and cultural

realms are the goals o the Arts and

Culture concentration.

Through a combination o extensive reading, case studies, site visits, and teaching

collaborations with scholars, artists, and other leaders in the arts, students consider the

ormal and emotional orce o the arts as well as the ways they unction as commodities

in a global marketplace. Students also learn about policy and economic issues: private

and public unding models, intellectual property law, and trade agreements. Students

develop the skills, analytical habits, and exibility to cover a wide range o stories, and

work on becoming cultural reporters and critics in the ullest sense.

Respected experts rom Columbia and elsewhere are oten brought in to guest-teach.

Recent guests have included Jane Ginsburg, an expert on intellectual property at

Columbia Law School; Frances Negron-Muntaner rom Columbias English department;

Andreas Huyssen, a comparative literature proessor and an expert on the Frankurt

School; Shakespearian James Shapiro; anthropology proessor Page West; and artdealer Louis Salerno.

2 COLU MB IA G RADUATE SCHOOL OF J OU R NALISM J OU R NALISM.COLUM B IA.EDU

DAVID HAJDU

David Hajdu is the music critic or The New Republic.

He is a contributor to The Atlantic, The New Yorker,

The New York Review of Books, The New York Times

Magazine, and Vanity Fair. He is the author oLush

Life, Positively 4th Street, and Heroes and Villains,

all three o which were fnalists or the National Book

Critics Circle Award, and The Ten-Cent Plague, which

Amazon named the Best Book o the Year on the arts. Hajdu is a graduate o

New York University.

A IS A SO OM ON

Alisa Solomon came to Columbia rom Baruch

College-CUNY and the CUNY Graduate Center,

where she taught in the English, journalism, and

theater programs. She contributes to The Nation,

The Forward, The New York Times, and other

publications, and to WNYC radio and the WBAI rad

program Beyond the Pale. She was on the sta at

The Village Voice or 21 years, covering theater and cultural issues, and

winning awards or her reporting on reproductive rights, electoral politics

womens sports, and immigration policy. Her book, Wonder of Wonders:

A Cultural History of Fiddler on the Roof, is due out in October 2013.

Arts andCulture

Popular Outside Courses:

ArchitecturalTheory

Grada Schl

f archicr,

PlanninG and

PrSrvain

TV as aDramaticMedium

Schl f

h arS

Jazz

Schl f

h arS

Network Culture

Grada Schl

f archicr,

PlanninG and

PrSrvain

Planning theNew New York

Grada Schl

f archicr,

PlanninG and

PrSrvain

Film Studies

Schl f

h arS

History o

TheatreSchl f

h arS

Sexuality,Gender, Healt

Grada

Schl f ar

an d Sc i nc S :

ScilG

Musicology

Schl f

h arS

Elementso Dramatic

NarrativeSchl f h

ar S : fi lm

SEMINAR


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The M.A. programwas an opportunitto take a deeper looat what we do as

journalists and howwe do it.

MASTER OF ARTS PROG

Jimm So

deputy Books toNewsweek/ The Daily Beast

m.a. arS and clr, 11

Doing the M.A. is like learning to swim. Id beenreporting or nearly 10 years, but I was only ailing

about. Every time I fnished a story, I was terrifed

o plunging in again. But when you work closely with

very good swimmersthe best in the worldyou

gain confdence. You tread longer, you dive deeper.

I youre not careul, you might even believe that you,

too, can someday be one o the best in the world.

Natasha Del Toro

feee/host o PBS pogae ree

m.S. 05; m.a. arS and clr, 06

I it werent or my time at Columbia, I wouldbe where I am today. The M.A. program bolst

my confdence in arts reporting and deepene

respect or journalism. Proessor Solomon gi

terrifc survey o dance, theater, art, music an

tecture. The most invaluable part o my expe

was my ellow classmates, many o whom are

working at the most respected media outlets

country, and the acultysome o the most r

ed journalists in the business.

Dorian Merinarepote/aofee Spee ro news

m.S. 07; m.a. arS and clr, 08

Evidence and Inerence

encouraged me to ask questions

about how a story is ramed,

what is included, and how new

technology is shaping news. It

also taught me research skills,

challenged and refned my

interviewing techniques, andgave me the tools to approach

specialized academic felds and

primary documents. One highlight

o the year was the courses I took

outside the J-school. One course,

in the Spanish Department,

helped me research and write

my thesis, which reported on a

19th-century revolutionary fgure in

the Philippines. I spent 2010-2011

on a Fulbright research year in

the Philippines, documenting oralpoetry rom a remote indigenous

group and am now back at FSRN.

ALUM PROFILE


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PROFESSORS

The primary objective o the Business

concentration is to impart simple, ast,

and eective ways to break down

complicated problems, locate relevant

data, and compensate or inherent biases.


SYVIA NASAR

Sylvia Nasar is the James S. and John L. Knight

Proessor o Business Journalism. Her most recent

book, Grand Pursuit: The Story of Economic Genius

won the 2012 Los Angeles Times Book Prize in

the Science & Technology category. Her award-

winning biography,A Beautiful Mind, inspired the

movie directed by Ron Howard and the American

Experience documentary, A Brilliant Madness. Her New Yorkerarticle

Maniold Destiny, written with David Gruber, was honored in The Best

American Science Writing 2007. Trained as an economist, Nasar was a New

York Times correspondent rom 1991 to 1999, and beore that a sta writer

at Fortune and columnist at U.S. News & World Report.

JA ME S B. STE WAR T

James B. Stewart is the Bloomberg Proessor o

Business Journalism. He writes a fnancial column

in the Business Day section oThe New York Time

and is a ormer Page One editor at The Wall Stree

Journal and a regular contributor to The New York

and SmartMoney, which he helped launch. He is

the author o ten books, the most recent o which

Tangled Webs, published in spring 2011. In 1988, he won the Pulitzer Priz

or Explanatory Journalism or his articles in The Wall Street Journal abou

the 1987 upheaval in the stock market. A lawyer by training, Stewart is a

graduate o DePauw University and Harvard Law School.

Business andEconomics

Popular OutsideCourses:

Accounting

Schl f inrnaina

an d P Bl ic af fai rS

Corporate Finance

Schl f inrnaina


Capital Markets

h BSinSS Schl

InternationalCapital Markets

Schl f inrnaina


Corporate Strategy

h BSinSS Schl

Mergers and Acquisition

h BSinSS Schl

EmergingFinancial Markets

h BSinSS Schl

The all term stresses three attributes o excellent economics reporting: a frm grasp o basic eco-

nomic theory and institutions; hands-on knowledge o data or measuring economic perormance

and assessing the validity o economic arguments; and the ability to fnd and report compelling

stories. The spring term provides students with the analytical skills to conceive and execute

stories about the business sector. Academic subjects are not taught in the abstract but in the

context o recent news. Students learn basic skills in accounting, corporate fnance, securities law,

securities analysis, and portolio management, but the course is frmly rooted in the journalistic

process. Respected experts rom Columbia and elsewhere are oten brought in to guest-teach.

Recent guest lecturers have included Stephen Grisky, vice chairman, General Motors; Eric

Schwartz, ormer co-head o Global Equities, Goldman Sachs; Thomas Schumacher, president,

Disney Theatrical Group and ormer co-head, Disney Animation; Karen Seymour, partner, Sullivan

& Cromwell, ormer chie o the criminal division, U.S. Attorneys ofce, Southern District o NewYork; and rom the Columbia aculty, Scott Hemphill, chie o the antitrust bureau, State o New

York, on leave rom Columbia Law School; and Bruce Greenwald, Robert Heilbrunn Proessor o

Finance and Asset Management, Columbia Business School.

SEMINAR


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Professors Nasarand Stewart showeus how to interpreteconomic data tobecome our ownanalsts.

Jeff Horwitz

to, rsk mgeetAmerican Banker

m.a. BSinSS and cnmicS, 09

I let a reporting job covering ederal lobbying inWashington to attend the M.A. program in order to

rethink some o the choices Ive made under deadline

pressure. I also wanted to work with Proessors James

B. Stewart and Sylvia Nasar, who oer a kind o men-

toring that is all too rare or reporters in a newsroom.

Columbia taught me two skills that no investigative

or business reporter should be without: the ability to

read balance sheets and burrow into economic data.

Rafael Mathus Ruiz

new ok coespoetLa Nacion (aget)


Beore joining the Business & Economics cotration o the M.A. program in 2009, I worked

a Financial and Economics reporter at La Nac

based in Buenos Aires. The J-school led to a t

point in my career, allowing me to become a

correspondent, my ultimate aspiration as a jo

at that time. But the most important thing o

is that it will always be the place where I met

riends, who today are among my closest rie

Miriam Gottfriedrepote, The Wall Street Journal


Ater working in business

journalism or several years,

I was unsure about the value

o journalism school. But

when I learned about the M.A.

Business concentration, I saw

an opportunity to gain deeper

technical knowledge o thefnancial world, which I lacked

ater an undergraduate degree in

the humanities. I took accounting,

corporate fnance, and corporate

strategy classes at the Business

School and the School o

International and Public Aairs.

Proessors Nasar and Stewart

showed us how to interpret

economic data to become our own

analysts. The skills I learned have

unquestionably made me a morecritical and confdent reporter.

ALUM PROFILE

MASTER OF ARTS PROG


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PROFESSORS

M.A. Politics students study the

primary political systems andinstitutions that organize our

world and learn a series o tools

that journalists can use to analyze

political situations.

This concentration is appropriate or candidates who want to be oreign

correspondents, legal reporters, education reporters, city hall reporters,and political reporters. Across all o these domains, certain themes and

issues recur, and this course is thereore organized around eight such

themes: power; identity and nationalism; mobilization; collective action

and social conict; rights; institutions; the distribution o resources; and

bargaining and negotiation. Student assignments will include exploring

the maniestation o these orces, locally, domestically, and internationally.

Recent guest lecturers have included political strategist Howard Wolson;

ormer National Security Advisor Anthony Lake; and Cornell behavioral

economist Robert Frank; journalists Bill Finnegan and Tina Rosenberg;

political scientists Jack Snyder and Sheri Berman; economist Raymond

Fisman; and sociologist o religion Courtney Bender.


THOMAS B. EDSA

Thomas B. Edsall, Joseph Pulitzer II and Edith Pulitzer

Moore Proessor, joined the aculty ater 25 years at

The Washington Postcovering presidential elections,

the House and Senate, campaign fnance, lobbying,

tax policy, demographic trends, values conicts, and

social welare policy. He is currently the political

editor oThe Hufngton Postand a correspondent

or The New Republicand National Journal. He is the author o several

books, including Chain Reaction, a Pulitzer fnalist in General Nonfction.

He has written or The New York Times, The Atlantic, The New York Review

of Books, The Nation, and Dissent, and won the Carey McWilliams Award

o the American Political Science Association.

A EX AN DE R ST I E

Alexander Stille, the Sn Paolo Proessor o

International Journalism, is a contributor to The

New York Times, la Repubblica, The New Yorker,

The New York Review of Books, The Atlantic, and

The New Republic. He is the author o our books

The Sack of Rome: How a Beautiful European

Country with a Fabled History and a Storied Cultu

Was Taken Over by a Man Named Silvio Berlusconi; The Future of the Pas

Excellent Cadavers: The Maa and the Death of the First Italian Republic;

and Benevolence and Betrayal: Five Italian Jewish Families under Fascism

Stille is a graduate o Yale University and the Columbia Journalism Schoo

and was awarded a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship in 2008.

Politics


Terrorism andGlobalization

Schl f inrnainal


U.S. Role in World AairsSchl f inrnainal


Rethinking Human Rights

Schl f inrnainal


Immigrants andImmigration

Schl f inrnainal


Geopolitics o Oil

Schl f inrnainal


Immigration,Cities and States

Grada Schl

f arS and Scinc

ScilG

International HumRights Law and Po

clmBia

Schl f laW

Sociology oUrban Education

achrS cllG

Political Environmeo Development

Grada Schl

ar ch i c r , Pl an

an d Pr S r va i n

Comparative

ConstitutionalismclmBia

Schl f laW

SEMINAR


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Toda, I push all ofm stories past theimmediate, and into remeaning that can helpreaders make better

sense of the world.

Basharat Peer

Joust Wteauto, Curfewed Night

m.a. PliicS, 07

Beore doing the M.A., I worked as an editor at

Foreign Affairs and was a Fellow at the Open SocietyInstitute. My work has appeared in The New Yorker,

Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Granta, Financial

Times magazine, and The New Granta Book of Travel.

I am working on my second book, Shadow of the

Broken Dome, a reported account o religion and

politics in modern India to be published by Free

Press, Simon and Schuster.

Naomi Zeveloff

Wte/deputy cutue toThe Forward

m.a. PliicS, 11

Beore I came to the Columbia M.A. program

I worked as a reporter at alternative newsweein several western cities. I came to the M.A. p

because I wanted to write or national publica

and I didnt see a clear path rom local papers

major magazines. The M.A. program pushed m

take on ambitious national stories, and I repo

overseas or the frst time. It was truly baptism

but I came out o it a more thoughtul journali

the ideas and the skill set to execute bold pro

Terr McCoSt WteSeattle Weekly

m.a. PliicS, 12

Beore I came to the J-school,

I served in the United States Peace

Corps in Cambodia and was also

a contributing writer to GlobalPost,

along with other publications.

I applied because I already knewhow to report and writebut I

needed something more to take

my work to that next level, to

endow it with the context you see

in The New York Times Magazine

or The Atlantic Monthly. And ater

a year at Columbia, I understand

better how to get there. Today,

I push all o my stories past the

immediate, and into real meaning

that can help readers make better

sense o the world.

ALUM PROFILE

MASTER OF ARTS PROG


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PROFESSORS


MARGUERITE HOOWAY

Marguerite Holloway is the director o Science and

Environmental Journalism at Columbia University

and the author oThe Measure of Manhattan, to

be published by W.W. Norton in February 2013. She

has been teaching at the Journalism School since

1997, and was awarded Columbias Presidential

Award or Excellence in Teaching in 2009. She is

a contributing editor at Scientic American, where she has covered many

topics, particularly environmental issues, public health, neuroscience,

women in science, and physics. Holloway is a graduate o Brown University

and received her M.S. degree rom Columbia Journalism School.

JO NAT HA N W EI NE R

Jonathan Weiner has ocused on science reportin

1979. His latest book is Long for This World. Previ

books include The Beak of the Finch, winner o th

1995 Pulitzer Prize or General Nonfction; Time, L

Memory, winner o the National Book Critics Circl

Award or General Nonfction; and His Brothers K

Weiner has written or The New Yorker, The New Y

Times Magazine, The New Republic, and other newspapers and magazine

He served as Rockeeller Universitys frst Writer in Residence and was aw

a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship in 2008.

Science,Health and theEnvironment

SEMINAR


Climate Change

Grada

Schl f arS

an d Sc i nc S :

clG,

vlin and

nvirnmnal

BilG

Epidemiologymailman Schl

f PBlic halh

RethinkingHuman Rights

Schl f

inrnainal

an d P Bl ic

af fa ir S

Development

h arh

inSi

RestorationEcology

Grada

Schl f arS

an d Sc i nc S :

clG,

vlin and

nvirnmnal

BilG

Critical Readino ResearchArticles

mailman Sch

f PBlic hal

History oMedicine

mailman Sch

f PBlic hal

Ethics oPublic Health

mailman Sch

f PBlic hal

Social CognitiNeuroscience

Grada

Schl f ar

an d Sc i nc S :

PSchlG

The ChangingAmerican Fam

Grada

Schl f ar

an d Sc i nc S :

ScilG

Students in the Robert Wood Johnson

Program in Health and Science Journalism

learn to examine science rom multiple

perspectiveseasily shiting rom the

quantifable to the cultural, rom quarks

to the human genome.

Experts take the Science class on a whirlwind tour o some o sciences most compelling

subjects, including contemporary physics, the ethics o public health, epigenetics, climate

change, the history o industry, and trends in conservation biology. Students learn to

deconstruct scientifc studies, to retain skepticism, and to bolster health and science

stories with context, history, and the careul use o data. Students are also taught to use

all the tools o narrative nonfction to convey complicated concepts with orce and energy.

The feld o science writing is changing explosively, and this course is designed to help our

students hone lasting skills, adapt to its transormations, and shape its uture.

Recent guest lecturers have included physicist and author Brian Greene; Daniel Kevles,

a historian o science and the Stanley Woodward Proessor o History at Yale University;

Frances Champagne, a neuroscientist and psychologist at Columbia; and Dr. Marc Dick-

stein, attending anesthesiologist at New York-Presbyterian Hospital.


11/16

Moises Velasquez-Manoff

oet repoteauto oAn Epidemic of Absence

m.S. 05; m.a. 06 halh and Scinc

Proessor Marguerite Holloway led us earlessly

and enthusiastically through everything rom

quantum mechanics to human migrations out o

Arica. And the classes I took outside the Journalism

School have proven immensely important, especially

one on climate science that I took at the Goddard

Institute or Space Studies. Also, elements o the

Evidence and Inerence course have come in handy.

Even the simple task o learning the terms sociolo-

gists have or the various human biases has proven

immensely helpul. You cant change how you think

until you know youre thinking it.

Jenn Marder

repote/Poue; See pge etoPBS newshou

m.a. halh and Scinc, 07

I worked as a sta writer or three dierent n

pers, most recently the Long Beach Press-Tel

beore coming to the M.A. program. Soon at

uation, I began working as a national aairs

or the PBS NewsHour, and now I work as a re

producer, and web editor o our science cont

The M.A. program taught me how to think cri

about scientifc research, analyze research st

and write about them. I think oten about thi

Marguerite and Jonathan taught us througho

yearhow a good science story should be co

ly shiting perspectives: zooming in to detail

science, pulling out to show the big picture, a

telling the story o the person behind the res

with as much character and color as possible

Salimah Ebrahimfeee

m.a. halh and Scinc 12

As a student in the M.A. program

I came in wanting to ocus on theplaces where environmental and

security issues overlapthe new

green-lines, as I call them. While

at Columbia, I took classes about

the public health impacts o climate

change and the politics o resource

scarcity, and traveled to Sierra

Leone to write my thesis about the

United Nations eorts to expand

peace-keeping and peace-building

responses in places coping with en-

vironmental crisis. Ater the program,I interned at Reuters in Washington,

D.C., covering the intersection o pol-

itics and healthcarea subject that

I became more interested in during

my time in the M.A. program. Im

constantly drawing on the lessons o

the past year as I engage daily with

doctors, policy makers, patients and

government leaders. Issues Ive re-

cently written about range rom HIV

testing to access to health insurance

or undocumented immigrants to theSupreme Courts decision to uphold

President Obamas healthcare law.

I am now working on a proposal or

a book wilst pursuing several exciting

opportunities in the worlds o new

media, technology and broadcast.

Given that media toda moves at suc

a fast clip, the opportunit the M.A.program extends to journaliststobuild subject area expertise, interactwith leaders in our field and thinkthoughtfull about the ethics, craftand art of stor-tellingis rare.

ALUM PROFILE

MASTER OF ARTS PROG


12/16

In addition to your

concentration semina

youll take core

courses and electivesand complete a

masters thesis.

Evidence and Inference

This course teaches advanced research techniques

or journalists and skills in gathering and assessing

inormation, oten adapted rom other areas o the

university, which most working journalists dont have

but that are highly useul in journalistic work. These

include statistical literacy, rigorous interviewing

techniques, understanding the work o experts, and

locating material in historical archives and data bases.

The course also teaches a disciplined journalistic

method o testing assumptions and hypotheses,

recognizing ways stories can distort the truth andmaking sure that reporting frmly proves its points.

A distinguished group o leading Columbia aculty rom

outside the Journalism School helps teach the course.

A Histor of Journalism for Journalists

This course provides an overview o American journal-

ism rom colonial days to the present. It emphasizes

the relationship between journalism and other insti-

tutions in a democracy, examining how the role o the

press emerged, how it has changed, and how this role

is similar to or dierent rom that in other democracies.

Coreclasses

NICHOAS EMANN

Nicholas Lemann, Dean and

Henry R. Luce Proessor o

Journalism, has worked at

The Washington Monthly,

Texas Monthly, The Wash-

ington Post, The Atlantic,

and The New Yorker, where

he has been a sta writer since 1999. Lemann has

published fve books, most recently Redemption:The Last Battle of the Civil War; The Big Test: The

Secret History of the American Meritocracy, which

helped lead to a major reorm o the SAT; and The

Promised Land: The Great Black Migration and How

It Changed America, which won several book prizes.

Lemann is a graduate o Harvard University, where he

was president oThe Harvard Crimson. He teaches

Evidence and Inerence.

MICHAE SCHUDSON

Michael Schudson is an

expert in the felds o jour-

nalism, sociology, and public

culture. He is the author

oDiscovering the News,

The Good Citizen, and the

recent Why Democracies

Need an Unlovable Press, in addition to several

other books about the history and sociology o theAmerican news media, advertising, popular culture,

Watergate, and cultural memory. He is widely pub-

lished in the media and academic journals, and has

received many honors, including Guggenheim and

MacArthur ellowships. Schudson graduated rom

Swarthmore College and holds an M.A. and Ph.D.

in sociology rom Harvard University. He teaches

A History o Journalism.

TAI WOODWARD

Tali Woodward, the directo

o the M.A. program, is a

ree-lance writer and edito

For many years, she worke

or The San Francisco Bay

Guardian, where she wrot

investigative pieces abou

health care and politics and won awards or long-

orm writing. She has also written or magazinesincluding Newsweek, New York, Conservation and

National Geographic. Woodward earned a B.A.

rom the University o Caliornia, Berkeley and

an M.A. in science journalism rom the Columbia

University Graduate School o Journalism. She

co-teaches The Future o Journalism with Tow Cen

director Emily Bell.

The Future of Journalism

This course is designed to give M.A. students an understanding

o the ways that technology is transorming journalismrom theramped-up news cycle to high-tech methods o story construction,

rom the evolving culture o reader engagement to radically chang-

ing business imperatives. We want students to grapple with what

these changes mean or the industry and or their careers.

Electives

Each M.A. student takes three electives over the course o the

academic year: one in the all and two in the spring. Students may

enroll in almost any graduate-level course throughout Columbia

University, including the other proessional schools, provided it

will deepen their understanding o the chosen area o study.

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The Masters Thesis

Students in the M.A. program

must produce a masters

thesisa sophisticated worko long-orm journalismo

about 10,000 words (or the

equivalent in another medium).

The thesis is an integral part o the program, intended to

give students the opportunity to explore a topic in depth

and synthesize what they learn in a sophisticated manne

Ideally, the M.A. thesis balances the demands o writing

a general audience with the need or thorough and nuan

journalism about complex issues. The thesis is advised b

a journalism proessor and a proessor or expert with a dbackground in the subject covered by the thesis. With th

o these two advisers, the M.A. student sets out to comp

the sort o work that an educated reader (or viewer, or lis

would consume with pleasure and that an expert in the f

would deem inormed and thoughtul.


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12

The deadline orall applications isJanuary 15.

The program is

ull-time and runsrom August to May.

Important information

Ideal Applicant

We seek students who are experienced

journalists, have excellent writing skills,

and have mastered the undamentals

o reporting and journalistic ethics. In

addition, we look or candidates who are

curious about the world, eager to learn

more about a particular subject area,

determined and resourceul, motivated

to dedicate their careers to journalism

and exhibit leadership potential. Mostsuccessul candidates have between three

and fteen years o proessional journalism

experience. We welcome applications rom

both domestic and international students.

journalism.columbia.edu/apply

Scholarships and Financial Aid

Columbia Graduate School o Journalism

is proud to oer generous fnancial

assistance to students who demonstrate

excellent academic achievement, fnancial

need, and exceptional promise or leading

careers in journalism. We work with each

student to ease the cost o attendance

through a combination o scholarships and

need-based programs, including grants

and ederal and private loans.

journalism.columbia.edu/scholarships

Career Services

Graduates o the program have been hired

at news organizations including The New

York Times, The Washington Post, The

Wall Street Journal, Newsweek.com, Time

magazine, Pro Publica, Reuters, the PBS

NewsHour,American Banker, and CNN.

They are also writing books, teaching

journalism, producing independent

documentaries, creating international

blogs, and reelancing or magazines,newspapers, and broadcast and online

media. Our Career Services staall

ormer journalists with strong industry

connections in print, broadcast, and online

mediaworks closely with students to help

them pursue the most meaningul jobs in

the U.S. and abroad. Students meet with a

Career Services counselor or one-on-one

consultations throughout the year and may

attend any o the dozens o job-hunting

strategy sessions held at the School.

journalism.columbia.edu/careers

APPLICATION DEADLINE


15/16

MASTER OF SCIENCE

The 10-month Master of Science degree oers aspiring and experienced journalis

opportunity to study the skills, the art, and the ethics o journalism by reporting a

writing stories that range rom short news pieces to complex narrative eatures.

DUAL MASTER OF SCIENCE INCOMPUTER SCIENCE AND JOURNALISM

The our-semester dual Master of Science in Computer Science and Journalism, a

collaboration between the Engineering and Journalism schools, oers unique and

specialized training in the digital environment, including technical and editorial sk

all aspects o computer-supported news gathering and digital media production.

MASTER OF ARTS DEGREE

The 9-month Master of Arts program is designed or experienced journalists who

like to deepen their knowledge o journalism, while studying a particular subject a

politics; science, health and the environment; business and economics; or arts an

culture. Students in all masters degree programs receive training in digital journal

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHy

The Doctor of Philosophy in Communications, which typically runs fve to seven ye

takes a multidisciplinary approach to the study o communications. Ph.D. student

individual courses o study at departments and graduate schools across the Unive

as well as at Teachers College.

The Journalism School also oers a wide range o dual-degree programs.

For more inormation, please visit journalism.columbia.edu/academics

Commitment to DiversitColumbia Journalism School is committed to creating and supporting

a community diverse in every way: race, ethnicity, geography, religion,

academic and extracurricular interest, amily circumstance, sexual

orientation, socioeconomic background, and more. We oer a curriculum

as pluralistic and polyphonic as New York itsel, and a community o

scholars who embody this commitment to diversity and who encourage

discussion and debate. Students at Columbia fnd a setting that allows

them to explore diversity in a variety o ways and a university that prides

itsel on serious intellectual inquiry, the exploration o diverse ideas, thestrength o interdisciplinary investigation, a culture o dialogue and debate,

and a student body committed to service and civic engagement. In this

setting, students seek to understand each other and themselves. This is

the transormative power o diversity in educationits ability to enrich the

individual as it enriches the community and society as a whole.

Pulitzer Prizes

The Alred I. duPont-Columbia University

Awards or Broadcast

National MagazineAward

The Maria MoorsCabot Prizes

John B. Oakes Aw

John ChancellorAward or Excelle

in Journalism

Lukas Prizes

Mike Berger Awa

Paul TobenkinMemorial Award

Journalism AwardsThe Journalism School administers many proessional aw

to uphold standards o excellence in the media, a traditio

that Joseph Pulitzer began when he established the scho

and endowed the Pulitzer Prizes at Columbia.

Columbia Journalism Schooldegree programs

APPLICATIONS FOR FULL-TIME STUDy

Applicants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228Admits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

Enrolled . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

COST OF ATTENDANCE 20122013

Tuition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $44,992

Fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $5,914

Living . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $25,876

TOTAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $76,782

ANTICIPATED SCHOLARSHIP /

FELLOWSHIP FUNDING 20122013

$1,615,053

94% o those who applied or scholarshipaid received unding.

range of awards

$3,036$74,572

average award

$31,668

By thenumbers


16/16

journalism.columbia.ed

Pulitzer Hall2950 Broadway(at 116 Street)New York, NY 10027

Admissions Ofce212-854-8608

[email protected]

MA Program at Columbia Journalism School

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Transcript of MA Program at Columbia Journalism School