Photo of students editing picture in photo lab.

MS Degreee in Journalism
Concentration in Political Reporting

Students who would prefer to focus their MS degree on political reporting will be expected to complete 12 courses designed to achieve three major goals:

  1. Mastery of the basics of journalism and a full understanding of the history, principles, ethics, laws and practices of the profession;
  2. Working knowledge of political reporting;
  3. The ability to work in more than one format or medium.

The cornerstones of the political reporting concentration are the Washington and Statehouse programs. These are exceptional opportunities that combine classroom and newsroom experiences and allow students to develop a portfolio of clips.

In the Washington Program, students live and work in the nation's capital. Typically, they are assigned to cover Washington news for a newspaper or broadcast outlet in the Northeast and attached to a second media organization in Washington, where they work as an intern. The practical work is supplemented with classroom lectures.

The Boston Statehouse Program also combines work for newspapers or broadcast outlets with classroom instruction.

Find the complete listing of graduate course descriptions in the COM bulletin.

Core Requirements (3)
  • JO 525 Media Law & Ethics
  • JO 721 Journalism Principles & Techniques
  • Choose one from the following
    • JO 503 Basic Journalism Research Methods (or)
    • JO 807 Advanced Journalism Research
Subject area requirements:
Washington
  • JO 502 Political reporting
  • JO 737 Internship
  • JO 954 Washington Newsroom 8 cr
  • Plus one subject-area CAS-Pol elective

Or

Statehouse
  • JO 511 Covering Politics
  • JO 546 Filing for Newspapers 8 cr
  • Plus two subject-area CAS-Pol electives
Other Print Electives (2 or 3)
  • JO 506 Columns and Editorials
  • JO 500 Media Criticism
  • JO 502 Profile Writing
  • JO 516 Foreign Reporting
  • JO 523 The Presidency and the Media
  • JO 535 Investigative and Project Reporting
  • JO 545 Reporting Military Affairs
  • JO 724 Science Newswriting II
Electives - Formats (1 or 2)
  • JO 513 Advanced Photojournalism
  • JO 534 Broadcast News for Non-Majors
  • JO 538 Feature Writing
  • JO 540 Multimedia Journalism
  • JO 519 Advanced Radio