Master's Work

All students in the master’s program produce original, substantive works of journalism as part of their degree requirements. Their work is supervised and evaluated by a master’s committee, consisting of a chair and a reviewer chosen from the School of Journalism faculty and a faculty member from another school or department. The graduate program director vets project or portfolio proposals before the student recruits a committee.

In addition to their master’s stories, project and portfolio students produce a 1,000-word companion narrative that addresses context, story relevance, reporting and production process, sourcing, ethical considerations, media format choices and plans for publication. The master’s defense takes the form of a public presentation, where the candidate presents this narrative and shares some of her/his work. Committee members will attend this presentation and examine the candidate. In determining if the master’s work is fit for publication by a reputable news organization, they will consider accuracy, integrity, ethics, news value, depth, originality, language, style and effectiveness of technique.