Summary of Requirements

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Download a one-page pdf version of these Fall 2011 requirements!

I. GRADE POINT AVERAGE (GPA)
Journalism premajors must maintain a UO grade point average (GPA) of 2.90 or better to remain in good standing with the school. In appropriate cases, students may be advised to change to other majors.

II. LOWER-DIVISION CORE
All premajors in journalism are required to complete the following 8 credits with a C or better grade:

  • J100 Media Professions (2 credits)
  • J101 Grammar for Communicators (2 credits)
  • J201 Media and Society (4 credits, if taken at UO)

Students must also complete the University's Writing Composition requirement before applying for full major status. (Students in the Robert D. Clark Honors College are exempt from this.)

III. GATEWAY TO MEDIA SERIES
Students begin full major status with a 12-credit Gateway to Media series. J205, J206 and J207 are part of the same series. Students MUST take J207 right after J205/J206. If they don't, the series is incomplete and students will have to start the series all over again. Retaking J205 and J206 will result in a deduction of eight credits. All three Gateway courses must be passed with a C or better.

  • J205 Gateway to Media I (must take concurrently with J206)
  • J206 Gateway to Media II (must take concurrently with J205)
  • J207 Gateway to Media III (must take right after J205/206)

IV. SPECIALIZATION/SEQUENCE WITHIN JOURNALISM
Journalism students must declare at least one specialization or sequence when applying for full major status. Each sequence has specific course requirements. All specialization/sequence courses must be passed with a C or better.

V. CORE CONTEXT REQUIREMENT
All journalism students must also complete four core context courses. They may be taken concurrently with the sequence courses (IV). These courses must be passed with a C or better and may not be taken pass/no pass. 

List A  (Choose two):

  • J320 Gender, Media & Diversity
  • J385 Communication Law
  • J387 Communication History
  • J396 International Communication
  • J397 Media Ethics

List B  (Choose two): List B courses are “topic” courses. The titles will vary. Students may complete the requirement with two courses from the same topic if the courses have different titles.

  • J412 Issues in Communication Studies
  • J467 Issues in International Communication
  • J495 Research Methods*
  • J496 Issues in Communication Ethics & Law

*Public Relations majors must take J495 Research Methods: Strategic Communication as one of their List B courses.

Completion of the lower-division core, the Gateway to Media series, the core context requirement and any of the sequence specializations will not add up to 60 required journalism credits. Some elective credits will be required. The 24 upper-division journalism hours required for the major do count toward the total 62 upper-division hours required by the university.

VI. GENERAL-STUDIES REQUIREMENT
Where applicable, these courses can overlap with the University’s group requirements. Courses numbered 196, 198, 199, 399-406 or 408-410 may not be used to fill the journalism general-studies requirement.

  • At least 116 credits outside journalism. (Any course prefix other than “J.”)
  • Of the 116 stated above, at least 94 credits have to be from courses offered by the College of Arts and Sciences.
  • Sixteen hours in literature. “Literature” includes any course dealing with printed literature taught by the Departments of English (ENG), Comparative Literature (COLT), Classics (CLAS), Humanities (HUM), or cross-listed for major credit by these departments on the online schedule of classes. At least eight of the 16 hours must be in literature courses taught in English. A maximum of eight hours in one of the following categories may be used to meet this requirement: (a) Literature courses taught in a second language as part of a student’s program of study in a second language, or (b) Courses treating film as literature. (Courses in this category should have a significant reading and writing component.)
  • Eight hours in history. “History” includes any history course taught by the Department of History (HIST) or cross-listed for history major credit on the online schedule of classes.
  • Eight hours in economics. “Economics” includes any economics course taught by the Department of Economics (EC) or cross-listed for economics major credit on the online schedule of classes.
  • Three additional blocks of eight credits from departments in the College of Arts and Sciences. Courses used to satisfy requirements (C), (D), and (E) above cannot simultaneously be used as an additional block. First- and second-year foreign language courses taken for the Bachelor of Arts requirement and first-year WR courses that fulfill the writing composition requirement also may not be used to fulfill this requirement.

VII. OTHER MAJOR REQUIREMENTS FOR GRADUATION

  • Minimum 2.70 UO journalism GPA
  • Minimum 60 credits in journalism
  • Minimum 24 upper-division credits in journalism
  • Minimum 27 credits in journalism taken at UO