Training for public-service journalism that informs communities and strengthens civic life
In one year, develop reporting and writing skills and learn to tell stories across platforms, tapping UNC-Chapel Hill’s long-standing expertise and reputation in journalism education. Your capstone is a substantial long-form piece paired with professional-quality multimedia, focused on a real audience and real impact. Along the way, you’ll get hands-on instruction in AI tools—used ethically to enhance your reporting, production and storytelling.
Your year in the program runs from late June of your admission year (Summer Session II on the university’s academic calendar) until the same time the following year. We invite you back to campus in July for a graduation celebration.
Summer Session II (June-July)
This bootcamp course is designed to quickly prepare you to report on news stories, cover beats and issues, and write feature stories, and to pick up the fundamentals of reporting and writing. It is a compressed crash course in becoming a budding journalist and storyteller. The camp is designed to teach you the fundamentals of news values, elements, writing styles and reporting techniques.
This course will provide students with a basic framework for current legal issues, including libel, copyright and First Amendment law, as well as discussion of journalism ethics and contemporary issues. In this course, you will explore the delicate balance that traditionally has existed between freedom and control of the media and how digital media and politics have shaken that balance. You will study both the old and the new law, because both are relevant today.
Fall (August-December)
This course is designed to help you hone the reporting, interviewing, research and analytical skills necessary to convey newsworthy information in written or visual formats. You will be challenged to identify and interview sources, concisely convey information and critically consider the best ways to inform an audience about an issue or topic, all of which are the hallmarks of ”must-consume” journalism.
This course introduces the structure and functions of city, county and state government and focuses on understanding their impact on the daily lives of their citizens. We will examine and assess their decisions, financial choices and community outcomes. We will focus on the main areas of impact, which include: education, health and social services, public safety, housing and community development, environment, transportation, and politics and elections.
Digital content creation is one of the cornerstones of modern journalism and communication. This course provides students with a foundation in all the major platforms for digital storytelling. The core competencies include video production (cameras, lighting, audio, composition, sequencing and editing), graphic design principles, data visualization and interactive media (HTML, CSS, content management systems and web hosting protocol).
Spring (January-May)
You will continue to hone your ability to find and interview sources, collect and analyze data, as well as organize and write compelling journalism. This work will culminate in a long-form feature that will serve as your capstone project.
This redesigned course will provide a survey of practical AI skills and ethical concerns. You will learn various AI tools and techniques and consider case studies of AI use in the field.
The curriculum requires you to complete two electives. These courses in our school, in other departments on campus or at neighboring universities allow you to strengthen skills in specific platforms, explore concepts or topic areas within journalism, and/or complement your journalistic training by subject-matter expertise in another field.
Note that not every course listed in the university catalog is offered every term, and a UNC-Chapel Hill course must be numbered 400 or higher to be taken for graduate credit. Numbering for graduate courses at other universities such as Duke University, N.C. State University and North Carolina Central University varies by institution.
Summer Session I (May-June)
Your work in the program culminates with the completion of a comprehensive, multiplatform journalism project demonstrating the full range of reporting, writing and production skills you have learned. Having already pitched your project and completed much of the reporting in Advanced Reporting in spring, you consult with a faculty expert as you finish and polish your project, which consists of long-form writing and storytelling in one or more other formats (e.g., video, audio, photo, interactive).