University of British Columbia Graduate School of Journalism

University of British Columbia Graduate School of Journalism
Established 1997
Location Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Website journalism.ubc.ca

The University of British Columbia Graduate School of Journalism is a two-year Masters of Journalism program offered on the University of British Columbia's Point Grey campus in Vancouver, British Columbia. The program is unique in that it requires students to focus on an area of reporting specialization. The school has also developed a reputation in teaching multimedia journalism and was one of the first programs in North America to replace craft streams with an integrated journalism curriculum. The program has 60 students a year, with close to 20 faculty members, adjuncts and staff. Faculty members come from a variety of traditional and new media organizations including CBC, BBC News Online, CBS News 60 Minutes, The Globe & Mail, The Vancouver Sun, and The Tyee.

History

The Graduate School of Journalism at the University of British Columbia was established on July 24, 1996 as an academic unit within UBC’s Faculty of Arts.[1] The building in which it is currently housed, the 3-story Sing Tao building, was opened on Aug. 27, 1997, and the school accepted its first class of students in September 1998.[2][3]

Donna Logan was the founding director in 1998,[4][5] and the school graduated its first class in 2000.

While the school started as a traditional journalism program meant to focus on western Canadian students interested in studying journalism, the program was founding just as the media landscape was shifting, and the school was well-positioned to hire young faculty members expertise in new media and video journalism. Since its inception, the school has developed expertise in teaching global reporting, environmental reporting and Indigenous reporting, amongst other areas.

Curriculum

The Master of Journalism degree is a professional graduate program running over five terms with a mandatory professional internship during the summer.

The two-term Integrated Journalism (IJ) course is taken by every student during their first year. IJ provides a basic foundation in the grammar and syntax of news writing while introducing students to media across platforms including audio, visual and print. Working in a newsroom setting, students learn reporting basics and the importance of deadlines. Student projects are published on The Thunderbird.ca, the school’s award-winning online news service. First-year students are also required to take Media Law.[6]

Students are required to complete a 12-week internship during the summer between first and second years.[7]

The program requires students to take 3 graduate level academic courses in a specialization, which builds the foundation for their reporting on a yearlong final research project, which usually consists of a major multimedia reporting project.

Graduates of the program have gone on to work as reporters, producers and managers at some of the top news organizations in the world including CBC News, The Globe and Mail, The Toronto Star, National Public Radio, CBS News and Al Jazeera English. Many also pursue successful careers as free-lance journalists or as media entrepreneurs.

Specialized Courses

Reporting in Indigenous Communities provides students an understanding of local First Nations culture and history as well as trends in contemporary media portrayals of indigenous peoples in B.C. Some participating First Nations include Squamish Nation, Tsleil-watuth First Nation, Tsawwassen First Nation, and

Sto:lo Tribal Council. Students are admitted to this class by way of an application process.[8] The course is taught by CBC National reporter Duncan McCue, who developed the course during a Knight-Stanford fellowship.

The International Reporting Program was created by professor Peter W. Klein with a $1 million donation from philanthropist Alison Lawton’s Mindset Foundation. Students research under-reported global stories and then travel abroad and report in the field alongside industry veterans.[9][10] Previous projects include Ghana: Digital Dumping Ground[11],[12] the Emmy Award winning collaboration with Frontline World, and Freedom from Pain[13],[12] a documentary airing on Al Jazeera English and awarded second place in the 2011 Awards for Excellence in Health Care Journalism. The school also collaborated with The New York Times in 2012 to produce two web documentaries exploring development pressures and land disputes in Brazil.[14][15]

Decoding Social Media: Theory and Practice provides students with an advanced understanding of how media is being transformed by social networking technologies and shifting patterns of human communication and interaction. The course was first launched in January 2013 in partnership with the UBC Sauder School of Business.[16] It was created by UBC journalism professor Alfred Hermida and marketing instructor Paul Cubbon. The course brings together journalism and business students to work on social media projects for media partners, including The Vancouver Sun, CBC Music, Global BC and Vancouver Magazine.

References

  1. ↑ "UBC Announces Creation of New Journalism School". UBC Public Affairs. Retrieved 15 November 2012.
  2. ↑ "Building opening ushers in new era in Canadian journalism". UBC Public Affairs. Retrieved 15 November 2012.
  3. ↑ "University of British Columbia". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved 6 December 2012.
  4. ↑ "Donna Logan". Canadian Media Research Consortium. Retrieved 6 December 2012.
  5. ↑ "UBC names Sing Tao School of Journalism director". UBC Public Affairs. Retrieved 15 November 2012.
  6. ↑ "Core course descriptions". UBC Graduate School of Journalism. Retrieved 15 November 2012.
  7. ↑ Ballingall, Alex (September 15, 2011). "Where wannabe journalists are flocking". Macleans. Retrieved 6 December 2012.
  8. ↑ "Reporting in Indigenous Communities". Retrieved 15 November 2012.
  9. ↑ "UBC: International Reporting Program". Mindset foundation. Retrieved 6 December 2012.
  10. ↑ "UBC student documentary wins Emmy". CBC News. September 28, 2010. Retrieved 6 December 2012.
  11. ↑ "Ghana: Digital Dumping Ground". PBS Frontline World. June 23, 2009. Retrieved 15 November 2012.
  12. 1 2 "Al-Jazeera to air UBC student doc". CBC News. July 20, 2011. Retrieved 6 December 2012.
  13. ↑ "Freedom from Pain". Aljazeera People & Power. July 20, 2011. Retrieved 15 November 2012.
  14. ↑ "Damming the Amazon". The New York Times. May 5, 2012. Retrieved 15 November 2012.
  15. ↑ "Arrests in Brazil follow UBC students' report on activist's murder". The Vancouver Sun. July 20, 2012. Retrieved 6 December 2012.
  16. ↑ "Social media: Where business and journalism intersect". Retrieved 18 February 2013.
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