COURSE CURRICULUM

The MA in Journalism at DePaul University has a structured, practice-oriented curriculum designed to prepare students for multimedia reporting, editing, and production careers. The program requires 48 total credit hours (12 courses) and is built around a combination of core courses, concentration courses, and electives that allow students to specialize in different areas of journalism.At the core of the curriculum, students take foundational courses such as Reporting Bootcamp, Ethics & Social Responsibility in Journalism, News Producing, Visual Communication, and Multiplatform News Editing. These courses focus on developing essential skills in news gathering, ethical reporting, storytelling, and digital media production. Additional core content includes training in social media journalism, sound and video production, and visual storytelling, ensuring students are prepared for modern, multimedia newsroom environments.Beyond the core, students choose a specialization (concentration) in one of four areas: Accountability Journalism, Data Journalism, Multimedia Journalism, or Sports Journalism. Each concentration includes targeted coursework that builds expertise in a specific journalistic field. For example, Data Journalism emphasizes reporting through data analysis and visualization, while Accountability Journalism focuses on investigative and urban reporting.In addition to required courses and concentrations, students complete electives (about four courses), which allow them to explore topics such as investigative reporting, photojournalism, sports reporting, freelance journalism, political reporting, and long-form storytelling. Students may also take select electives from other communication graduate programs to broaden their interdisciplinary skills.Overall, the curriculum is designed to balance theory and practice. Students progress from foundational journalism skills to advanced, specialized reporting techniques while building a professional portfolio through hands-on projects, multimedia storytelling, and real-world reporting experience. The structure ensures graduates are prepared for careers in modern journalism across digital, broadcast, and print platforms.