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Program Overview
Journalism Education - M.A.
About This Program
The M.A. in Journalism Education is designed for high school teachers and transitioning media professionals. Course content focuses on what teachers and media advisers need to know to be effective journalism educators in the digital age: from the latest technology for multimedia storytelling to strategies to protect students’ First Amendment rights.
Contact Information
- Emily Metzgar | |
Program Delivery
- Delivery: Fully Online
Examples of Possible Careers and Salaries
- Communications teachers, postsecondary
- 3.2% about as fast as the average
- 35,600 number of jobs
- $71,030 potential earnings
Admission Requirements
- Bachelor's degree from an accredited college or university
- Minimum 2.750 undergraduate GPA on a 4.000-point scale
- Official transcript(s)
- Résumé or vitae
- Goal statement
- Two letters of recommendation
- English language proficiency - all international students must provide proof of English language proficiency (unless they meet specific exceptions to waive) by earning one of the following:
- Minimum 71 TOEFL iBT score
- Minimum 6.0 IELTS score
- Minimum 50 PTE score
- Minimum 100 DET score
Application Deadlines
- Fall Semester: Application deadline: March 15
- Spring Semester: Application deadline: November 15
- Summer Term: Application deadline: March 15
Program Requirements
- Course List Code | Title | Credit Hours
- Major Requirements
- MDJ 60011 | THEORY AND SOCIETAL ROLE OF MEDIA AND JOURNALISM | 3
- MDJ 60012 | MEDIA LAW AND ETHICS | 3
- MDJ 60701 | ADVISING STUDENT MEDIA | 3
- MDJ 61001 | PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICES OF DIGITAL MEDIA | 3
- MDJ 66011 | REPORTING, WRITING AND EDITING FOR MEDIA | 3
- MDJ 67067 | TEACHING MEDIA LITERACY | 3
- Major Electives, choose from the following: 1 | 12
- MDJ 67075 | MEDIA CONTENT CREATION |
- MDJ 67087 | ADVISING YEARBOOK |
- LIS 60030 | PEOPLE IN THE INFORMATION ECOLOGY |
- LIS 60510 | DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES I: DATA FUNDAMENTALS |
- LIS 60511 | DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES II: INTERNET FUNDAMENTALS |
- LIS 60512 | DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES III: INFORMATION SYSTEMS FUNDAMENTALS |
- LIS 60617 | INFORMATION LITERACY FOR YOUTH |
- LIS 60630 | REFERENCE SOURCES AND SERVICES FOR YOUTH |
- LIS 60652 | FOUNDATIONS OF RECORDKEEPING IN SOCIETY |
- LIS 61095 | SPECIAL TOPICS IN INFORMATION STUDIES |
- UX 60504 | ACCESSIBILITY AND UNIVERSAL DESIGN |
- Major Requirements
- Minimum Total Credit Hours: 30
Graduation Requirements
- Graduation Requirements Summary
- Minimum Major GPA:
- Minimum Overall GPA: 3.000
- Evidence of the creation of a digital portfolio to showcase students' deliverables and to capture their reflections as they complete the program as approved by graduate coordinator.
- No more than one-half of a graduate student’s coursework may be taken in 50000-level courses.
- Grades below C are not counted toward completion of requirements for the degree.
Program Learning Outcomes
Graduates of this program will be able to:
- Recognize and advocate for the importance of journalism education to the future of journalism.
- Employ best practices in journalism education.
- Articulate the role of media in a democratic society.
- Demonstrate fundamental journalism skills through the production of media content.
- Analyze and engage with the dynamics of the changing contemporary media environment.
- Discuss the fundamentals of media literacy and relate them to the context of journalism education.
Full Description
The Master of Arts degree in Journalism Education is intended for those seeking to teach or advise student journalists. The program is affiliated with Kent State's Center for Scholastic Journalism, and faculty include some of the most-recognized high school journalism educators in the country.
The program provides continuing education opportunities to high school teachers who are responsible for teaching and advising an array of student media content, including school social media channels, yearbook, school newspaper, video and photography. The program also serves practicing journalists who are transitioning to teaching in the higher education arena.
The curriculum focuses on foundational knowledge in media and journalism, as well as pedagogical practices that students can apply to secondary and post-secondary teaching environments. The program highlights the core concepts of First Amendment press freedom, media literacy and the role of media in society — scaffolding that knowledge with content creation skills across an array of media platforms. Interwoven with those knowledge areas and skillsets are best practices in the teaching of scholastic media to high school and college students.
Students complete a culminating integrated learning experience through designated course assignments from each of the six core courses. Each of the six assignments give the student the opportunity to create a deliverable suitable for use in a classroom setting such as a lesson plan, class activity, handbook or instruction manual or other asset.
Why Kent State University
Excellence in Scholastic Journalism
We are home to the Center for Scholastic Journalism, a national clearinghouse with information for and about student journalists and their advisers, a research center on issues affecting scholastic media, an educator of journalism teachers and an advocate for student press freedom and the First Amendment.
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Graduate Aid and Assistantships
Each year, the College of Communication and Information provides support for our new and continuing graduate students. All applicants are considered when they apply.
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Top 25 Ranking
U.S. News & World Report ranks Kent State University in the top 20 Best Library and Information Studies Programs in the country in its 2022 edition of Best Graduate Schools. Kent State is the only Ohio institution included in this ranking.
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