Academics
Courses      Faculty

Courses

Syllabi are for course approval and reference only. Students will receive up-to-date syllabi when their courses begin.

From the start of the program students are immersed in the curriculum, newsroom, and internship. They work two to three days a week at their internship, the rest of the week in the BU newsroom and attend class at night.

Core Course

COM JO 502 Political Reporting
Advanced course in public affairs reporting. Through lectures, class discussion, and readings, students learn about the development of political reporting and also analyze contemporary public affairs reporting. Students gain experience through reporting assignments on Congress and federal agencies. For their final project students complete a magazine-length enterprise article on a public affairs issue. Killian. 4 cr. Syllabus

Internship Courses

Undergraduates:
COM JO 412 Journalism Internship
Students spend 12-15 hours a week working in the Washington bureaus of national news organizations including The Wall Street Journal, National Public Radio, NBC, Fortune Magazine, and Congressional Quarterly, working side by side with national journalists gaining valuable experience and creating a portfolio of work. Seminars are also offered by national journalists on the legislative process, political feature writing and money and politics. Killian. 4 cr.

Graduate students:
COM JO 737 Internship in Print and Broadcast Journalism
Internship in Print and Broadcast Journalism. Students spend 12-15 hours a week working in the Washington bureaus of national news organizations including The Wall Street Journal, National Public Radio, NBC, Fortune Magazine, and Congressional Quarterly, working side by side with national journalists gaining valuable experience and creating a portfolio of work. Seminars are also offered by national journalists on the legislative process, political feature writing and money and politics. Killian. 4 cr.

Electives (Newsroom) Courses:

Undergraduates (choose one):
COM JO 490 Print Directed Study-Newsroom, 8 cr.

COM JO 491 Broadcast Directed Study-Newsroom
Directed Study in Print and Broadcast-Newsroom. Advanced newsroom training in writing and reporting political and public affairs news for publication and broadcast. Students cover Congress and the federal government three days a week for the Boston University Washington News Service and its news media clients throughout New England. Students serve as the Washington correspondent for a particular news outlet and work closely with its editors proposing story ideas, carrying out assignments and filing on deadline. Students typically earn 20-30 bylined clips. Killian. 8 cr.

Graduate students:
COM JO 954 Directed Study-Newsroom
Advanced newsroom training in writing and reporting political and public affairs news for publication and broadcast. Students cover Congress and the federal government three days a week for the Boston University Washington News Service and its news media clients throughout New England. Students serve as the Washington correspondent for a particular news outlet and work closely with the editors there proposing story ideas, carrying out assignments and filing on deadline. Students typically earn 20-30 bylined clips. Killian. 8 cr.

Back to top

Faculty

Linda Killian: MPA, Harvard University 1990; BSc in Journalism, BA Political Science, Boston University 1980. Ms. Killian is a highly distinguished journalist with twenty years of experience. She is the director of Boston University’s Washington Journalism Center and teaches the core political reporting course. She is the author of The Freshmen: What Happened to the Republican Revolution? and has written for The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The New Republic, The Weekly Standard, The American Spectator, and The Boston Globe. She was the senior editor of National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered” and a reporter at Forbes magazine.

Back to top