The University of Pittsburgh’s Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences will begin offering undergraduate students a journalism certificate this fall.
“The Journalism Certificate is a wide-ranging, cross-disciplinary program designed to equip students with both the core ethical and reporting skills of great journalistic practices — like fact-checking and interviewing — and the modern expertise demanded by new media industries, such as data visualization and multi-modal composition,” according to the University of Pittsburgh’s website.
Gayle Rogers, chair of Pitt’s English department, said the certificate has been years in the making.
Planning began with discussions between the English and Communication departments, which jointly developed the program and will offer its core courses, Rogers said.
As part of the process, faculty consulted editors at newspapers across the Pittsburgh region and visited several of the nation’s leading journalism schools to help shape the curriculum.
Rogers said the research made one thing clear: Today’s journalists need a broader range of skills than ever before to succeed in modern newsrooms.
“When I was in college, for example, you could pursue a whole line of study just on daily beat reporting in local government,” Rogers said. “And you can do that now, but you’ve also got to have skills with data, you’ve got to have skills with SEO, and you need to understand the business side of media.”
The 21-credit certificate is designed to reflect those evolving demands. Students will complete core courses in English and communication, along with electives covering investigative reporting, interviewing, data journalism, audience engagement, technology, media law, ethics, misinformation and media production.
“We wanted make something completely new that prepared students for journalism as it exists today,” said Meredith Guthrie, director of undergraduate studies and teaching professor at the University of Pittsburgh.
Undergraduates can earn the journalism certificate alongside their primary field of study, though Rogers said it is unlikely to become a standalone major anytime soon.
“Certificates, at least at Pitt, are interdepartmental,” he said. “Majors tend to be largely in one department or one discipline.”
The certificate requires 21 credits, compared with the 33 to 45 credits typically needed for a major. Rogers noted that several of the certificate’s required courses also fulfill the university’s general education requirements.
“There’s a strategic advantage built into the way [the certificate] is structured, so that it would not add semesters to their undergrad experience,” Rogers said.
Some students could earn the journalism certificate as early as December, depending on how many qualifying courses they have already completed.
Guthrie, an adviser in Pitt’s Department of Communication, said the program was designed to serve students with a wide range of academic and career interests.
“Students have been making their own way and designing it, and we’re just kind of catching up to them and creating a credential in those cases,” Rogers said. He credited faculty advisors for facilitating the design of the certificate. “This was about … how can we come together and best serve the studentsand best prepare them.”