The Nicholson School of Communication and Media ranks #20 among the best colleges for journalism in 2025 according to University Magazine. “UCF prepares graduates for successful careers in various journalism fields, making it a premier choice for aspiring journalists.” 

The Best Colleges for Journalism ranking compares the top colleges for journalism and communications majors based on key statistics and student reviews using U.S. Department of Education data. 

In a brief interview with Senior Instructor Rick Brunson, he discusses the changes coming to the journalism program as well as comparing the program changes over the years.  

Are there any changes coming to the program soon that might raise our ranking in the future? 

“Yes. The Journalism program is experimenting this semester with a combined capstone course. Usually, there are two separate senior capstone courses – one for Digital News Track Journalism majors and one for Electronic News Track Journalism majors. This semester, we’re trying a single, combined capstone course, where students from both tracks work together. This format actually comes closer to reflecting the multimedia realities of the news industry. Professor Lance Speere is the instructor of record for this experimental class and could give you more of an idea of how it’s going so far.” 

How has the program changed (as you have been teaching over the years that helped our program get to this ranking we are at now)? 

“It’s hard to believe that it’s been a dozen years since our faculty colleagues sent Tim Brown and I to the Faculty Multimedia Conference at the Poynter Institute over in St. Petersburg in January 2012. Back then, journalism was housed in two detached and separate majors here at the Nicholson School. Broadcast journalism was taught in the Radio-Television degree program and print journalism was taught in the Journalism degree program. We were very siloed then. But the faculty realized this did not reflect the ongoing realities of the news industry, which had been converging since the late 1990s with more of a digital focus for both broadcast and print. So, they sent Tim and I to Poynter with a mandate to learn what other academic journalism programs were doing around the country to tear these silos down and rebuild with a strong focus on digital media, while still retaining the core values, ethics and best practices that make journalism the essential profession that it is in a democratic republic. So, we went, learned and came back, and our colleagues rolled up their sleeves and did the necessary collaborative work to make it happen.  

Today, we have one Journalism major with a common core set of classes but with two distinct but related tracks: Electronic News and Digital News. All journalism majors learn to write clearly and accurately and shoot and edit video effectively and compellingly, regardless of their track. We also added new courses in social and mobile media. Professor Lance Speere launched NSM Today, a digital news site, which has recently been rebranded as The Charge. The result has been a stronger program that deserves this ranking and attention – and more importantly – students who graduate ready for careers in an ever-changing and dynamic profession. 

It also helps that our university is in a Top 20 media market and that we enjoy robust relationships with our media industry partners. Our students enjoy rich experiential learning opportunities through internships at an array of local news organizations that complement and enliven their classroom learning and make their degree more relevant and valuable.” 

 

Written by Majdulina Hamed.

Published to Nicholson News on September 3rd, 2024.

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