The School of Media and Journalism, in conjunction with the Kenan-Flagler Business School, created an undergraduate degree with a rigorous and unique curriculum, enabling potential journalists and other potential communication professionals to address the growing need for understanding how markets and business work and the ability to explain these increasingly complex areas in a way that the average mass communication consumer can understand. The program prepares undergraduate students for positions primarily in journalism, but also in public relations and internal communications.
The program creates a path for students interested in enrolling in both schools that previously didn’t exist and take advantage of the strengths of both schools. Both Kenan-Flagler and the journalism school are considered among the top programs in the country in their respective fields, and both emphasize practical knowledge as well as theoretical thinking. Kenan-Flagler provides students in the program with a key understanding of accounting and how business works, while the journalism school provides training in communicating about business, the economy and markets in a way that provides understanding and context to consumers.
The bachelor of arts in business journalism builds on the success of the school’s certificate program in business journalism, which began enrolling students in 2004. Graduates of the certificate program have gone onto jobs at The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Bloomberg News, Reuters and other business media, as well as jobs in corporate communications.
The school sees this degree as a means of addressing a need in the field of mass communication. Journalists and communicators with an understanding of how the business world works – and an ability to write about it – are valued employees in today’s media world. The school expects that the enrollees in the program will come from its students as well as students from Kenan-Flagler.