About the Program
The Journalism Minor at UC Berkeley gives students hands-on training to modernize their skills across a wide range of media platforms. Classes are offered on a range of topics that include narrative writing, web skills, social media, photography, video, and audio reporting.
No matter your major or intended profession, literacy today requires the ability to communicate with text, pictures, video, and sound. In these courses, you will learn how to shape information into compelling, well-reported narratives. Instruction will focus on teaching students to use the latest digital tools to engage with audiences in their work and to think critically and responsibly about information.
The minor degree is open to all Berkeley students. For visitors—including students from abroad, other UC campuses, or from other universities—a certificate option is available. Courses are also open to students who are neither seeking the minor or a certificate, and just want to learn a new skill or gain a better understanding of journalistic media forms.
The Journalism Minor is housed in the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, which is widely regarded as one of the top professional journalism programs in the United States. Its teaching faculty is composed of distinguished current and former professional journalists who bring real-world expertise to the classroom. The Master of Journalism program was launched in 1951 and established as a professional school at UC Berkeley in 1968.
Declaring the Minor
Students with a strong interest in an area of study outside their major often decide to complete a minor. These programs have set requirements. Students intending to complete the journalism minor degree should fill out a Declaration of Intent form (available on the program home page) and submit it to the Berkeley Journalism Student Services department no later than the start of their final course.
Minor Requirements
The Journalism minor requires completion of five courses.
There are two required introductory courses. The first, J100, covers journalistic reporting, writing, principles and ethics. The second course --J110 -- covers new forms of digital media and techniques of online storytelling.
After successfully completing the two required courses, students then choose three elective courses from among a menu of eight. The electives give students deeper hands-on training in specialized reporting and/or multimedia production.
General Guidelines
- The minor degree requires 15 units (five 3-unit courses).
- All courses taken to fulfill the minor requirements must be taken for graded credit.
- A minimum grade point average (GPA) of 2.0 is required for courses used to fulfill the minor requirements.
- All minor requirements must be completed prior to the last day of finals during the semester in which you plan to graduate.
- The minor is open to enrollment for all Berkeley students.
- No more than one upper division course may be used to simultaneously fulfill requirements for a student's major and minor programs.
| Code | Title | Units |
|---|---|---|
| Required Courses | ||
| JOURN 100 | Introduction to News Reporting | 3 |
| JOURN 110 | Introduction to Multimedia | 3 |
| Electives (Choose Three) | ||
| JOURN 111 | Social Media and Journalism | 3 |
| JOURN 115 | Advanced Multimedia | 3 |
| JOURN 112 | Intro to Podcasting | 3 |
| JOURN 122 | The Future of Visual Storytelling | 3 |
| JOURN 120 | Investigative Reporting | 3 |
| JOURN 124 | Introduction to Data Journalism | 3 |
| JOURN 130 | Special Topics | 3 |
| JOURN 134 | International Reporting | 3 |
Related Courses
Terms offered: Fall 2022, Spring 2022, Fall 2021
The Berkeley Seminar Program has been designed to provide new students with the opportunity to explore an intellectual topic with a faculty member in a small-seminar setting. Berkeley Seminars are offered in all campus departments, and topics vary from department to department and semester to semester.
Freshman Seminars: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit when topic changes.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 1 hour of seminar per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Journalism/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: The grading option will be decided by the instructor when the class is offered. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Prior to 2007
Freshman and sophomore seminars offer lower division students the opportunity to explore an intellectual topic with a faculty member and a group of peers in a small-seminar setting. These seminars are offered in all campus departments; topics vary from department to department and from semester to semester.
Freshman/Sophomore Seminar: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Priority given to freshmen and sophomores
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit when topic changes.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 1.5-2 hours of seminar per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Journalism/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: The grading option will be decided by the instructor when the class is offered. Final Exam To be decided by the instructor when the class is offered.
Terms offered: Fall 2009, Spring 2009, Fall 2008
Freshman and sophomore seminars offer lower division students the opportunity to explore an intellectual topic with a faculty member and a group of peers in a small-seminar setting. These seminars are offered in all campus departments; topics vary from department to department and from semester to semester.
Freshman/Sophomore Seminar: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Priority given to freshmen and sophomores
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit without restriction.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 2-4 hours of seminar per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Journalism/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: The grading option will be decided by the instructor when the class is offered. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Spring 2009
Freshman and sophomore seminars offer lower division students the opportunity to explore an intellectual topic with a faculty member and a group of peers in a small-seminar setting. These seminars are offered in all campus departments; topics vary from department to department and from semester to semester.
Freshman/Sophomore Seminar: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Priority given to freshmen and sophomores
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit without restriction.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 2-4 hours of seminar per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Journalism/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: The grading option will be decided by the instructor when the class is offered. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Spring 2013, Fall 2012
Freshman and sophomore seminars offer lower division students the opportunity to explore an intellectual topic with a faculty member and a group of peers in a small-seminar setting. These seminars are offered in all campus departments; topics vary from department to department and from semester to semester.
Freshman/Sophomore Seminar: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Priority given to freshmen and sophomores
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit without restriction.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 2-4 hours of seminar per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Journalism/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: The grading option will be decided by the instructor when the class is offered. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Spring 2020, Fall 2019, Spring 2019
Directed Group Study in Journalism: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit without restriction.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 1-4 hours of directed group study per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Journalism/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Offered for pass/not pass grade only. Final exam not required.
Terms offered: Fall 2024, Summer 2024 First 6 Week Session, Summer 2024 Second 6 Week Session
This is a fast-paced, intensive introductory course that lays out basic journalistic techniques and principles, introduces students to classic examples of journalistic writing, gives them exposure to professional practitioners and newsmakers, instills journalism ethics, and provides practice in writing various types of news stories. Designed both for those who are new to journalism and those with some journalistic experience, this course will boost the skills of students no matter their level of expertise.
Introduction to News Reporting: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 7.5 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Journalism/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam not required.
Terms offered: Spring 2012, Fall 2011
The goal of the class is to make students aware of how the issues of crime, policing, and identity are framed and mediated through television, as well as through conventional journalism. The class will explore the relationship between real crime, popular fiction, and television, specifically The Wire.
The Wire: When Journalism Meets Drama: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Journalism/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam not required.
Instructor: Drummond
Terms offered: Fall 2012
As the costs of our industrialized food system become impossible to ignore, a national debate over the future of food and farming has begun. Telling stories about where food comes from, how it is produced (and might be produced differently) plays a critical role in bringing attention to the issues and shifting politics. Each week a prominent figure in this debate explores what can be done to make the food system healthier more equitable, more sustainable, and the role of storytelling in the process.
Edible Education: Telling Stories About Food and Agriculture: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 1.5 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Journalism/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Offered for pass/not pass grade only. Final exam not required.
Instructor: Pollan
Also listed as: L & S C103
Edible Education: Telling Stories About Food and Agriculture: Read Less [-]
Terms offered: Summer 2024 First 6 Week Session, Summer 2024 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2023 Second 6 Week Session
What’s it like to tell stories using a variety of different media? Competence in the use of new journalistic tools and the skill to shape content for rapidly changing formats are both essential for any communicator in the 21st century. This intensive introductory course is designed to teach foundational skills for students who have minimal or no experience in creating multimedia news packages. Using lectures, readings, discussions, guest speakers, and field work, we will guide students through an exploration of the elements and forms of multimedia storytelling, and teach skills in news gathering and story production. This course is part of minor program which has been approved for fall & spring.
Introduction to Multimedia: Read More [+]
Objectives & Outcomes
Course Objectives: The objective of this course is to train all students—regardless of their planned area of specialty—to grasp foundational skills that can be applied to many types of storytelling. Using case studies, instructors will teach how to – and how not to -- create, organize and manage multimedia news packages. Students will learn how to choose which medium — video, audio, still photography, graphics or text — best suits the particular type of story or different segments of a story they wish to tell. By the conclusion of the course students will have developed basic skills in choosing stories, shooting video and still images with a mobile device, writing accompanying text, and editing their work by laptop into finished story packages. Importantly, students will also learn how to apply core journalistic values and the highest professional standards to their multimedia work. A required final project presents students the opportunity to apply their learning.
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: None
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 6 hours of seminar per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 7.5 hours of seminar per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Journalism/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Alternative to final exam.
Instructor: Hernandez
Terms offered: Summer 2024 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2023 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2022 Second 6 Week Session
This course will help students understand and use social media for journalistic purposes by focusing on how social networks, conversational media, and associated digital media tools and platforms can be used to develop new sources, establish beneficial conversations with end users, identify story ideas and trends, aggregate and curate the work of other journalists, and promote their own work.
Course credit for summer minor.
Social Media and Journalism: Read More [+]
Objectives & Outcomes
Course Objectives: The objective of this course is to help students -- regardless of their area of specialization – know to use social media for cu ration, conversation, and audience-building. By the conclusion of the course students will have developed knowledge of and familiarity with the key players in the fast-changing landscape of social media, and will know how to best use social media such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and others to transmit stories online and move viewers to action. Students will be alert and adaptable to new forms of social media as they emerge. They will also develop skills in the interactive nature of news in socially-based media, where readers continually interact with authors and where reader reactions serve as an iterative element in the evolution of content.
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: A student must complete the following classes to be eligible for enrollment in J111 Social Media and Journalism: J110 Introduction to Multimedia J100 Principles of Journalistic Writing
Hours & Format
Summer: 6 weeks - 7.5 hours of seminar per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Journalism/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Alternative to final exam.
Instructor: Rue
Terms offered: Summer 2024 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2023 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2022 Second 6 Week Session
In the last decade podcasts have amassed national audiences, led by expert story-telling in productions such as Code Switch, Serial, and This American Life. This course, designed as a seminar and workshop, will give students a broad view of how podcasts arose on the landscape of professional journalism, help students understand audio news production and develop or sharpen their skills at it, and enable them to build a foundation of skills that will allow them to produce their own podcasts or to enter the fast-growing field of podcast journalism.
Intro to Podcasting: Read More [+]
Objectives & Outcomes
Course Objectives: Students will learn the fundamental techniques for creating, developing, pitching and producing creative and compelling podcasts that adhere to journalistic standards of truth and fairness. Students will leave with a practical understanding of podcast journalism that prepares them to launch their own podcast or qualifies them for employment at a podcast production company.
Hours & Format
Summer: 6 weeks - 7.5 hours of seminar per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Journalism/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Alternative to final exam.
Instructor: Thigpen
Terms offered: Summer 2024 Second 6 Week Session
Photojournalism has played a critical role in democracy, showing the public unseen images from around the world; from conflict zones, capturing frozen moments in time that the public can reflect upon. In this course you'll gain the skills to identify and create meaningful, truth-telling visual stories. Students will learn about composition, lighting, framing, movement, and how to capture a story from a portrait and moment to moment. You’ll learn the tradecraft of photography, but more importantly, you’ll appreciate the role professional photojournalism plays in society, in the media ecosystem, and its impact on society.
Photojournalism: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Summer: 6 weeks - 7.5 hours of seminar per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Journalism/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Alternative to final exam.
Terms offered: Summer 2024 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2023 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2022 Second 6 Week Session
Instruction begins with how to properly approach a news assignment for online publication, specifically how to choose which media form—video, audio, photo, graphics, or text—is best for telling a particular type of story or different segments of a story. Students also learn how to storyboard an assignment by breaking a story up into its component parts and deciding which type of media should be used to tell each part of the story. This is followed by lessons on capturing video, photo, and audio; proper technique; and working with news subjects.
Course credit for summer minor.
Advanced Multimedia: Read More [+]
Objectives & Outcomes
Course Objectives: Students will learn software used to edit photos, video, photo slideshows, and audio, followed by instruction on mapping software and online data visualization programs. Some basic HTML instruction will be included.
Recording hardware for this class will rely on student-owned devices—smartphones such as the iPhone or Android. Professional equipment, like a professional audio recorder or DSLR camera that students might already own, is allowed for use in this course. However, lessons will be geared toward capturing multimedia using smartphones. A laptop, or access to a computer in order to perform editing, is required.
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Enrollment in this course is restricted to students who have already taken and passed the fundamentals courses J100 Introduction to News Reporting and J110 Introduction to Multimedia
Hours & Format
Summer: 6 weeks - 7.5 hours of seminar per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Journalism/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Alternative to final exam.
Terms offered: Summer 2023 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2021 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2020 Second 6 Week Session
Whether it’s matters of national security, public health, or official misconduct, investigative reporters play a crucial role in a democracy, exposing events, realities and conditions that powerful interests would often prefer kept quiet. The best investigative reporters – such as Woodward and Bernstein, Seymour Hersh, Glenn Greenwald – change the way we think about the world.
The objective of this course is to teach students the basic tools and techniques used in investigative reporting. We will explore how to find sources, obtain public records, and craft enterprising reporting into compelling stories that go behind the curtain of public life.
Course credit for summer minor.
Investigative Reporting: Read More [+]
Objectives & Outcomes
Course Objectives: A goal of this course is to make students proficient in how professional journalists investigate leads, use public records and other sources to unearth or verify buried or hidden information.
By the end of this course students will be able to apply investigative techniques to everyday reporting as well as produce one longer form investigative piece. Students will also have built a working knowledge of the different types of public records available, including understanding how to access court and corporate documents, and be comfortable in using these documents as they report stories. Students whose work is of the highest standards may be published in the Daily Cal or another outlet.
Hours & Format
Summer: 6 weeks - 7.5 hours of seminar per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Journalism/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Alternative to final exam.
Instructor: Thigpen
Terms offered: Summer 2024 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2023 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2022 Second 6 Week Session
This course explores digital narratives as they are designed, produced, and consumed in various electronic and “virtual” formats. Given this is a broad and expansive discipline that will continue to spawn new immersive experiences, stories and technologies, the course will lay the foundation for understanding new transmedia environments and explore best practices for creating non-fiction narratives on emerging platforms. We will explore narratives in 360, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, and mobile.
Course credit for summer minor.
The Future of Visual Storytelling: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Summer: 6 weeks - 7.5 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Journalism/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Alternate method of final assessment during regularly scheduled final exam group (e.g., presentation, final project, etc.).
Instructor: Hernandez
Terms offered: Summer 2024 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2023 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2022 Second 6 Week Session
This course introduces students to the workflows and techniques for journalistic reporting using data. In many traditional forms of journalism, reporters rely mostly on interviews and anecdotes to create stories. But in a world filled with misinformation—where the very foundations of trust have been shaken—audiences expect more. This course will cover using data for both research and reporting, as well as communicating stories with data. Data has become ubiquitous and accessible in recent years. Data analysis skills are now part of the standard repertoire for many journalists. By its nature, data is based on evidence and observations. But like all evidence, it needs context and interpretation.
Course credit for the summer minor.
Introduction to Data Journalism: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Summer: 6 weeks - 7.5 hours of seminar per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Journalism/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Alternative to final exam.
Instructor: Rue
Terms offered: Summer 2024 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2021 Second 6 Week Session, Spring 2021
This is a special topics course that explores contemporary issues. The topic will vary from year to year. Examples of such topics may include business reporting, covering the election, covering an international conflict, or covering a major issue like reproductive rights.
Regardless of the area of focus, this course format will remain the same: It will include readings and critical discussions on media coverage of the topic; analysis on the reporting efforts to cover stories within this topic; and discussion on the ethical dilemmas faced by reporters, the role they play in shaping the public’s understanding of this issue.
A significant part of this class includes bringing in guest speakers who participated in key coverage of these events.
Special Topics: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Minor and certificate candidates must take JOURN100 and JOURN110 before taking this elective. Journalism.berkeley.edu/special-programs/summer- minor
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit when topic changes.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of seminar per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 7.5 hours of seminar per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Journalism/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Alternative to final exam.
Terms offered: Summer 2024 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2023 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2022 Second 6 Week Session
In a globalizing world local stories often become international ones. From politics to financial markets to terrorism and climate change, a more closely connected world often means critical issues do not stay put. Events in Russia, China, Iran and Germany regularly occupy headlines in the U.S. Journalists covering foreign lands now face new levels of complexity in their work. Competent reporting demands a high levels of skill: a broad awareness of global trends, an ability to develop reliable sources, and a keen understanding of how different communities respond to the forces affecting their lives.
Course credit for summer minor.
International Reporting: Read More [+]
Objectives & Outcomes
Course Objectives: International Journalism will build an appreciation of the importance of news originating outside the U.S., as well as increase a student’s skill at critical analysis of foreign news. Students will learn where to find data about foreign entities, how to find and interview sources, and how to write in an authoritative, newsworthy style. By the end of the course students should have a working knowledge of the key issues in one country or region, be able to discuss them in class, and be able to write a well-informed long form news story using their sources and data. Students will also have increased knowledge about customs and cultural sensitivities in the region of the world that is their focus.
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: J100 Introduction to News writing is preferred; students who have not taken J100 should notify the instructor
Hours & Format
Summer: 6 weeks - 7.5 hours of seminar per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Journalism/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Alternative to final exam.
Instructor: Thigpen
Terms offered: Fall 2024, Spring 2024, Fall 2023
The course will offer a grounding in moral reasoning and an introduction to professional ethics as both moral doctrine and as an evolving response to changing social and industrial conditions in the media industries
Media Ethics: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of seminar per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Journalism/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Alternative to final exam.
Instructor: Wasserman
Terms offered: Summer 2019 8 Week Session, Spring 2017, Summer 2014 8 Week Session
Supervised experience in the practice of journalism in off-campus organizations. Individual meetings with faculty sponsor and written reports required. See Additional Information, "Field Study and Internships."
Field Study in Journalism: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit without restriction.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 0 hours of fieldwork per week
Summer:
6 weeks - 1-2 hours of fieldwork per week
8 weeks - 1-2 hours of fieldwork per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Journalism/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Offered for pass/not pass grade only. Final exam not required.
Terms offered: Spring 2023, Spring 2022, Fall 2020
Directed Group Study in Journalism: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Total grade point average of not less than 3.0 and consent of instructor
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit without restriction.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 1-4 hours of directed group study per week
Summer:
6 weeks - 1-4 hours of directed group study per week
8 weeks - 1-4 hours of directed group study per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Journalism/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Offered for pass/not pass grade only. Final exam not required.
Terms offered: Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Fall 2022
Enrollment restrictions apply; see department.
Supervised Individual Study and Research: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Total grade point average of not less than 3.0 and consent of instructor
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit without restriction.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 0 hours of independent study per week
Summer:
6 weeks - 1-4 hours of independent study per week
8 weeks - 1-4 hours of independent study per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Journalism/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Offered for pass/not pass grade only. Final exam not required.
Contact Information
Graduate School of Journalism
121 North Gate Hall
Phone: 510-642-3383
Fax: 510-643-9136
Director of Undergraduate Programs
David E. Thigpen
B1-A in North Gate Hall
Phone: 650-532-9028
Student Affairs Advisor
David Thigpen & Daniel Marquez
121 North Gate Hall
Phone: 510-643-5058