Journalism

Master's Degree Program

Graduate opportunities

The University of North Texas’ Frank W. Mayborn Graduate Institute of Journalism equips you with the professional and academic skills needed to succeed in the media profession or in teaching journalism.

With the only nationally accredited master’s program in Texas, we offer course work leading to a Master of Arts degree in Journalism or a Master of Journalism degree. Your choice of career fields includes:

• Broadcast journalism
• Business journalism
• General media studies
• Health, medicine, sciences and environmental journalism
• International communications
• Internet, interactive and virtual digital communications
• Investigative journalism
• Law and journalism
• Management and entrepreneurship
• Mass communication research
• Narrative journalism
• Public and civic journalism
• Race, gender, ethnicity and sexuality communications
• Religion and journalism
• Sports journalism
• Strategic communications
• Visual communications

The program’s strengths lie in its relevance to the needs of today’s media environment and its research opportunities at a variety of levels. You can also pursue graduate certificates in narrative journalism and interactive and virtual digital communication.

Our faculty members represent diverse backgrounds, research and professional interests. They have written for notable newspapers and magazines, worked for prominent advertising and public relations firms, and are award- winning photojournalists. Their research examines:

• Curriculum studies for journalism education
• The importance of ethics in media
• International communications
• Magazine production issues
• Sexism and racism in media

Most classes are offered in the late afternoon and evenings to accommodate work schedules. Workshops are offered for academic credit in strategic Dallas-Fort Worth locations, such as the Universities Center at Dallas.

Showcase your talents

MAYBORN and Ten Spurs provide you opportunities to publish your work. These literary magazines are published in association with the nationally acclaimed Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference. This event features prominent writers, publishers and literary agents who are devoted to maintaining the narrative craft. Cash prizes of $15,000 are awarded to seven winners in the personal essay, reported narrative and manuscript categories of the conference’s writing competition. The manuscript winner also receives a book contract with the UNT Press.

Other opportunities for you to gain real-world experience are with the production of the NT Daily, NT Daily TV and Denton Live, the tourism magazine for the city of Denton.

Impressive credentials

Our graduate institute is part of the Frank W. and Sue Mayborn School of Journalism. Since 1945, the Journalism program has been a major provider of professionals and academics for all forms of media and profit and nonprofit communications organizations. It has produced eight Pulitzer Prize winners and many other award winners and outstanding professionals in news, advertising,public relations, photography and publishing.

The program has been nationally accredited since 1969 by the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications (Stauffer-Flint Hall, 1435 Jayhawk Blvd., Lawrence, Kansas 66045- 7575, telephone 785-864-3973).

Attending UNT

Admission requirements

You must meet the admission requirements for the Toulouse Graduate School as well as the following program requirements:

• bachelor’s degree or its equivalent
• basic courses in journalism, which can be achieved via bridging courses while you are enrolled in the graduate program
• 3.0 GPA or above on the last 60 semester hours of undergraduate work or a 2.8 overall, along with GRE scores and acceptable portfolio for unconditional admission (More details are at journalism.unt.edu.)

If your GPA on the last 60 hours is between 2.8 and 3.0, you may be admitted conditionally, provided that GRE scores are submitted during the first semester of enrollment. International students must submit a minimum TOEFL score of 550 or 213 from a computerized TOEFL or 79 internet-based test. Students may substitute successful completion of the Graduate Preparation Course (GPC) offered through UNT’s Intensive English Language Institute for the verbal portion of the GRE.

Degree requirements

You must take four required courses and pass a written comprehensive examination. Up to 12 semester hours of bridging courses may be required of those with undergraduate degrees in sfields other than Journalism.

Master of Arts

You must complete 30 semester hours of course work, plus a 6-hour thesis. Foreign language competency is also required. A minor is optional.

Master of Journalism

No foreign language is necessary. You need to complete 36 hours of course work. The 6-hour thesis is optional and can substitute for two graduate courses.

A minor is required and may be 6, 9 or 12 hours. Recommended minor fields are business administration, library or information sciences, psychology, sociology, economics, communication studies, radio/television/ film or computer science. Other minors are available and accepted if they support your career objectives.

Financial assistance

A limited number of graduate assistantships are awarded each academic year or semester for supervising in reporting, editing and computer laboratories; grading papers; conducting research for faculty; and working in the dean’s office on special projects.

Several competitive scholarships are also available. A list of scholarships and an application form are available at journalism.unt.edu/scholarships.

Each year, the school awards several $10,000 scholarships to incoming or current graduate students. The application deadline for the fall semester is the last business day of March. Scholarship information and the application are at journalism.unt.edu.

You also may complete a paid or unpaid internship to earn 3 semester hours. The institute sponsors an annual internship fair where you can meet with internship providers. The program maintains strong ties with industry leaders in the region, which provides graduates with excellent networking opportunities. Additional assistance for internships and jobs is available from the UNT Career Center.

More information about financial assistance is at financialaid.unt.edu.