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Jacqueline E. Sharkey Soldwedel Family Professor of Journalism and Director of The University of Arizona School of Journalism |
WELCOME!
Welcome to the digital home of The University of Arizona School of Journalism. Our newly redesigned Web site should help visitors learn more about our faculty, students, courses and programs. The school offers bachelor’s and master’s degrees in journalism, and is one of the few programs in the country to offer dual master’s degrees in journalism-Latin American studies and journalism- Near Eastern studies.The school’s mission is to prepare students to face the complex challenges confronting journalists in the 21st century. In the school's computer laboratories and seminar rooms, students work on stories that appear in real-world news media, and study the political, economic, legal and ethical issues that journalists face in the global information age.
The journalism school’s undergraduate program has been nationally accredited for more than 40 years by the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications. It is one of the few programs in the nation that focuses only on journalism. The school offers no public relations or advertising classes.
Our graduates have gone to work for major news media ranging from The New York Times to CNN International, have won every major award in the profession — including the Pulitzer Prize and the National Magazine Award — and have written stories that have changed state and national laws and policies.
Students get the education and training they need to succeed in the news media from a dedicated faculty, all of whom worked in the profession before joining the school. Faculty members have reported from more than 200 countries, including Afghanistan and Iraq. The faculty includes the leader of a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation, a New York Times bestselling author, the former chief international correspondent for The Associated Press, and the winner of top awards from Investigative Reporters and Editors and the Society of Professional Journalists for international reporting. Two faculty members have been named national Journalism Teacher of the Year, an award sponsored by the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. It is the most prestigious award in journalism education.
One hallmark of our program is that every student must work on one of the news media produced by the school for real communities. These news media include two newspapers: El Independiente, a bilingual publication that serves residents of the city of South Tucson, and The Tombstone Epitaph, which is published for residents of that historic city. The school has two online magazines. One is the national award-winning Border Beat, which focuses on the U.S.-Mexico border. The other is The Cat Scan, which covers environmental issues affecting Tucson and Southern Arizona. Students interested in video news can work on Arizona Cat’s Eye, which produces reports for KUAT-TV, the PBS affiliate on campus.
The school also operates Arizona News Service, which enables students to cover political, economic and social issues throughout the state, and to have their work published in local and regional newspapers, as well as Web sites throughout the country. Students can apply for the Bolles Fellowship, which enables them to live in Phoenix for a semester to cover the state legislature for the news service.
The school also offers an International Journalism program, a collaboration among the school of Journalism, the Center for Latin American Studies, the Center for Middle Eastern Studies and the school of Near Eastern Studies. This initiative is designed to provide opportunities for students to combine regional and language studies with field work in other countries. The program enables students to work with international correspondents who have spent decades covering Latin America and the Middle East.
During the past five years, undergraduate and graduate students who want to focus on Latin America have traveled to Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Panama and Puerto Rico to do journalism research and digital-imaging work. Their reports have been published in Arizona newspapers and shown on KUAT-TV. Students interested in the Middle East have been able to spend the summer in Egypt studying Arabic and filing reports for the Arizona Daily Star’s Web site.
Another component of the program is the opportunity to cover events and issues on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border, which is just 60 miles from campus. Many classes and all the school’s news media enable students to work in this multicultural, international context.
Graduate students can do additional interdisciplinary work through the dual master’s-degree programs in journalism-Latin American studies and journalism-Near Eastern studies. These programs emphasize high-level language skills and in-depth study of the history, politics and cultures of these important regions, along with advanced journalism training.
Our Web site provides more information about these courses, degrees and programs. You can link to our news media and the reports of students in the International Journalism program. We hope you enjoy your digital tour, and if you have any questions, please contact us.
Sincerely,
Jacqueline E. Sharkey
Journalism School Director
Soldwedel Professor of Journalism