• a Four-Year undergraduate program (Course Descriptions)
• a Two-Year program for university graduates (LAST OFFERED IN 2006)
• a Master of Journalism (more information can be found at the School of Graduate Studies website)

Students are introduced to journalism as practiced across all forms of media within the first two years, after which they may choose courses to concentrate in a specific medium (online, newspaper, magazine or broadcast) or gain expertise in a cross-media skill such as editing, or in a specific beat in journalism (including sports, business or international reporting).

After taking courses building skills and evaluating theories associated with journalism, students may finish their program with an internship at a professional news organization and/or with the chance to produce our newspaper (The Ryersonian), our magazine, (The Ryerson Review of Journalism), our online news portal (RyersOnline), or news and public affairs programs for radio and television.

Students are coached and assisted by instructors drawn from major newspapers, magazines, online news, and television and radio networks.

Students also take a variety of liberal studies and professionally related courses.

Four Year Program

Admission requirements: Six Grade 12 U/M credits, including English, (ENG 4U/Anglais (EAE4U) with a minimum average of 70 percent or higher. (Competition for spaces is tight, and marks are generally much higher.)

Please see the Ryerson website for full requirements using the old Ontario curriculum and other alternatives.

Go to the Ryerson University website for admissions information and applications.

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The following applies only to students admitted before September, 2007.

How Streaming Works

Undergraduates admitted before September 2007 make their streaming choice in the winter term of second year; students in the graduate program chose their stream in the winter term of their first year. In February, students meet with the stream directors in an information session about the streams.

Stream choice forms are distributed in early March and are due several weeks later. You should also include a letter detailing why you would like to specialize in that particular area, and any experience you may have had in the medium. Final decisions about admission to the streams are made after final marks for the year are available.

Stream Directors:

For the academic year 2008-2009, the stream directors are:

• Marsha Barber (broadcast)
• Bill Reynolds (magazine)
• Ann Rauhala (newspapers)
• Vinita Srivastava (online)

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Broadcasting

Students are accepted into the broadcast stream on the basis of their overall marks and demonstrated talent in radio and television.

For undergraduates, the third year includes the production of a weekly current affairs and news program. In other courses, they study the technical aspects of television production, and broadcast research methods.

In their final year, all graduate and undergraduate students work for six weeks as interns on television or radio shows. They also spend six weeks producing a daily television news program. In their final term, they study the history of the documentary. They must also take a highly intensive course in either television or radio documentary. The TV group regularly places first in TV Ontario's annual Telefest awards. The radio students have been very successful at selling their work to the CBC.

Newspaper

The newspaper stream provides students with the skills needed to work immediately in any print newsroom. That means gaining experience with reporting, researching, interviewing, meeting deadlines, copy editing, layout and design, computer-assisted reporting, and writing for online media. Once students reach the final year, they are ready to produce their own newspaper, The Ryersonian, and to move into a newsroom for a six-week practical internship. What are editors looking for As well as basic skills, they want reporters who demonstrate curiosity, persistence, and passion and excitement for the craft.

Graduates from the newspaper program work as general assignment and beat reporters, as national, foreign and city editors, as managing editors and as editors, on daily and weekly newspapers in Canada and beyond. They also freelance, work in various online media editing and writing jobs, and find work in radio and television.

Magazine

In their third year, those in the undergraduate magazine program take Magazine Reporting, which builds on the skills and techniques they learned in the second-year magazine-writing course. Students write a number of articles, including a feature and an article for the Web. The other stream-specific course is Magazine Fundamentals, which emphasizes such entry-level editing skills as copy editing, proofreading and checking and offers an introduction to QuarkXPress.

In graduating year, all graduate and undergraduate students take three magazine courses: Advanced Magazine Writing, Advanced Magazine Editing and Magazine Masthead. The major assignment in the writing course is developing a feature article for publication in the Ryerson Review of Journalism. The editing course introduces students to the full set of skills that senior editors require. Instead of an internship component, the magazine stream provides a full-year "masthead" course, which involves serving as a staff member for one of two annual issues of the Review. Graduating year students learn basic HTML and practice Web writing and editing skills; instruction in these skills in spread across all three final-year magazine courses.

Online

For their final year, students have the option of changing stream to specialize in Online news reporting. Reporting, editing and producing roles are available on the RyersOnline, site, which is managed to replicate a live site, including interactivity, responsiveness to users and opportunities for multimedia storytelling. Students are immersed in theories, skills and techniques central to reporting breaking and longer-form news. As well, they do an internship with an online information service where work is assigned and evaluated at a professional level.

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