Bachelor of Arts in Journalism

Want to be part of MSU’s own television station? You can even create your very own television show and do it immediately. Beginning classes host and produce daily news updates, promos and long form interview segments. You can also be a part of our award winning weekly half-hour newscast called Focal Point. 

Students in our Broadcast Journalism program consistently win state wide, regional and national awards including Best Student-produced newscast from the Emmy folks, the Michigan Association of Broadcasters (MAB) and the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ).

The Documentary Production Minor will prepare you to be a part of the tradition, history, theory and production of documentary forms and modes of expression. That means film, video, audio, web, photography - any medium with which you can examine the wonder and complexity of the real world.

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Through the Minor in Entrepreneurship and Innovation, you will get the chance to discover solutions to complex problems, master next-generation communication technology, and capture imaginations as a creative storyteller using cutting-edge media.

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Michigan State University’s Knight Center for Environmental Journalism teaches students and professional journalists to effectively report on the world’s most important beat. The program provides specialized training to undergraduate and graduate students in journalism and in environmental science and policy. 

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With a concentration in Information Graphics, students will learn how to use visuals for storytelling which is sometimes easier than using text to explain a complex idea quickly.

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If you want to be a globe-trotting journalist, then international reporting is for you. Critical issues, global events, international crises and cultural storytelling are important news stories for everyone. That’s where you come in.

Learn from Pulitzer Prize winners and other experts on acceptable standards of reporting, limits on a free press, the relationship of governments with news organizations and cultural sensitivity and ethics.

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Media relations is an essential public relations role. Media relations managers are in charge of all communications from their organizations to the different media. They put together or approve the flow of messages in different forms, deciding the best way to communicate to different audiences and through various media channels. In many instances, a media professional is also the company spokesperson.

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If you want to become a professional photographer, then this is the place for you. Your photos will make ordinary things more interesting, and strange things even more exotic. This is visual communication that needs no words to tell a story. Shoot and edit the great photographs that help people learn about our world.

Students learn marketable skills necessary to analyze, conceive of, create and distribute powerful images, and understand how to use photography to support career objectives.

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With the Public Relations Minor you will gain a broad understanding of the role of public relations in contemporary society, as well as knowledge and experience in developing public relations materials for use in corporate, governmental and nonprofit organizational settings through public relations courses.

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The Michigan State University Sports Journalism experience is immersive, reaching from the classroom to the stadium. We teach our students the culture, skills and real-world techniques to succeed in the growing field of sports media. We take sports journalism seriously, offering a minor and a concentration, and a wide array of global student experiences such as our signature Education Abroad class to Paris and Rome. Our students put their knowledge into practice through on- and off-campus opportunities, including radio, TV, sports media relations, websites, newspapers, multimedia and social media.

Good journalism means understanding your audience and how to put words and content together, whether it’s for an investigative piece on local government or a script for a documentary. Understanding how to find information, organize data, seek out sources, and write and edit for clarity is crucial to good storytelling. And at the end of the day, there’s no doubt about it: Writing skills are marketable. Everywhere.

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