About Us

The Hunter College Journalism Program

The Hunter College Journalism Program is a concentration within the Department of Film & Media Studies. We offer a hands-on, liberal arts approach to reporting and writing multimedia news. Students learn to gather and report information through research, observation and interviews and write clear and compelling stories enhanced by photography, video, audio and social media elements. Our program is designed to get students out of the classroom and in front of live sources to produce real work under real deadline pressure. We also bring the news direct to the classroom with guests from CNN, The New York Times and NY1, to name a few. We also take our classes on the road, visiting media companies around the city.

Our curriculum is built around both production courses in journalism as well as analytical courses in media studies. Production courses require students to apply reporting and writing skills and develop technical proficiency by producing original work across several platforms. Analytical courses provide students with a broad base in critical thinking, media history, ethics and news judgment.

Students who choose the journalism concentration are majors in media studies, and take 36 major credits with the following requirements:

9 required introductory credits

➢ MEDIA 180 | Introduction to Media Studies
➢ MEDP150 | Media and Film in a Digital Age
➢ FILM 160 | Media and Film in a Digital Age 2

6 required production credits

➢ MEDPL 201 | Reporting and Writing 1
➢ MEDPL 202 | Reporting and Writing 2

3 required analytical credits

➢ MEDIA 211 | News Literacy in a Digital Age

12 elective production credits

> MEDPL 239 | Entertainment Journalism
➢ MEDPL 283 | News Video Reporting
➢ MEDPL 284 | Radio Reporting and Podcasting
➢ MEDPL 294 | Magazine Writing
➢ MEDPL 295 | Online Journalism
➢ MEDPL 296 | Feature Writing
➢ MEDPL 297 | Data Journalism: Telling Stories with Numbers
➢ MEDPL 372 | Investigative Reporting
➢ MEDPL 377 | Neighborhood News
➢ MEDPL 387 | Mobile Reporting
➢ MEDPL 388 | Studio News Production

6 elective analytical credits

Choose two from a list of more than 30 MEDIA courses across three categories: Media Representations; Media Tech, Industry and Policy; and News, Politics and Propaganda.

Students can also earn general elective credits though internship placements at media companies, or communications jobs at non-profits or government agencies. See the internship page for more information.

Our classrooms, production studios and offices are on the fourth and fifth floor of Hunter North, at 68th Street and Lexington Avenue. For more information, please contact:
Professor Sissel W. McCarthy
Distinguished Lecturer and Director of the Journalism Program
sissel.mccarthy@hunter.cuny.edu
Office: 212-772-4846
Hunter North 525