Journalism Certificate

Course Requirements

Academic Requirements

• A minimum GPA of 2.500 overall, and a minimum of 2.500 in all electives and core courses within the program, are required to earn the certificate.
• The certificate is awarded concurrently upon completion of all program requirements and completion of a bachelor’s degree at the University at Buffalo. It cannot be awarded as a standalone certificate program even after the student has earned a bachelor’s degree.

Learning Outcomes

The journalism certificate program provides students with a broad understanding of the history of media, an appreciation for the First Amendment and ethical issues in journalism, and practical training in critical thinking, reporting and writing. Our courses help students develop skills in analytical thinking and reading, and in interviewing, reporting, writing and editing. An internship is required, which gives students hands-on experience in a professional media environment. These skills will prepare them for success as working journalists but also in numerous other professions, as socially-engaged media producers and consumers. More specifically, the program encourages students to contextualize information by questioning the sources and potential biases of local, national and international news. The program fosters curiosity and encourages students to be active, civic-minded citizens.

Upon successful completion of all requirements, the student will have knowledge of:

• Students will demonstrate an ability to apply news values in presenting and analyzing journalism
• Students will be able to answer questions showing they follow, contextualize, and think critically about local, national and international news
• Students will conceive of and implement meaningful projects independently
• Students will use proper English grammar and mechanics and be able to write cogent, clear and concise ethical arguments
• Students will be able to differentiate between news, researched opinion, unsupported opinion, advertising and propaganda.
• Students will evaluate their own and others’ work for accuracy and fairness, clarity, style and grammatical correctness. They will learn to work in teams.
• Students will gather and evaluate in-depth information from diverse, field-appropriate books, journals, databases and online and human sources

(HEGIS: 06.02 JOURNALISM-PRINTED MEDIA, CIP: 09.0401 Journalism)