Issue date: 5/15/08 Section: Journalism Prgm

If you are going to study journalism and work for an AA or transfer at Cerritos College there are a number of classes you want to consider, including the newspaper courses.

You probably DON'T want to take everything right away because you also need to work on general education courses, but you COULD load yourself up with journalism classes up front if you want. Many of them are repeatable so if you like them and want to get better you can take them more than once for credit. But don't neglect those general education courses.

For the AA there are three categories of classes defined by the department and a fourth (general education) defined by the college. You will want to take Core Courses, Publication Courses and Electives. I not only will discuss each of these below, but you can also download this PDF document that maps them for you in a visual way.

CORE COURSES

There are three core courses you will need to take:

1. Jour 100 - Mass Media and Society,
   
2. Jour 101 - Beginning Newswriting, and
   
3. Jour 121 - Multimedia Reporting.
   
   

The first two are offered every semester, including summer school. The Jour 100 class is offered both traditionally and online each semester. The Jour 101 class is not usually offered online or during the summer, but is sometimes. Jour 121 is a hybrid class (half traditional/half online) and will be offered fall semesters only.

Jour 100 and Jour 101 transfer to universities as core requirements that match one-to-one with their requirements. Jour 122 transfers as an elective, but we suspect universities will be adding this class in the future or that we will be able to create one-to-one transfer agreements: the content is becoming increasingly important for journalism majors.


PUBLICATION COURSES

You will want to get hands-on experience with publication courses. Most of these are centered around publication of the student newspaper or its online version. We break up the newspaper course into three courses:

1. Writing for the paper (Jour 103 - Newspaper Article Writing),
   
2. Designing the paper or taking photos for the paper (Jour 105 - Newspaper Production), and
   
3. Serving as an editor for the paper (Jour 50L - Editorial Board).
   
   

All are transferable to universities as elective credits.

We also emphasize multimedia a lot because we see that as the way the industry is evolving. The Jour 101 course above concentrates on teaching you how to write and the Jour 103 class gives you the hands-on experience. Likewise, the Jour 121 course teaches you how to create multimedia stories and our Jour 106 - talonmarks.com course gives you the hands-on.

While you should consider taking Jour 101 before Jour 103 or Jour 121 before Jour 106 for obvious reasons, you don't have to. In fact a lot of students want to do the hands-on first or at the same time. More about that later.

In addition to Jour 103, Jour 105, Jour 50L and Jour 106 newspaper/online newspaper courses, which we offer every fall and spring semester, we also offer courses in podcasting, magazine and broadcast news/webcasting, but they are not all offered every semester.

ELECTIVES

I won't go into much detail here on those, but these are other journalism courses or courses from other departments on campus that we think help prepare you well. Some may even satisfy general education requirements.


SO, WHAT TO TAKE?

If you talk to counselors, you'll probably be counseled to concentrate on general education courses and to stay away from journalism courses until you're done with the others. Don't listen to them. Everyone who does wishes that he (or she) had done some of the hands-on courses earlier, especially because you can repeat them for credit multiple semesters because they are so much fun.

Counselors will tell you this because they know students who work on the publication courses will often neglect their other courses because they are having so much fun. Completing the GE courses IS IMPORTANT, but so is trying out and enjoying your major.

There are two ways to learn to swim: take swimming lessons and jump into the deep end of the pool. Jour 101 is like taking swimming lessons. Jour 103 is like jumping into the pool. I often suggest that students TAKE BOTH the same semester. The earlier the better, so I'd suggest starting there.

If you REALLY want to jump into the paper, consider also taking Jour 105 the same semester. You'll be bathed in newspaper courses. You cannot sign up for Jour 50L until you have been selected as an editor for the paper, but if you've got high school experience, that COULD take place your first semester if you are serious about things. Editors-in-chief often serve two or three semesters as an editor before working their way up to the top position.

I'd suggest holding off Jour 100 until after you've gotten your feet wet with the other courses. I'd probably also suggest the same about taking the Jour 121 course, but since it is offered only during the fall semester if you like editing video or audio (think YouTube) or want to learn to do it, consider it .

I'd hold off on Jour 106 for the time being unless you are also selected as an editor.


HERE IS A SUGGESTED SCHEDULE

First Fall Semester
Jour 101 - Beginning Newswriting (3 units)
Jour 103 - Newspaper Article Writing (2 units)
At least one general education course (3 units)

(Optional for first semester)
Jour 105 - Newspaper Production (2 units) -- only if you think you'd like to jump in completely.
Jour 121 - Multimedia Reporting (3 units)

(Optional If selected as an editor):
Jour 50L - Editorial Board (1 unit)
Jour 106 - talonmarks.com (1 unit)


First Spring Semester
Jour 100 - Mass Media and Society (3 units)
Jour 103 - Newspaper Article Writing (2 units)
Jour 105 - Newspaper Production (2 units)
Jour 106 - talonmarks.com (1 unit)
At least two general education courses (3 units each)

(Optional If selected as an editor):
Jour 50L - Editorial Board (1 unit)


TIMES FOR COURSES

Jour 100 - MW 9:30 or online (both semesters)
Jour 101 - TTh 9:30
Jour 103 - MW 12:30-2:00 (plus hours arranged)*
Jour 105 - T 12:30-2:00 and Th 12:30 - 1:00 (plus hours arranged)**
Jour 121 - Th 6:00-8:30 (plus hours arranged) (Fall semester only)
Jour 106 - M, T, W, Th, F 11:00-11:30 (plus hours arranged) --
Choose only one
Jour 50L - This course will be rescheduled when we see who has been selected and when they can meet.

* Many stories you will cover do not occur during these times, so we don't actually fill the whole time slot every day. We meet every day, but often only for a half an hour to an hour and then give you "comp" time.

** Be aware that hours arranged for the Jour 105 class really should be Tuesday afternoon/evening as this is when we actually put the paper together. Try to keep Tuesday afternoon/evening as free as possible.

Feel free to ask additional questions: rcameron@cerritos.edu.

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