Journalism, Public Relations & New Media
JPR&NM prepares students with the knowledge and skills needed to succeed in an industry in which content creation for various platforms is the key to success. Our five concentrations are News/Editorial, Public Relations, Advertising, Photojournalism and Broadcast Journalism.
All sequences require internships, a capstone portfolio that’s been critiqued by practitioners, and other forms of practical experience.
Our department also offers the American Studies program.
Advertising explores the theory and history of advertising as students develop skills in copywriting, design, research and management.
News/Editorial curriculum teaches students how to be marketable in multi-faceted media markets, including online, print and visual media.
Photojournalism offers majors the opportunity to explore the history, theory and context of photography while developing professional portfolios.
Public Relations, our most popular sequence, offers a broad-based curriculum and practical experiences to empower students with state-of-the-art skills in design, photography/videography, social media management/analytics, branding, image repair and strategic planning.
Broadcasting, our newest sequence, explores broadcasting from many perspectives, including production, digital/video media and storytelling.
Graduate Programs
Students work with our graduate program director to design learning to meet their goals. We offer both an International Journalism master’s degree that requires bilingual fluency for a global internship, as well as a traditional 36-hour research-intensive program that concludes with a major project or thesis.
In-Person MA
Our traditional master’s program is designed to meet the needs of professionals wanting to enhance their skills as well as recent grads interested in pursuing academic career opportunities in higher education.
Opportunities
Our American Studies undergraduate and graduate programs are interdisciplinary and allow choices from a variety of courses aligned with students’ interests, professional goals and aspirations. Its curriculum examines social justice and other contemporary issues and offers intellectual stimulation from multiple academic disciplines, participation in exciting undergraduate research, stimulating conferences and faculty mentorship.
Baylor Student Media outlets offer hands-on experience in newspaper, digital media, magazine, yearbook and broadcast media.
The National Association of Black Journalists and the Public Relations Student Society of America, two student-led organizations, offer leadership opportunities for our majors. We appoint Student Ambassadors who participate in departmental and other activities with faculty. The program is what participants make of it—with ample room for growth and leadership development.
News
More NewsThe Southwest Education Council for Journalism and Mass Communication (SWECJMC) is pleased to announce the 2024 winner of its Educator Award—Dr. Mia Moody, professor and Chair of the Department of Journalism, Public Relations and New Media at Baylor University. The Educator Award, created in 2021, honors a faculty member at a SWECJMC member institution who has demonstrated an outstanding contribution to journalism and mass communication education and an exceptional commitment to undergraduate and graduate education through innovative practices, excellent student outcomes, and classroom-focused research. These attributes essentially describe Dr. Moody’s career.
Join us for Media Law & Ethics with Professor Mark Osler at 9:30 a.m. on Oct. 31 in 245 Castellaw Communications Center. Osler advocates for sentencing and clemency policies rooted in human dignity principles. For more information, contact Fred Hartman Distinguished Professor Sommer Dean.
We are pleased to share that a new Baylor JPR&NM Study Abroad program will begin this summer. This program will take students and faculty to Vienna, Austria. The program's theme is “Communicating with Global Audiences,” and it will run from May 26 to June 27, 2025, spanning five weeks.
Through a trend analysis survey, a group of Baylor University researchers has found that public relations practitioners' and educators' expectations regarding the essential competencies for entry-level and mid-level professionals exceed realistic performance levels. This has prompted changes to the Accreditation in Public Relations (APR) and the Certificate in Principles of Public Relations (CPPR) exams.
