Keep Citizens Informed With a Minor in Journalism and Digital Media
Learn to interview, organize information, write, edit, and use digital tools, ensuring that you can update your skills as newsroom technology evolves.
Why study Journalism and Digital Media at St. Edward's?
Our program trains students to conceptualize and produce stories using data and digital tools in a liberal arts context that holds humanism as a core value. Issues around privacy, data ownership, and automation are actively considered and discussed as students learn to write chatbots, create data visualizations, shoot and edit video, and tell compelling audio stories.
Improve your news literacy
Journalism and Digital Media at St. Edward’s encompasses news literacy, journalistic practice and digital skills through the lens of civic understanding and engagement. Students are challenged to demonstrate new solutions and approaches when researching and reporting on complex situations and experiences.
Report right here on the hilltop
Outside the classroom, hone your craft as a reporter or editor at the student news outlet, Hilltop Views. Student journalists report, produce and edit stories for publication online and the twice/monthly print edition. They use robust social media to share their work, copy edit, and design and sell ads. Hilltop Views staffers are all paid interns through the School of Arts and Humanities and also earn course credit.
Get hands-on training in Austin
Students are strongly encouraged to participate in internships to get on-the-job experience and to get a better idea of whether or not you can see yourself in this career. Examples of internships our students have completed are: The Austin American-Statesman, The Texas Observer, The Texas Tribune, Texas Monthly, Austin Monthly, The Houston Chronicle, 2018 Knight CUNYJ Summer Internship Program (NYC), Institute on Political Journalism D.C. Journalism/Communications internship.
Interact with professionals in the field
The Journalism and Digital Media program strives to give students opportunities to interact in- person with practicing journalists. Professionals from KUT, Austin's NPR affiliate, KXAN, the NBC affiliate, the Austin American-Statesman, The 19th* and other news outlets teach in our program and create internship opportunities for students.
Michele Kay Outstanding Journalist Award
Each year, an outstanding graduating senior in the Journalism and Digital Media program is selected for the Michele Kay Outstanding Student Journalist Award. This award honors Kay, a St. Edward’s University graduate, professional journalist for 40 years, and St. Edward’s University faculty member. Kay, who died in 2011, inspired students to participate in campus journalism and created the Journalism and Digital Media minor.
What do our graduates do?
Journalism and Digital Media minors go on a variety of careers and graduate schools from St. Edward’s. Here’s a sample:
- Reporters and editors at the Austin American-Statesman, the Dallas Morning News, the Juneau Empire, OpenSecrets.org at the Center for Responsive Politics, Washington D.C. and other publications
- Chief of Policy & Communications for the City of Dallas, Texas
- Social Media Marketing and Communications professionals
- Future newsroom leaders earning graduate degrees at elite programs, including the Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University and the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University
Explore Details About a Minor in Journalism and Digital Media
Required Courses (15 hours)
- COMM 3330 Media Standards and Practices
- JOUR 2310 Copy Editing
- JOUR 3314 Interactive Media Production and Design
- JOUR 2321 Journalism I: Introduction to Writing and Reporting News
- JOUR 3322 Journalism II: Producing News Online
Electives (6 hours)
Select two from the following; one must be upper-division
- JOUR 2328 Broadcast Journalism
- JOUR 3303 The Persuasive Writer
- JOUR 3304 Arts and Entertainment Writing
- JOUR 3320 Advanced Broadcast Journalism
- JOUR 3324 Sports Journalism for Broadcast
- JOUR 4305 Journalism III: Advanced News Writing and Reporting
- JOUR 4331 Special Topics in Print Journalism
- JOUR 4332 Special Topics in Broadcast Journalism
- JOUR 4350 Internship
- COMM 4324 Documentary
- WRIT 4342 Magazine Writing
Total of 21 hours
What You Will Learn
The Journalism and Digital Media minor will teach students to identify news, develop story ideas, research and report information, write in a journalistic style, and publish or broadcast information. A significant component of the minor focuses on the ethics of the industry.
A few examples of courses students in this minor take:
- Copy Editing - This course is designed to provide extensive practice in editing stories for focus, pace, style and the conventions of written English. It will provide a review of grammar and usage conventions of standard written English, practice with common proofreading and copy-editing symbols used in newsrooms, and practice in editing according to AP style.
- Journalism I: Introduction to Writing and Reporting News - The class introduces students to how news is defined, reported and shared in our minute-by-minute digital media world. Students are introduced to the history of journalism in the U.S. and taught to become thoughtful and consistent news consumers. The course also teaches students how to generate story ideas, write in journalistic style and produce news stories across platforms and with social media. Students are encouraged to publish their work in the student newspaper/website. Students are also introduced to professionals working in the field.
- Digital Media Production and Design - This course will build on students’ proficiencies with established and emerging multimedia storytelling tools and techniques. The goal is not only to understand when and how to approach news and other types of stories from an interactive design standpoint, but to explore how and why certain multimedia techniques may allow for a deeper understanding of the world around us.
Skills You Will Gain
- Write for digital outlets
- Use social media as a reporting tool
- Shoot and edit video
- Use computer science and coding to enhance your work
- Graduate prepared to work in any type of media environment
For More Information About The Minor
Contact Jena Heath, professor of Journalism and Digital Media and area coordinator for Journalism and Digital Media at jennah@bzpt.net.