Journalism Becomes a Major Concentration            

Journalism at The City College of New York has a storied history that goes back more than 100 years. Our graduates have won top journalism awards and honors including Pulitzer Prizes, Emmy Awards, Webby Awards and more.

Our program has evolved and reinvented itself over the years and the 2024 transition from minor to major reflects increased student demand and interest. A new generation of students wants to tackle the big questions of the day in these complicated times. They care about economic inequality, immigration, racial injustice, gender equality, climate change, the environment and the joy that sports, culture and entertainment bring. Whatever their interests, they recognize the need to tell truthful stories that lead to greater understanding Many in our diverse student community want to learn how to cover and report stories that often go untold. The knowledge and skills that they gain in the program will prepare them to bring their special insight into newsrooms and other institutions that prize journalistic analysis and craft.

Register Fall 2024 for Fall 2024

Students will have the opportunity to enroll in the new major concentration toward a B.A. in communications for the fall 2024 semester. They will still be able to earn an 18-credit minor in journalism. Students who choose the major will take 39 credits starting with MCA 2300 Introduction to Journalism and wind up with a capstone class that allows them to use the reporting, writing, visual, video, and audio skills they have learned. The major concentration gives students an immersive journalism experience that involves using their communities and New York City as their laboratory. They will focus on reporting and writing, video and audio storytelling and learn to use the latest visual techniques to bring stories to life.

Students who choose the major will benefit from the chance to take all of the courses they need to learn professional and practical skills without distraction. Their stories will be published regularly on Harlem View, our journalism website. New courses include Creative Thinking for Communication Arts, which will help students take a 360-degree view of issues and problems and approach them in a new way. Journalism & Society: Covering Power will be a required course that teaches students how to cover powerful people and institutions including government and business. Major electives include Sports Journalism, Spanish Journalism, Digital information Graphics, Latinx Media Studies, and Race & Media. In addition, we hope to encourage students to take a wide range of electives including history, philosophy, the arts, political science, economics, and computer science. We think a strong background in these important areas will give our journalism students a foundation for understanding their communities and the world.

In the capstone course students will work in teams to cover a big story or series of stories. This new course gives them the chance to pull together everything that they have learned in the major concentration.The comprehensive work will be published on Harlem View. Our faculty, lecturers and workshop leaders will continue to include working journalists from The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Daily News, NPR, ABC News, CBS News, NBCU, WPIX, CNN and other major news organizations.

We promote internships and strongly encourage students to take a least one internship before they graduate. We believe that internships form the bridge between college and professional life and are vitally important. Distinguished Lecturer Barbara Nevins Taylor is the journalism program director. She is the winner of 22 Emmy Awards and more than 50 journalism awards and honors. She was recently featured in an ABC News documentary and a Netflix docuseries. She practices journalism on ConsumerMojo.com.

Our students are also award winners. For the third year in a row journalism students were winners in the Society of Professional Journalists Mark of Excellence Awards in the Northeast Region for Best News Videography and Best Feature Videography. Maricela Niola won for her story about Brooklyn Street vendors trying to recover from the pandemic and Gary Hilborn won for his story about a group that provides services for older LGBTQ people in Harlem.

OUR MISSION

Journalism at City College shares a mission with journalists in New York City, throughout the U.S. and the world to report and tell truthful stories with meaning and impact. This is a difficult time in our nation's history as we struggle with political turmoil, environmental danger, demands for racial and social equity and a pandemic that continues to take lives and upend the way we live. 

Frequently Asked Questions About Our Journalism Program: 

What’s the best time to take journalism classes?

We suggest that you enroll in MCA 101 Introduction to Media during your sophomore year.

That gives you a chance to get a broader view of media and journalism. You must take this required course before you get approval to enroll in Introduction to Journalism and the courses that follow in our sequence.

How many credits are required?

The journalism major concentration - 39 credits

The journalism minor concentration - 18 credits

Can I do an internship?

We encourage students to do at least one internship for academic credit or pay.

In Spring 2024, if you want to declare a minor in journalism go to iDeclare and follow these steps:

How to Use i-Declare

1. Go to City Central at: https://central.ccny.cuny.edu/index.php.
2. Log in using your CCNY username and password. ...
3. Click on "My CCNY" and pick "i-Declare".
4. Click "No" to Are you a Macauley student"
5. Click on the box next to Minor
6. Click on the box next to Add/Change plan
7. Choose College of Liberal Art (Division of Humanities and the Arts)
8. Choose Minor Journalism