2024-2025 Undergraduate Catalog
Journalism
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Professor Melissa Chessher, Division Chair
Professors: Melissa Chessher
Affiliate Professor: Rhonda Garelick
Associate Professor: Jake Batsell
Assistant Professors: Sara Idacavage, Myles Ethan Lascity
Broadcast Executive in Residence: Melissa Harrison
Professors of Practice: Andrea Arterbery, Jenny Davis, Valerie Evans, Jacqueline Fellows, Charlie Scudder, Karen Thomas
Visiting Professor of Practice: Annette Nevins
Adjunct Professor of Practice: Jayne Suhler
Adjunct Lecturers: Benjamin Baby, Carolyn Barta, Robert Hart, Rosanne Hart, Charlotte Huffman, Linda Leavell, Bryan Lochhead, William McKenzie, Mayra Monroy, Jean-Jacques Taylor
The Division of Journalism embraces a core principle of many disciplines — students learn by doing. Through a reimagined curriculum created in consultation with industry thought-leaders and leading scholars, professors guide students as they report, write, edit, design, create audio and video content, and engage audiences through social media. A required student media lab also supports this principle, ensuring every student graduates with professional examples of work that reflects their interests, curiosity, and abilities. But the pace and complexity of technology, news, culture, and the global community requires more of 21st-century storytellers than skills. Graduates must be prepared to adapt, think critically, and lead.
Specialized knowledge also plays an increasingly critical role for media professionals in this competitive age. Students with an interest in the growing fields of fashion journalism or fashion industry promotions may earn a Bachelor of Arts in Fashion Media, a rigorous interdisciplinary program that couples media skills taught by professionals with foundational courses taught by fashion scholars in fashion history, theory, culture, and diversity issues. Students in the division may develop expertise in financial reporting while pursuing their degree through the William J. O’Neil Program in Business Journalism, detailed below. Students also may pursue sports journalism through a specialization designed to prepare students with specific skills and understanding to aid them as they cover sports across all media platforms.
The Division of Journalism is located in the Journalism Complex in the Umphrey Lee Center, which houses faculty and administrative offices, audio and video production, and media support areas. The main media content areas are a complete broadcast studio with control room and a convergence newsroom with computer equipment designed for production of multiplatform news content. Classrooms and conference rooms in the Journalism Complex are state of the art, with complete audio and video capabilities. All labs are equipped with the latest computers for each student.
The Journalism Complex is a secured area where journalism majors are permitted 24-hour access. The concept and design of the Journalism Complex promote the individualized instruction for which the Division of Journalism is known. Each student is encouraged to spend as much time as desired on highly specialized equipment to pursue projects and assignments in a professional media work environment.
Strong writing skills are essential to the student’s success in the division’s journalism curriculum and later in the profession of journalism. Students may enroll in journalism classes as first-year students. To major or minor in the Division of Journalism, students must have completed 24 hours of study, which may include transfer hours. Students must also have completed the following courses, with no grade lower than C+ in either of them:
Students must declare the major or minor before taking JOUR 2312 . Students transferring from other universities must have completed equivalent courses and obtained the equivalent GPA and minimum grades in those courses before they can declare a major or minor in the Division of Journalism.
The Journalism Division has a focus on and commitment to diversity, recognizing the need for diversity in media and communications in the 21st century.
Honors scholarships are awarded each year to outstanding students who intend to major in journalism. Other scholarships are available to journalism students through a variety of foundations and gifts to the division.
As global markets and fast-paced technological change transform the American economic and media landscapes, mastery of business news and familiarity with entrepreneurship have emerged as marketable skills across multiple professional fields. The O’Neil Program equips aspiring journalists and media professionals with the knowledge to understand complex business and economic issues, the journalistic skills to make those topics understandable and accessible to multiplatform audiences, and the entrepreneurial spirit to take charge of their own careers. And because financial literacy is critical to many professions, the tools and techniques developed in this program also will prepare students for more sophisticated and insightful coverage of subjects ranging from politics to technology to entertainment to the environment to the fashion industry.
This innovative interdisciplinary program includes courses in both the Cox School of Business and the economics department. In addition to the 37 credit hours required for the major in journalism and/or fashion media, students wishing to concentrate in business and finance journalism must complete either a second major in business; the 18-hour minor in business administration; or the 18-hour minor in business offered for non-Cox undergraduates, plus ECO 1311 and ECO 1312 . Within the JOUR curriculum, O’Neil students must complete JOUR 4306 - Business and Journalism and a second business-related JOUR elective. Students will put into practice what they’re learning about business, financial markets, entrepreneurship, and economics in advanced journalism classes, through coverage of North Texas companies and the regional economy, and in the development of their own ideas.
Admission to the program is subject to the approval of the faculty member who holds the O’Neil Chair in Business Journalism. Students studying in the program will be advised by this faculty member. For more information, visit https://j.mp/oneilsmu or contact Prof. Jake Batsell at jbatsell@smu.edu.
Upon achieving junior and senior status, students are encouraged to take on experiences that enable them to work under the guidance of professionals in the news industry (internships). Many on-campus activities also offer practical experience (practica), and students are strongly urged to take advantage of the opportunities available to them to work in on-campus media, including The Daily Campus (smudailycampus.com) and its print edition, The DC; the fashion magazine SMU Look and its website (smulook.com); and SMU-TV.
Practica are taken for one credit hour at a time. Internships may be taken for one, two or three credit hours at a time, depending on the number of hours worked. A total of three credit hours of internships and practica may be counted toward a student’s degree requirements but no more than two internships may be taken for credit. Internships and practica may not be counted toward the required six credit hours of electives within the division.
All internships taken for credit must have prior approval of the faculty adviser. Internships and practica are taken on a pass/fail basis only and are restricted to fashion media majors and journalism majors and minors.
Students must comply with specific attendance policies spelled out in course syllabi; creation and enforcement of such policies are entirely at the instructor’s discretion. The division strives to keep class size small enough for individual attention, and large enough to ensure discussion and interaction among students.
Journalism students may participate in academic programs offered abroad and through partners in the United States.
Students will study multimedia journalism, learning the basic skills and conventions of broadcast journalism, print journalism and the skill set needed to practice journalism on digital platforms. The journalism major requires 40 credit hours within the division, and the fashion media major requires 43 hours within the division. Courses may be used to fulfill only one of the student’s major requirements (i.e., a student may not fulfill two major requirements with one course).
Grade Requirements
Only courses passed with a grade of C- or better will count for credit toward the major or minor in journalism or the major in fashion media.
Required Minor or Second Major Outside the Division of Journalism
All journalism and fashion media majors must declare and complete a second major or minor of their choosing outside of the division.
The honors program in journalism is highly selective. At midterm of the sophomore year, and again at midterm of the junior year, declared journalism majors with a GPA of 3.500 or better can apply to the honors program. All interested students, including those who have been previously awarded honors scholarships, need to apply for admission to the program. Those wishing to graduate with distinction in journalism must complete six hours of honors coursework within the Division of Journalism. Where specific honors sections are not offered in the Division of Journalism, students may work with individual professors to develop appropriate honors coursework within regular classes, subject to approval of the honors program director. For journalism, three hours must be in honors advanced skills; the remaining three hours may come from honors journalism electives. For fashion media, three hours must be in honors fashion media production; the remaining three hours may come from any fashion media course. In addition, seniors must complete a directed study and produce an honors thesis. More information is available from the honors program director, Division of Journalism, Meadows School of the Arts, 280 Umphrey Lee, Dallas TX 75275.
ProgramsMajor(s)Minor(s)CoursesFashion Media
Journalism
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