Journalism | Undergraduate

Why Howard Journalism?

The Journalism Program at Howard University trains students who are ethically and rigorously prepared for wide-ranging careers in digital and broadcast news. Our students are multimedia journalists — reporters, editors, producers and content creators —who write, edit and produce thought-provoking enterprise stories of people and communities of color. 

Our curriculum offers tracks in Digital and Broadcast Journalism. The program won three National Academy of Arts & Sciences Student Production Awards, or Student Emmys, in 2023 for Best Newscast and Serious News Report. Through partnerships with the department, our students intern each year at The Washington Post, NBC, the Wall Street Journal among others. Our student work is published on the Howard University News Service a 23-year-old digital news platform owned and operated by the Journalism program telling the story of media deserts in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area and addressing a lack of diverse news coverage across D.C.'s eight wards and communities. 

The Center for Journalism and Democracy, led by Knight Chair in Race and Journalism, Prof. Nikole Hannah Jones, is a first-of-its-kind center strengthening historically-informed, pro-democracy journalism.

We are accredited by the Accrediting Council of Education in Journalism and Mass Communications (ACEJMC), the professional accrediting body ensuring high standards in curriculum and student learning outcomes. We are one of eight HBCUs with this accreditation. 

Join the legacy of Journalism excellence at HU. Apply now to become a student! 

Chair: Ingrid Sturgis, M.A., associate professor

Journalism Sequence Coordinator: Stacey Patton, Ph.D., assistant professor

Yanick Rice Lamb, Ph.D., professor & editorial director, HU News Service

Nikole Hannah Jones, M.A., knight chair in race and journalism

Jennifer C. Thomas, M.A., associate professor & director, Annenberg Honors Program

Christine McWhorter, Ph.D., assistant professor

dominic k. mckenzie, M.A., ACB, assistant professor & director, HU Multicultural Media Academy

Ericka Blount, M.S., master instructor

Deron Snyder, M.S., lecturer

Click here for Faculty Profiles

Stacey Patton, Ph.D.

Sequence Coordinator, Journalism & Assistant Professor of Digital Storytelling

Welcome from our Sequence Coordinator!

"We empower future journalists who fearlessly tell stories that illuminate truth, challenge injustice, and amplify the voices of the unheard.  Building on the rich legacy of Black journalists, we prepare bold storytellers to define the future of media."

What We Offer

Latest News from Our Program

Howard is off to Abu Dhabi!

Seniors Kyle Fisher and Donovan McNeal will represent Howard University at the CNN Academy Newsroom Simulation in Abu Dhabi, UAE in December! This follows a recent CNN Breaking News Academy in Atlanta in October. The students will be accompanied by Prof. Jennifer Thomas, former CNN executive producer. Howard is the only HBCU that will attend the simulation.

Photo: Kyle Fisher, Prof. Thomas and Donovan McNeal pose for a photo at CNN HQ in Atlanta in October. 

Read More on The Dig
Prof. Thomas, Donovan Thomas and Kyle Fisher in front of CNN sign

We are Student Emmy Winners...Again!

Congratulations to the Spring '24 cohort of the Capstone NewsVision Broadcast Journalism class, winners of two 2023-2024 Student Emmy Awards! The Capital Emmys Student Production Awards were announced on November 21 by the National Capital Chesapeake Bay Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. 

This is the fourth year in a row the program has won the Student Emmy for Best Newscast!

Watch the Announcement here!

Broadcast Journalism Seniors Celebrate Final Capstone Presentation

The Fall '24 Senior Journalism Capstone Presentation featuring students from NewsVision and News Lab classes, took place on November 26. The students, under the direction of Dr. Yanick Rice Lamb and Prof. Jennifer Thomas shared their senior portfolios and highlighted work culminating from their various digital and broadcast projects. The NewsVision class also featured their final 30-minute newscast. 

Photo: Danilo Wrightsell presenting his final portfolio to the audience (Credit: Clifton Jones)

Danilo Wrightsell presenting
 

More than 80 faculty & students covered the 2024 Election

Student interviews Trump supporters
(Photo: Davis Dailey)

The work is published on the Howard University News Service (HUNS). The website partners with more than 200 Black press outlets across the country through the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA), republishing our coverage of national and local events in and around the Washington area, including Congress and the White House. A five-hour long broadcast produced by the Journalism program was simulcast on NewsOne, iWomanTV and on Howard University digital platforms on Election Day. The capstone broadcast class also produced a 30-min newscast from the studios of WHUT TV. Read journal articles written by Dr. Rice Lamb, Prof. Sturgis & Prof. Thomas on HUNS's 2008 and 2014 coverage.

Visit the Howard University News Service
Our Student Journalists At Work

Digital Journalism student is a Fellow at The Washington Post

Juan Benn Jr. (he/him) is a fellow at The Washington Post for the 2024 academic year. He is assigned to the Local desk and covers stories about people and events in the DMV. He is from Knoxville, Tennessee.

"[I am blessed to] work at such a prestigious newspaper before I even cross the stage. Everything I have worked for and have been taught over the years has prepared me for this moment," he said.

Benn is also the managing editor at The Hilltop, the oldest Black collegiate newspaper in the United States.

Read his stories at The Washington Post

Broadcast Journalism student reports from the Yard on Election Day

Trinity Webster-Bass (she/her), a senior Broadcast Journalism major, was reporting on the Yard for NewsVision, the Fall 2024 capstone newscast which aired on WHUT TV, a PBS station, on Election Day.

Read and watch her stories at HUNewsService.com

Digital Journalism student published by The Guardian

Asia Alexander (she/her), a senior Digital Journalism major, was published by The Guardian recently. Her story "Somber mood at Kamala Harris’s alma mater Howard University as hopes for victory dim" chronicled election night on the Yard. 

Alexander was an editorial intern at Forbes Magazine during the summer of 2024.

Read The Guardian story here

Broadcast Journalism student published by ESSENCE.com

Rachel Bunch (she/her), a senior Broadcast Journalism major, was published by ESSENCE.com recently. Her story, "Howard’s Heartbeat: The Yard Brings Together Alumni, Students And Supporters For Kamala Harris", highlighted the importance of the watch party for Vice President Harris being hosted at her alma mater.

“I am grateful to my professors for encouraging me and providing me with opportunities to work with organizations I have admired growing up. It's a full circle feeling," she said.

Read ESSENCE.com story here

Broadcast Journalism student appears on CNN

Skyler Winston (she/her), a senior Broadcast Journalism major, was invited to appear on CNN recently as part of a panel discussing student impressions on the 2024 Election. From the Bay Area in California, she is the political editor at The Hilltop, the oldest Black collegiate paper in the United States.

Watch and read her stories at HUNewsService.com

Broadcast Journalism student named White House HBCU Scholar

Ashley Anderson (she/her), a junior Broadcast Journalism major, is a 2024 White House HBCU Scholar, as named by the White House Initiative on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity through Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). 

Read more on The Dig

Howard students receive HBCU Science Journalism Fellowship

Our journalism students Mykal Bailey and Sabrina McCrear were selected by the HBCU Knight Science Journalism Program at MIT to participate in a new fellowship that provides students from Historically Black Colleges and Universities with training, mentorship, and early career support to do reporting on science, health, and environmental issues. 

Juan Benn Jr. reflects on his experience covering the 2024 Election from the Yard

Faculty on the Frontlines of Truth

Prof. Jennifer Thomas, associate professor, speaks to the audience at the Fall 2024 Capstone Presentation at WHUT Studios in November.

Dr. Yanick Rice Lamb, professor, speaks to the audience at the Fall 2024 Capstone Presentation at WHUT Studios in November.

Dr. Christine McWhorter, assistant professor of broadcast journalism, pauses for a photo at the Democratic National Convention in Summer 2024.

She was one of two faculty advisors who traveled with students as they covered the event for HU News Service.

Chair of the Department of Media, Journalism and Film, Prof. Ingrid Sturgis (R), pauses for a photo at the retirement celebration event for Dean Emerita Gracie Lawson Borders (L) during the Spring 2024 semester.

Dr. Yanick Rice Lamb, Prof. Dominic McKenzie, Prof. Jennifer Thomas and Chair Ingrid Sturgis pause for a photo at the end of the Fall 2024 Capstone Presentations at the WHUT TV Studio in November.

professor Jennifer Thomas headshot with brick wall

Jennifer Thomas, M.A.

accepted an invitation to deliver the keynote address at the Department of State International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) on New and Traditional Broadcast Media. The address was titled 'It's Now or Never: The Fundamentals of a Free Press to a Democratic Society.'

Dominic McKenzie

dominic k. mckenzie, M.A., ACB

was invited to return as Judge in the Press Association of Jamaica awards, the premier honor given to Jamaica's best journalists. He will judge the Young Journalist of the Year category.

Portrait of Stacey Patton signing a book

Stacey Patton, Ph.D.

released a children's book 'Not My Cat', published by Simon and Schuster. The book chronicles a cat who follows a homeowner who is too busy to adopt an animal -- until the cat adopts her.

Dr. Christine McWhorter

Christine McWhorter, Ph.D.

published an article in the Journal of Media Literacy Education exploring how pop culture podcasts can support Critical Race Media Literacy among HBCU students. As a Critical Race Media Literacy educator, McWhorter’s study found podcasts helped students engage with CRML and question dominant narratives in a fresh, accessible way.

Prof. Ericka Blount

Ericka Blount, M.A.

was awarded the Saul Zaentz Innovation Fund in Film and Media at Johns Hopkins University to continue the production of her episodic television project “fiftyTWO” in partnership with her sister, Elissa Blount Moorhead. This project has gone through Zaentz and with Sundance Episodic labs.

Professor Yanick Rice Lamb sits at desk with laptop

Yanick Rice Lamb, Ph.D.

was featured in the latest edition of Howard Magazine, in an article titled 'Widening the Pool of Truthtellers. Read the feature here.

History of the Journalism Program at Howard University

1971

The Cathy Hughes School of Communications traces its history back to 1971 when the SOC was founded with Tony Brown as dean.

1971 - 1974

WHUR-FM debuted in 1971 and three years later, one of MJFC's predecessors, the Department of Radio, Television and Film (RTVF), established student-run radio station WHBC

1982

The Community News newspaper began publishing, and the CHSOC relocated to the renovated C.B. Powell Building.

1985-1993

Under the leadership of Dean Orlando Taylor (1985 to 1993), the Walter Annenberg Foundation donated a $2 million endowment to begin the Annenberg Honors Program. The School also established the Howard Journal of Communications; "News Vision," a television news magazine produced by journalism students; and the student-run Howard University Film Organization.

1986

The Accrediting Council for Education in Journalism and Mass Communications (ACEJMC) accredited the then existing Departments of Journalism and RTVF – enabling those departments to join the select few communications programs in America and abroad to be endorsed by this rigorous assessment/accreditation body

Mid-1990s

Four (4) school-based media outlets began: Glasshouseradio.com, the first all-talk, online radio channel produced for and by Howard students & faculty; District Chronicles, a weekly community newspaper; BlackCollegeView.com (now HUNewsService.com); and 101 Magazine (101Magazine.net).

1993 - 2011

Dr. Jannette L. Dates became School's third dean in 1993, serving until 2011. Under her leadership, the Departments of Journalism and RTVF received ACEJMC re-accreditation in 2003 and 2009. Time Warner, Inc. invested $2 million to establish RTVF’s Time Warner Endowed Chair; media titans Bill Duke, Suzanne DePasse and Cathy Hughes served in this capacity.

2013 - 2017

Dr. Gracie Lawson-Borders became the CHSOC's fourth dean. The new Department of Media, Journalism and Film (combining parts of the former Departments of Journalism and RTVF) welcomed its first students in the class of 2017.

2019

Journalism Professor Ingrid Sturgis becomes chair of the Department of Media, Journalism and Film

2020

In September 2020, Howard University and Craig Newmark announced that Craig Newmark Philanthropies made a $2.5 million gift to support aspiring journalism students. The Craig Newmark Journalism Endowed Opportunity Scholarship Program ($1.5 million) supports journalism majors with demonstrated financial need (with priority given to juniors and seniors) and The Craig Newmark Journalism Endowed Student Experience Fund enables professional development opportunities that are vital to students to get jobs after college and to advance in their careers.

Journalism (Digital and Broadcast) | Undergraduate

Contacts

Stacey Patton, Ph.D. (Primary Contact)

Sequence Coordinator
Assistant Professor
Email

Ingrid Sturgis

MJF
Department Chair
(202) 806-7357
Email

Program Details

  • Degree Classification: Undergraduate
  • Program Type: Major

Statistics

Students on set in the Howard TV Studio

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