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Top Ten Works of Journalism of the Decade: Nominees

Nominations

Our judges and NYU’s Journalism faculty, along with some students and alumni, nominated 122 works of journalism for this honor.

Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow : Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness . “The book demonstrates the ways in which the ‘war on drugs,’ and its resulting incarceration policies and processes, operate against people of color in the same way as Jim Crow. Powerful on its own terms and crucial as an engine toward transforming the criminality of our ‘justice’ system.”

Dan Balz, Coverage of politics for the Washington Post, 2010-2019 . “He has taken on the mantle of David Broder as the one political writer whose insights and judgements influence everyone else. And Balz has resisted the temptation to stay close to TV green rooms in Washington — and, instead, is an indefatigable reporter on the road.”

Dan Barry, Writings for the New York Times, 2010-2019 . “For simply being the writer who I would read on almost any topic for both his prose and his narrative gifts.”

Charles Ferguson, Inside Job . “Angry and influential documentary exposing financial machinations behind the 2008 financial meltdown.”

Michael Lewis, The Big Short : Inside the Doomsday Machine . “The only book that made sense of the 2008 financial crisis.”

Siddhartha Mukherjee, The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer . “The book is about the ravages caused by cancer told in an elegant style.”

Rebecca Skloot, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks . “Extensively, and inventively researched, as well as gorgeously and compellingly written, the book weaves together a scientific journey with the story of a woman whose cells were crucial to major medical discoveries, all the while tracking both the bold and nuanced ways racism pervades these disciplines, and negatively impacts the lives of African Americans, and how it all relates to public health.”

WikiLeaks (via Chelsea Manning), “ Collateral Murder .” “Uncovered U.S. Military’s callous killing of civilians in Iraq, including two Reuters news staff. Not only is it a powerful work of journalism, it was done by an organization not often considered a journalistic outfit.”

Isabel Wilkerson, The Warmth of Other Suns : The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration . “It’s a masterwork by one of our greatest writers and most diligent reporters. Exquisitely written as it is researched, embracing breadth and detail alike, essential reading to understand America.” “A masterpiece of narrative nonfiction.”

Ames Alexander, Karen Garloch, Joseph Neff, David Raynor, Jim Walser, and Steve Riley, “ Prognosis: Profits, ” Charlotte Observer . “Details huge salaries for some hospital executives, while the hospitals sue patients delinquent on their bills and send patients who couldn’t pay to collection agencies.”

Matt Apuzzo, Adam Goldman, Eileen Sullivan and Chris Hawley, NYPD spying on Muslims , Associated Press. “Powerful investigative reporting showing the systemic violation by the government of the rights of Muslim Americans in the years following 9/11.”

Yasmine El Rashidi, Articles on the Arab Spring in Egypt , New York Review of Books . “The best analysis of what happened in Egypt that I’ve read — and one that often challenges liberal American perceptions.”

Sara Ganim and members of Patriot-News staff, The Sandusky Scandal . “One of the first investigations of our era to probe the depths of sexual assault, and the ways that fame and celebrity shield perpetrators from justice.”

Lourdes Garcia-Navarro, Coverage of the Arab Spring protests , NPR. “[Her] … stories were particularly insightful and exemplary, whether she was describing unfolding events or simply passing her microphone to everyday protesters or regime supporters. Often reporting at great personal risk, she filed reports directly from the battlefield, at times with the crackle of gunfire and bombs as her backdrop” — Peabody Awards website.

Mark Leibovich, Articles on national politics, 2011-2019 , New York Times . “For cant-cutting profiles of political figures.” “The best stylist on the political beat. He gets extra credit for his lacerating book on Washington called This Town .”

Janet Reitman, Inside Scientology : The Story of America’s Most Secretive Religion . “Lawrence Wright’s ‘Going Clear’ received infinitely more attention, but this book, now out of print … is a fascinating, frightening account of a terrifically resistant subject.”

Andrew Rossi, Page One : Inside the New York Times.“ This documentary “captures the excitement and the challenges in a newsroom when print is rapidly fading as the primary delivery system of serious news. Excellent time capsule.”

David Barboza , “ Billions in Hidden Riches for Family of Chinese Leader, ” New York Times . “Striking exposure of corruption at high levels of the Chinese government. Well documented work published in the face of heavy pressure from the Chinese officials … no mean feat.”

Katherine Boo , Behind the Beautiful Forevers : Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity . “Unbelievably well written and well reported portrait of a slum in Mumbai.” “Vividly reports on the life of this slum’s inhabitants.”

Daniel Junge and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy , Saving Face . “A powerful short documentary about Pakistani women scarred by acid attacks and the fight to bring those responsible to justice.”

Andrew Solomon , Far from the Tree : Parents, Children and the Search for Identity . “Wide-ranging investigation of how parents have dealt with, and should deal with, children who are ‘different’….Through his reporting, empathy, and intelligence, Solomon achieves the rare feat of having us look at familiar issues in a wholly new way.”

“Scott Alexander,” Slate Star Codex , 2013-2019. “ This wide-ranging, self-critical blog, written under a portion of Alexander’s real name, became among the most intellectually rewarding corners of contemporary journalism, exploring and then re-exploring subjects that range from psychiatry to economics to technology. Overflowing with interesting thinking about science, social science and life.” The author suspended this blog in 2020, when the New York Times threatened to reveal his real name .”

Sheri Fink, Five Days At Memorial : Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital . “In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. This is narrative medical journalism at its finest: compelling, compassionate, and unsettling.”

Ira Glass, Julie Snyder, Ben Calhoun, Alex Kotlowitz, Linda Lutton and Robyn Semien, “ Harper High School ,” This American Life . “At Harper High School in Chicago, twenty-nine current or recent students were shot in the span of a single year. Learning of this staggering statistic, This American Life embedded three reporters at the school for five months” — Peabody Awards website.

Glenn Greenwald, Barton Gellman, with Laura Poitras and Ewen MacAskill, Revelations of NSA domestic surveillance based on documents from Edward Snowden, The Guardian US , Washington Post . “Changed the world.”

Janet Malcolm, Forty One False Starts : Essays on Artists and Writers . “Sharp brilliant essays. This collection shows the pioneering journalist at the height of her talents working in innovative forms of essays.”

Lawrence Wright, Going Clear : Scientology, Hollywood and the Prison of Belief . “Exposé on an organization and belief system that vigorously resists exposure.”

Roger Angell, “ This Old Man ,” New Yorker . “An intensely observed look at the aging process from a personal point of view, written in a style so moving it might as well be music. This piece is so elemental — about the ultimate in current events, one’s approaching demise.”

Rukmini Callimachi, Reporting on Al-Qaeda and ISIS , New York Times . “No one has done a better job of lifting the veil.”

John Carreyrou, Christopher S. Stewart, Rob Barry, Christopher Weaver, Anna Wilde Mathews, Tom McGinty, Janet Adamy, Martin Burch, Chris Canipe, Madeline Farbman, Jon Keegan, Palani Kumanan and Stuart Thompson, “ Medicare Unmasked ” Wall Street Journal. “An investigation and interactive presentation that exposed abuses in Medicare practices that cost billions to taxpayers.”

Ta-Nehisi Coates, “ The Case for Reparations ,” The Atlantic. “Beautifully written, meticulously reported, highly persuasive …” “The most powerful essay of its time.” “Ground breaking.” “It influenced the public conversation so much that it became a necessary topic in the presidential debate.”

Jonathan Jones, T. Christian Miller, “ Firestone and the Warlord ,” Frontline and ProPublica, “Documentary and articles investigate the relationship between Firestone and the infamous Liberian warlord Charles Taylor.”

Suki Kim, Without You, There Is No Us : Undercover Among the Sons of North Korea’s Elite . “Beautifully written, original reporting ….No other American journalist has gone undercover in North Korea, let alone focused solely on where power — in all systems — is nurtured and reproduced.”

Sarah Koenig, Serial (Season One), This American Life , “Examined the murder of Hae Min Lee in 1999 in Baltimore and the questionable case against convicted teenager Adnan Syed.” “Justice, and the lack of it, are the main characters …” “It takes broadcast radio into a new dimension by following the rules, by breaking the rules and coming up with new ones.” “This series had a profound effect on podcasting and ushered in an era of popular true crime journalism.”

Elizabeth Kolbert, The Sixth Extinction : An Unnatural History . “Forces readers to consider the threat posed by human behavior to a world of astonishing diversity” — Pulitzer Prize website.

Evan Osnos, Age of Ambition : Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China . “Vividly depicts the hopefulness and disappointments, clarity, and confusion that we have come to recognize in China’s dazzling drive toward modernization and economic sustainability” — National Book Awards website.

Laura Poitras, Citizenfour , “Documentary on Edward Snowden and the NSA leaks. Changed the world.”

Claudia Rankine, Citizen : An American Lyric . “One of the most radical, innovative, lyric investigations of race in America. This is an important work that documents and pins down the nuances of race in America. Its publication was a cultural event.”

John Jeremiah Sullivan, “ The Ballad of Geeshie and Elvie : On the Trail of the Phantom Women Who Changed American Music and Then Vanished Without a Trace,” New York Times Magazine . “A critical detective cracking a case that had left scores before him completely empty-handed; suspenseful, gratifying, a great tall tale that turns out to be true.”

Jason Szep and Andrew R.C. Marshall, Reports on the violent persecution of the Rohingyas in Myanmar , Reuters . “A series of courageous reports on the violent persecution of the Rohingya, a Muslim minority, in Myanmar that, in efforts to flee the country, often fall victim to predatory human-trafficking networks” — from Pulitzer Prize website.

Staff of the Associated Press, “ Slavery in the Seafood Industry .” “An investigation of severe labor abuses tied to the supply of seafood to American supermarkets and restaurants, reporting that freed 2,000 slaves, brought perpetrators to justice and inspired reforms” — Pulitzer Prize website.

Ta-Nehisi Coates, Between the World and Me . “It is as if this book was written as part of a call and response to W.E.B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folks from more than a century earlier; now updated to a new century and even more searing. The problem of the 21st Century is still the color line.” “Explosive, deeply moving and revelatory.”

Nikole Hannah-Jones, The Problem We All Live With , This American Life . “Powerful argument for the ‘one thing that really works’ in improving the performance of minority students but ‘we are not really talking about, and … very few places are doing anymore’: integration.”

N.R. Kleinfield, “ The Lonely Death of George Bell ,” New York Times. “A detailed examination of what happens after the death of an obscure hoarder — followed by an account of the man’s life that lifts him out of obscurity. Kleinfield’s article represents the pinnacle of narrative feature writing — scrupulously reported, ingeniously structured, and written with clear-eyed empathy.”

Jill Leovy, Ghettoside: A True Story of Murder in America . “By following a homicide detective on an unsolved homicide case, Leovy, a Los Angeles Times reporter, illuminated the processes by which violence against black men continues. Dogged, painstaking reporting; fierce analytical insight; clear prose with the rarest gift — a path toward help: The book illuminates ways policing can be improved and also implicates the media’s role in perpetuating the systemic murder of black men.”

T. Christian Miller and Ken Armstrong, A series of articles investigating police and prosecutors’ handling of rape , ProPublica and the Marshall Project. “[S]tartling examination and exposé of law enforcement’s enduring failures to investigate reports of rape properly and to comprehend the traumatic effects on its victims” — Pulitzer Prize website.

Diane Sawyer and David Sloan, “ Bruce Jenner: The Interview ,” ABC. “This interview, with this very public figure — Jenner’s last before her transition — was a major cultural moment for the transgender community.”

Kathryn Schulz, “ The Really Big One ,” New Yorker . “This meticulously researched and well-argued piece describes an earthquake that will wipe out most of the coastal Northwest; not if but when. Science disguised as a thriller.”

Lindsey Smith, “ Not Safe to Drink ,” Michigan Radio, NPR, “Radio documentary challenged state officials and helped break the story of Flint’s horribly unhealthy new water system …”

Joby Warrick, Black Flags : The Rise of ISIS , “A deeply reported book of remarkable clarity showing how the flawed rationale for the Iraq War led to the explosive growth of the Islamic State” — Pulitzer Prize website.

Staff of the Washington Post , Police shootings database 2015 to present . “The definitive journalistic exploration and documentation of fatal police shootings in America. In a decade defined, in part, by the emergence of Black Lives Matter, this project set a new standard for real-time, data journalism and was a vital resource during a still-raging national debate.” “In the wake of Ferguson, newsrooms across the country took up admirable data reporting efforts to fill the longstanding gaps in existing federal data on police use of force. This project stands out both in its comprehensiveness and sustained dedication.”

Frederick Wiseman, In Jackson Heights . “From-the-ground-up portrait of a Queens neighborhood in transition, from the dean of American documentarians. Wiseman has been doing amazing work for more than half a century.”

Svetlana Alexievich, Secondhand Time : The Last of the Soviets . “Everyday Russian citizens recount the past thirty years, showing us what life was like during the fall of the Soviet Union and what it’s like to live in the new Russia left in its wake.”

Shane Bauer, “ I Went Undercover With a Border Militia. Here Is What I Saw ,” Mother Jones . “Shane Bauer is this generation’s Ted Conover.”

Steve Capus, Chris Licht, Sharon Hoffman, “ Nowhere to Go, Europe’s Migrant Crisis ,” CBS News. “DuPont award winning Coverage of Europe’s Migrant Crisis.”

Matthew Desmond, Evicted : Poverty and Profit in the American City . “An amazing work of immersion journalism.” “Gripping … offers not only a close-up examination of its subjects lives but a meta-analysis of the larger problem.” “The reader understands profiteering from the ground up.”

Ava DuVernay, 13th . “This thought-provoking documentary … explores how the Thirteenth Amendment led to an epidemic of mass incarceration in the United States.” “Shows the systematic enslavement of people of color through incarceration.”

Ezra Edelman, OJ: Made in America , ESPN Films. “A more than seven-hour-long documentary, shown in parts on television and later released in theaters, which employs the extraordinary rise and fall of this star football-player and successful television personality, who was later tried for murder, to frame a story of race in America.”

Chris Estey, “ How the Homeless Listen to Music : Low-Income, No Income, and Twelve-Step Subculture Is Its Own Music Scene,” The Common Reader: A Journal of the Essay (Washington University). “A subject no one else had ever addressed presented in a clear, unsentimental, detailed manner. Of all the cultural pieces I came across over the last decade, this, by a record publicist and cartoonist, not a writer, hit me the hardest.”

Eric Eyre, Three articles revealing how the state and drug companies, ignored regulations and allowed 780-million painkillers to pour into West Virginia counties while overdoses skyrocketed, Charleston Gazette-Mail . “[Exposed] the flood of opioids flowing into depressed West Virginia counties with the highest overdose death rates in the country” — Pulitzer Prize website.

David A. Fahrenthold, Series of articles demonstrating that most of candidate Donald Trump’s claimed charitable giving was bogus , Washington Post . “By contacting hundreds of charities — interactions recorded on what became a well-known legal pad — Fahrenthold proved that Trump had never given what he claimed to have given or much at all, despite, in one instance, having sat on the stage as if he had.”

Marisa Kwiatkowski, Mark Alesia and Tim Evans , “ A Blind Eye to Sex Abuse : How USA Gymnastics Failed to Report Cases,” IndyStar . “Their investigation … showed USA gymnastics executives had failed to report all allegations of sexual abuse involving coaches and other officials.”

Jane Mayer, Dark Money : The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right . “Mayer spent five years looking into the Koch brothers’ activities, and the result is this thoroughly investigated, well-documented book” — New York Times Ten Best Books of the Year.

John Oliver, Last Week Tonight , HBO. “A unique and bracing blend of satire and journalism. Oliver’s ‘main stories,’ the centerpiece of his show, have cumulatively invented a new genre — comedy investigative journalism.” In particular, episode 84, in 2016, on the failure to close Guantanamo Bay , “as told through the testimony of 14-year former inmate . . . and covering, among other things, how he survived the torture of constant heavy metal music by embracing it. Sardonic, sarcastic, setting you up for one thing and then changing voice and language so fast your head is spinning — leaving you heartbroken and laughing at the same time. A story covered by countless others who, unlike Oliver, didn’t really get the story.”

Jennifer Percy, “ I Have No Choice but to Keep Looking ,” New York Times Magazine. “A brilliant account of a husband’s unrelenting search for his wife, missing after the tsunami in Japan.”

Marc Smerling, Zac Stuart-Pontier, Crimetown, (Season 1) , Gimlet Media. “Podcast detailing the recent history of crime and corruption in Providence, Rhode Island. A rare blend of thorough, revelatory reporting and riveting listening.”

Wright Thompson, “ The Secret History of Tiger Woods ,” ESPN Magazine . “The best write-around ever, bar none.”

John B. Boles, Jefferson: Architect of American Liberty . “Critical examination of this slave-owning, human symbol of the American Revolution.”

Susan Carroll, David Hunn, Ryan Maye Handy, James Osborne, Mark Collette, Matt Dempsey, Emily Foxhall, Mihir Zaveri, Lise Olsen and Tony Freemantle, “ Developing Storm ,” Houston Chronicle . “A seven-part series explains why the damage of Hurricane Harvey — the most destructive storm in Houston’s history — was both a natural and man-made disaster.”

Jim DeRogatis, “ Parents Told Police Their Daughter is Being Held Against Her Will in R. Kelly’s ‘Cult ’”, Buzzfeed . “A consequential article that brought into the spotlight new and old allegations of abuse by the singer R. Kelly.”

Maggie Haberman, White House reporting, 2017-2019 , New York Times. “When the final histories of the Trump years are written, Haberman will be the reporter whose work is cited the most frequently for giving contemporary insights into the dysfunction and ego-mania of the 45th president. Those who criticize her as a Trump enabler fail to realize the rules that even today govern reporters who are not columnists or magazine writers.”

Glenn Kessler and Fact Checker Team, Database of Donald Trump’s false or misleading statements , Washington Post . “A rigorously reported and continually updated list of false statements by the president, numbering more than 19,000 by June 2020. The project is a sterling example of what journalists should do — holding the powerful accountable by using reporting and facts.”

Azmat Khan and Anand Gopal, “ The Uncounted ,” New York Times Magazine . “A deep investigation into civilian casualties resulting from the US war on terror.”

Jonathan Olshefski, Quest : A Portrait of An American Family . “Cinema verite-style documentary portrait of a North Philadelphia family over almost a decade. With sensitivity and shoe leather, tells the sort of story that is not told enough — an … African-American family, making their way through life.”

Alexandra Petri, Political humor column, 2017-2019 , Washington Post . “For her innovative ways to find humor in the Trump years. What has impressed is how adroitly she has avoided the obvious laugh lines and predictable form of mockery to write humor that is both lacerating and original. With the long-ago death of newspaper humor columns (like those written by Russell Baker in the Times ), I find it particularly refreshing that Petri has almost single-handedly revived a venerable journalistic art form.”

Elle Reeve , Charlottesville : Race and Terror , Vice News Tonight on HBO . “Remarkably revealing and disturbing interviews with and images of white nationalists converging on Charlottesville.”

Richard Rothstein, The Color of Law : A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America . “An examination of a long overlooked aspect of America’s promotion and sanctioning of segregation.”

Tom Toles, Editorial cartoons during the Trump presidency, Washington Post . Example: “ Trump offers advice for those problematic arrests .” “Toles’s editorial cartoons over the last years have been the most imaginative, scabrous, and funny anywhere. I chose this almost blind; a hundred others are as good. I gape whenever I see the person with the pancake on his head.”

Emily Yoffe, College campus rape accusation stories , The Atlantic . “Are colleges denying the accused due process in their efforts to crack down on sexual assault?”

Rania Abouzeid, No Turning Back : Life, Loss, and Hope in Wartime Syria . “Best book of reportage on Syrian War. As literary as it is wide-ranging and accurate. Its breadth and originality, both in the genre of war reportage and as a work of literary journalism, but also in its implicit conception of what constitutes ‘stories of war.’ Exquisitely written.”

Tonya Alanez, David Fleshler, Stephen Hobbs, Lisa J. Huriash, Paula McMahon, Megan O’Matz, Scott Travis, Aric Chokey, Dana Banker, Randy Roguski and David Schutz, “ Unprepared and Overwhelmed ,” South Florida Sun Sentinel . “This minute-by-minute feature on the Parkland shootings utilizes information gathering and multimedia to show how failures by undertrained and overwhelmed employees cost children their lives at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.”

Sandy Allen, A Kind of Mirraculas Paradise : A True Story About Schizophrenia . “Social history of mental illness and mental health treatment told through the author’s reworking of a schizophrenic uncle’s autobiography. Original in all ways — swath of information covered, narrative structure, and analysis.”

Anne Applebaum, “ A Warning From Europe : The Worst Is Yet to Come,” The Atlantic . Perhaps the most powerful of her articles “… putting Trump in the framework of the authoritarian temptation that also now governs politics in parts of Europe.” “Applebaum, historian of Central and Eastern Europe and a staunch opponent of Communism, has become a crucial journalistic voice against right-wing dictatorial tendencies not just in Europe but in the United States.”

Staff of the Associated Press, “ Torn Apart: Immigration in the Era of Trump .” “Few events captivated the public in 2018 as powerfully as the many scenes of children separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border ….Throughout the year, the Associated Press focused a critical spotlight on how these most vulnerable — the children — were affected by the president’s approach to migration” — Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Awards website.

Madeleine Baran, In The Dark , (Season 2), Minnesota Public Radio and American Public Media. “A narrative, investigative podcast uncovering the story of a black Mississippi man who was tried six times for the same murders. It is a master class in narrative and investigative journalism, and the team’s reporting led not just to the man’s release after more than 20 years, but to the Supreme Court ruling that the prosecutor in the case showed racial bias in jury selection.”

David Barstow, Susanne Craig and Russ Buettner, “ Trump Engaged in Suspect Tax Scheme, As He Reaped Riches From His Father ,” New York Times. “An enterprising, exhaustive examination of dodges and misrepresentations in the president’s family’s taxes.”

Shane Bauer, American Prison : A Reporter’s Undercover Journey Into the Business of Punishment . Based on a 2016 article for Mother Jones, “ My four months as a Private Prison Guard .” “Undercover investigation of private prisons in America. Rigorous investigation, highly ethical and redefining of our notion of what constitutes courageous reporting — in its accountability for oneself as well as holding others accountable.”

David W. Blight, Frederick Douglass : Prophet of Freedom . “In-depth examination of this singular American icon.”

Julie K. Brown, “ How a Future Trump Cabinet Member Gave a Serial Sex Abuser the Deal of a Lifetime ,” Miami Herald. “Investigative journalist examines a secret plea deal that helped Jeffrey Epstein evade federal charges related to sexual abuse.” “Brown essentially picked up a cold case; without her reporting, Epstein’s crimes and prosecutors’ dereliction would not be known.” “Great investigative reporting.” “Documenting the abuses of Jeffrey Epstein when virtually everyone else had dropped the story. “What makes this particularly compelling for me is that Brown did the reporting amid the economic collapse of a great regional paper.” “A remarkable effort to empower victims.”

John Carreyrou, Bad Blood : Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup. “Impressive account of the frauds perpetrated by Elizabeth Holmes and her once-hot medical start-up Theranos, based on the investigative reporter’s stories on the company for the Wall Street Journal .”

Robin DiAngelo, White Fragility : Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism . “Deals with rarely considered aspects of race relations.”

Eliza Griswold, Amity and Prosperity: One Family and the Fracturing of America . “A human examination of fracking.” “Documenting the damages of the energy boom on a poor Appalachian town ….Top-notch investigative and empathic reporting and beautiful writing … Inspiring without sentimentality.”

Zora Neale Hurston, Barracoon : The Story of the Last “Black Cargo .” “Lengthy interview and discussion in Alabama in 1927 with one of the last African slaves brought to the United States.”

Barbara Laker, Wendy Ruderman, Dylan Purcell and Jessica Griffin , “ Toxic City : Sick Schools,” Philadelphia Inquirer . “Many Philadelphia schools are filled with environmental hazards that are making kids sick. Almost won the Pulitzer, led to widespread changes and saved kids’ lives.”

Mick LaSalle, “Ask Mick LaSalle” column, San Francisco Chronicle. “ An example taken at random from the best and most unpredictable arts column in the country, where in 700 or so words covering three to five questions on film theory is delivered through wise-cracking deep thought. If Raymond Chandler had written a movie column, this might have been it.”

Bing Liu, Minding the Gap . “Director Bing Liu pulls off a remarkable feat of cinematic sleight of hand. What at first appears to be a film celebrating the joys of skateboarding turns into a deeply emotional journey of three young men — Keire, Zack, and the filmmaker himself — coming of age in a Rust Belt city.” — Peabody Awards website.

Beth Macy, Dopesick : Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America . “Account of the opioid crisis from both the supply side (big pharma and lax government oversight) and demand side, telling the story of affected people on the ground.”

Scott Pelley, Sharyn Alfonsi, Oriana Zill de Granados, Michael Rey and Emily Gordon, “ On the Border ,” 60 Minutes . “This nuanced and newsmaking reporting looked at the Trump administration’s policy of separating families at the Mexican border, [through] the poignant lens of aspiring immigrants going through it.” — text of Columbia-duPont award.

Nathaniel Rich, “ Losing Earth : The Decade We Almost Stopped Climate Change,” New York Times Magazine . “Rich does an impeccable job recounting the facts of one of the greatest blunders in American political history. He vividly outlines the systemic corruption and the willful ignorance of the U.S. oil industry that largely contributed to the magnitude of the crisis now facing future generations decades later.”

Adam Serwer, “ The Cruelty Is the Point ,” The Atlantic . “This essay documents Donald Trump’s harsh policies on immigration and social issues, and ‘the ritual rhetorical flaying of his targets before his supporters.’ The piece speaks to America’s polarized political and public life, and the title alone has taken on an iconic status.” “The most important article for understanding the first three years of the Trump Administration.”

Ben Taub, “ Iraq’s Post-ISIS Campaign of Revenge ,” New Yorker. “A detailed, gripping analysis of how Iraq is ‘dealing’ with ISIS prisoners and the larger problem of terrorism.”

Karen Tumulty, Columns on politics for the Washington Post , 2018-2019 . “She has made the transition from reporter to columnist with aplomb. Her judgements are sound and having a column has given her the platform to express her views with passion and evidence-based reporting.”

Staff of the Wall Street Journal , Investigation revealing President Trump’s payoffs during his campaign to two women who claimed to have had affairs with him. “Important exposé of misbehavior during the 2016 Trump campaign.”

Roger Cohen, “ Trump’s Inhumanity Before a Victim of Rape ,” New York Times . “Cohen’s columns over the past few years have been consistently the most honest and unflinching examinations of the idea and the practice of patriotism to be found anywhere. This one knocked the bottom out of the bottom.”

Chris Durrance and Barak Goodman, Slay the Dragon . Documentary on Gerrymandering. “If there is nothing more fundamental in a democracy than free elections, there is no greater threat to freedom than the invidious and systemic efforts to subvert the process. Cheating, especially when orchestrated in backrooms by powerbrokers, is never pretty.”

Carol Dysinger and Elena Andreicheva, Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You’re a Girl ) . “A class of young girls from disadvantaged neighborhoods in war-torn Kabul learn to read and write, and grow together in confidence through the joy of skateboarding” — Academy Awards website.

Ronan Farrow, Catch and Kill : Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators . “His investigation of the sexual abuse allegations against Harvey Weinstein and others and his own travails in reporting them. Originally reported for the New Yorker. ” “This is one of the defining issues of our times, one whose impact will be felt for a long time.”

Dominic Gates, Steve Miletich, Mike Baker and Lewis Kamb, Series of investigations of the government and Boeing failings that contributed to the fatal crashes of the 737 MAX , Seattle Times . “Groundbreaking stories that exposed design flaws . . . that led to two deadly crashes and revealed failures in government oversight” — Pulitzer Prize website.

dream hampton, Joel Karsberg, Tamra Simmons, Jesse Daniels and Brie Miranda Bryant, Surviving R Kelly (Season One), Lifetime. “Six-part documentary series, exposed decades-worth of alleged sexual misconduct and abuse of underage girls and young women of color by the R&B superstar” — Peabody Awards website.

Nikole Hannah-Jones, Matthew Desmond, Jeneen Interlandi, Kevin M. Kruse, Jamelle Bouie, Linda Villarosa, Wesley Morris, Khalil Gibran Muhammad, Bryan Stevenson, Trymaine Lee, Djeneba Aduayom, Nikita Stewart, Mary Elliott, Jazmine Hughes, Anne C. Bailey, The 1619 Project , New York Times Magazine . “Explores the beginning of American slavery and reframes the country’s history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the very center of our national narrative.” “A definitive work of opinion journalism examining the lingering role of slavery in American society.”

Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey, She Said : Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement . Based on their reporting for the New York Times . “ A chronicle of the #MeToo era.” “A pitch-perfect primer on how to take a hot-button-chasing by-the-minutes breaking story and investigate it with the best and most honorable journalistic practices.” “This is one of the defining issues of our times, one whose impact will be felt for a long time.”

Patrick Radden Keefe, Say Nothing : A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland . “The author goes back in time to an incident in Northern Ireland at the time of the Troubles, and asks whether violence is ever justified and whether forgiveness is ever possible. This book makes an eloquent case for how history is never really in the past.” “A gripping ‘thriller’ that widens to illuminate the horrors of the conflict in Northern Ireland.” “A masterful history of the Troubles.” “Unbelievably rich storytelling and deep … reporting reveals the complexity of political conflict in Ireland (and he solved a murder along the way).”

Ibram X. Kendi, How to Be an Antiracist . “Great book for our time.”

T. Christian Miller, Megan Rose and Robert Faturechi, “ Fight the Ship : Death and Valor on a Warship Doomed by Its Own Navy,” ProPublica. “Officials ignored warnings for years before one of the deadliest Navy crashes in decades.”

Nadia Reiman and staff of This American Life, with Molly O’Toole of the Los Angeles Times and Emily Green with Vice News , “ The Out Crowd .” Winner of first Pulitzer Prize for “audio reporting.” “Revelatory, intimate journalism that illuminates the personal impact of the Trump Administration’s ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy” — Pulitzer Prize website.

Omaya Sosa Pascual and Luis J. ValentÌn Ortiz, “ El Saqueo a los Fondos Públicos Detrás del Chat ,” [“The looting of public funds behind the chat”], Centro de Periodismo Investigativo (CPI). “Puerto Rico’s Center for Investigative Journalism revealed private messages between Governor Ricardo Rosselló and cabinet members, which revealed a multi-million dollar network of corruption and resulted in massive protests on the island and Rosselló’s resignation.”

Brian M. Rosenthal, “ They Were Conned : How Reckless Loans Devastated a Generation of Taxi Drivers,” New York Times . Investigative series on “New York City’s taxi industry that showed how … predatory loans … shattered the lives of vulnerable drivers,” reporting “that ultimately led to state and federal investigations and sweeping reforms” — Pulitzer Prize website.

Zadie Smith, “ Fascinated to Presume : In Defense of Fiction,” New York Review of Books . “A defense of the novelist’s ability to imagine the other. This essay will go down, along with Ralph Ellison’s ‘The World and the Jug,’ as a seminal analysis of literature’s power — and a response to identity politics.”

Ben Taub, “ Guantánamo’s Darkest Secret ,” New Yorker . “A devastating account of a man who was kidnapped, tortured and deprived of his liberty for more than a decade at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, blending on-the-ground reporting and lyrical prose to offer a nuanced perspective on America’s wider war on terror” — Pulitzer Prize website.

Jia Tolentino, Trick Mirror : Reflections on Self-Delusion . “Jia is an expert at articulating the millennial digitized life.”

Gene Weingarten, One Day : The Extraordinary Story of an Ordinary 24 Hours in America . “Random events in random places happening to random people reveal far more causality and commonality that one would ever suspect. The heartbeat of this book is one basic concept: it all matters and we need only to pay attention.”

Craig Whitlock, “ At War with the Truth ,” Washington Post . “A confidential trove of government documents reveals that senior U.S. officials failed to tell the truth about the war in Afghanistan throughout the 18-year campaign, making rosy pronouncements they knew to be false and hiding unmistakable evidence the war had become unwinnable.”

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• Photojournalism Links

The 10 Best Photo Essays of the Month

This month’s Photojournalism Links collection highlights 10 excellent photo essays from across the world, including Tomas Munita ‘s photographs from Gaza and Israel, made on assignment for the New York Times . The work, coinciding with the first anniversary of last year’s 50 day war between Israel and Palestinian militant groups, consists of eight innovative stop-motion-sequences which take us to the streets, hospitals, and homes on both sides of the conflict, and provide an immersive glimpse of how the two groups of communities are coping, one year after.

Tomas Munita: Walking in War’s Path (The New York Times )

Brent Stirton: Tracking Ivory: Terror in Africa | Ivory’s Human Toll (National Geographic) Two strong sets of images for National Geographic magazine’s latest cover story.

Lynsey Addario: Inside the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Diamond Mines (TIME LightBox) Terrific set of images looking at Congo’s diamond mining communities.

Andres Kudacki: Spain’s Housing Crisis (TIME LightBox) Powerful three-year project on the country’s home evictions, now on show at Visa pour l’Image photojournalism festival.

Mary Ellen Mark: New Orleans (CNN Money) The legendary photographer’s final assignment, done ahead of Hurricane Katrina’s 10th anniversary.

Daniel Etter: Hands Across Water (Al Jazeera America) Moving series on a small Sea-Watch ship, with a rotating crew of just eight volunteers, trying to save refugees and migrants in the Mediterranean.

Sergey Ponomarev: On Island of Lesbos, a Microcosm of Greece’s Other Crisis: Migrants (The New York Times ) Dramatic photographs of refugees and migrants arriving to the Greek island.

Allison Joyce: Child Marriage Bangladesh (International Business Times) Heartbreaking pictures of a 15-year-old Bangladeshi girl’s wedding | See also Joyce’s other Bangladeshi child marriage series at Mashable .

Andrea Bruce: Romania’s Disappearing Girls (Al Jazeera America) The Noor photographer’s work shows how poverty and desperation drive Romanian girls into the arms of sex traffickers.

Matt Black: Geography of Poverty: Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 (MSNBC) Second and third chapters of the Magnum photographer’s ambitious project mapping poverty around the U.S.

Mikko Takkunen is an Associate Photo Editor at TIME. Follow him on Twitter @photojournalism .

More Must-Reads From TIME

• The 100 Most Influential People of 2024
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• Scenes From Pro-Palestinian Encampments Across U.S. Universities
• 6 Compliments That Land Every Time
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• Want Weekly Recs on What to Watch, Read, and More? Sign Up for Worth Your Time

Contact us at [email protected]

The New Rules of Political Journalism

In this election, the reporting strategies of the past will not be enough.

This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here.

In our digitally chaotic world, relying on the election-reporting strategies of the past is like bringing the rules of chess to the Thunderdome.

First, here are three new stories from The Atlantic :

• The October 7 rape denialists
• Finding justice in Palestine
• Biden’s safe, polite campaign stop in Scranton

This past weekend, I was on a panel at the annual conference of the International Symposium on Online Journalism, in beautiful downtown Austin. Several journalists discussed the question: Are we going to get it right this time? Have the media learned their lessons, and are journalists ready for the vertiginous slog of the 2024 campaign?

My answer: only if we realize how profoundly the rules of the game have changed.

Lest we need reminding, this year’s election features a candidate who incited an insurrection, called for terminating sections of the Constitution, was found liable for what a federal judge says was “rape” as it is commonly understood, faces 88 felony charges, and—I’m tempted to add “etcetera” here, but that’s the problem, isn’t it? The volume and enormity of it all is impossible to take in.

The man is neither a riddle nor an enigma. He lays it all out there: his fawning over the world’s authoritarians, his threats to abandon our allies, his contempt for the rule of law, his intention to use the federal government as an instrument of retribution . Journalists must be careful not to give in to what Brian Klaas has called the “ Banality of Crazy .” As I’ve written in the past, there have been so many outrages and so many assaults on decency that it’s easy to become numbed by the cascade of awfulness.

The former White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer points out a recent example in his newsletter: On a radio show earlier this month, Donald Trump bizarrely suggested that Joe Biden was high on cocaine when he delivered his energetic State of the Union address. It was a startling moment, yet several major national media outlets did not cover the story.

And when Trump called for the execution of General Mark Milley, it didn’t have nearly the explosive effect it should have. “I had expected every website and all the cable news shows to lead with a story about Trump demanding the execution of the highest military officer in the country,” this magazine’s editor in chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, told The Washington Post . “If Barack Obama or George W. Bush had done so, I’m sure [the news media] would have been all over it.” (Trump’s threats against Milley came after The Atlantic published a profile of Milley by Goldberg.)

In our digitally chaotic world, relying on the reporting strategies of the past is like bringing the rules of chess to the Thunderdome. There has, of course, been some progress. The major cable networks no longer carry Trump’s rallies live without context, but they still broadcast town-hall meetings and interviews with the former president, which boost ratings. NBC’s abortive decision to hire Ronna McDaniel, a former chair of the Republican National Committee, as a contributor, despite her role in spreading lies about the 2020 election, highlighted the disconnect between this moment and much of the national media.

And then there is the internet. It is certainly possible that richer, more insightful media will emerge from the digital revolution, but we’re obviously not there now. Back in 2016, we worried that social media had become a vector for disinformation and bigotry, but since then, we’ve seen Elon Musk’s extraordinary enshittification of X. In 2016, we worried (too late) about foreign interference and bots. In 2024, we are going to have to contend with deepfakes created by AI.

This year will see some of the best journalism of our lifetime. (You’ll find much of it here in The Atlantic .) But because both the media and their audiences are badly fractured, much of that reporting is siloed off from the voters who need it most. Because millions of Americans are locked in information bubbles, half of the country either won’t see important journalism about the dangers of a second Trump term or won’t believe it.

As Paul Farhi notes in The Atlantic , MAGA-friendly websites have experienced massive drops in traffic, but social media continues to thrive on negativity and providing dopamine hits of anger and fear. And of distraction—last week, the most-liked videos on TikTok about the presidential race included a video of a man singing to Biden and Trump’s visit to a Chick-fil-A .

To put it mildly, the arc of social media does not bend toward Edward R. Murrow–style journalism.

So what’s to be done? I don’t have any easy answers, because I don’t think they exist. Getting it right this time does not mean that journalists need to pull their punches in covering Biden or become slavish defenders of his administration’s policies. In fact, that would only make matters worse. But perhaps we could start with some modest proposals.

First, we should redefine newsworthy . Klaas argues that journalists need to emphasize the magnitude rather than simply the novelty of political events. Trump’s ongoing attacks on democracy may not be new, but they define the stakes of 2024. So although live coverage of Trump rallies without any accompanying analysis remains a spectacularly bad idea, it’s important to neither ignore nor mute the dark message that Trump delivers at every event. As a recent headline in The Guardian put it, “Trump’s Bizarre, Vindictive Incoherence Has to Be Heard in Full to Be Believed.”

Why not relentlessly emphasize the truth, and publish more fact-checked transcripts that highlight his wilder and more unhinged rants? (Emphasizing magnitude is, of course, a tremendous challenge for journalists when the amplification mechanisms of the modern web—that is, social-media algorithms—are set by companies that have proved to be hostile to the distribution of information from reputable news outlets.)

The media challenge will be to emphasize the abnormality of Donald Trump without succumbing to a reactionary ideological tribalism, which would simply drive audiences further into their silos. Put another way: Media outlets will need all the credibility they can muster when they try to sound the alarm that none of this is normal . And it is far more important to get it right than to get it fast, because every lapse will be weaponized.

The commitment to “fairness” should not, however, mean creating false equivalencies or fake balance. (An exaggerated report about Biden’s memory lapses , for example, should not be a bigger story than Trump’s invitation to Vladimir Putin to invade European countries .)

In the age of Trump, it is also important that members of the media not be distracted by theatrics generally. (This includes Trump’s trial drama, the party conventions, and even— as David Frum points out in The Atlantic —the debates.) Relatedly, the stakes are simply too high to wallow in vibes, memes, or an obsessive focus on within-the-margin-of-error polls. Democracy can indeed be crushed by authoritarianism. But it can also be suffocated by the sort of trivia that often dominates social media.

And, finally, the Prime Directive of 2024: Never, ever become numbed by the endless drumbeat of outrages.

• Political analysis needs more witchcraft.
• Right-wing media are in trouble.

Today’s News

• The Senate dismissed the articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and ruled that they were unconstitutional, ending his trial before it got under way.
• House Speaker Mike Johnson will proceed with a plan, backed by President Joe Biden, to vote on separate bills to provide aid to Ukraine, Israel, and U.S. allies in the Indo-Pacific. The proposed move has raised criticism from some conservative representatives.
• Four Columbia University officials, including the president, Nemat Shafik, testified in a congressional committee hearing about student safety, free speech, and anti-Semitism on campus.
• The Trump Trials : The first days of the criminal case against Donald Trump have been mundane, even boring—and that’s remarkable, George T. Conway III writes.
• The Weekly Planet : The cocoa shortage could make chocolate more expensive forever, Yasmin Tayag writes.

Explore all of our newsletters here.

Evening Read

Something Weird Is Happening With Caesar Salads

By Ellen Cushing

On a November evening in Brooklyn, in 2023, I was in trouble (hungry). I ordered a kale Caesar at a place I like. Instead, I got: a tangle of kale, pickled red onion, and “sweet and spicy almonds,” dressed in a thinnish, vaguely savory liquid and topped with a glob of crème fraîche roughly the size and vibe of a golf ball. It was a pretty weird food. We are living through an age of unchecked Caesar-salad fraud. Putative Caesars are dressed with yogurt or miso or tequila or lemongrass; they are served with zucchini, orange zest, pig ear, kimchi, poached duck egg, roasted fennel, fried chickpeas, buffalo-cauliflower fritters, tōgarashi -dusted rice crackers. They are missing anchovies, or croutons, or even lettuce … Molly Baz is a chef, a cookbook author, and a bit of a Caesar obsessive—she owns a pair of sneakers with “CAE” on one tongue and “SAL” on the other—and she put it succinctly when she told me, “There’s been a lot of liberties taken, for better or for worse.”

Read the full article.

More From The Atlantic

• The Jews aren’t taking away TikTok.
• Women in menopause are getting short shrift.
• The self-help queen of TikTok goes mainstream.

Culture Break

Look. These photos , compiled by our photo editor, show the importance of bicycles in World War II.

Read. “ The Vale of Cashmere ,” a short story by Benjamin Nugent:

“What I liked about your father was that he helped me find my contact lens.”

Play our daily crossword.

Stephanie Bai contributed to this newsletter.

When you buy a book using a link in this newsletter, we receive a commission. Thank you for supporting The Atlantic .

180 Powerful Journalism Research Topics To Focus On

Table of Contents

Finding a unique journalism research topic is one of the tricky tasks that require a lot of innovation. If you are a student who is pursuing a degree in communication or media studies, then you will often be asked to write essays or research papers on interesting journalism topics. Right now, do you want to write an informative journalism research paper? Are you searching for the best journalism research topics? Go through this blog post and get the top powerful journalism research topics and ideas that will help you boost your grades.

Tips for Selecting a Good Journalism Research Topic

Journalism is a broad field of study that mainly deals with the gathering and distribution of information to various media channels such as radio, TV, newspaper, and social media. In order to complete graduation, mainly, as a part of the final year academic project, the students who are pursuing media studies must submit a research paper or thesis on journalism topics.

When you are assigned a task to prepare a journalism research paper, topic selection is the first step that you can’t skip. Remember, you can impress your professor and score high grades only if you have a unique topic.

In general, there are endless unique journalism research topics and ideas available, but the real challenge lies in identifying one specific journalism topic out of them all. Hence, to help you all, here we have shared a few important tips that you can follow during the topic selection.

• The topic you choose should match your interest.
• The topic should be exciting and informative for the readers.
• Avoid choosing too broad topics because they may require a lot of time to complete.
• If your topic is too broad, narrow it down to a specific research question that is easy to write about before the deadline.
• Instead of picking the frequently discussed research topics, go with the topic that focuses on unique issues that are fresh for the readers to learn and understand.
• The research topic you choose should support extensive research and contain relevant sources for reference.

Additionally, check whether the research topic you have selected stands in line with your professor’s instructions. Also, before finalizing the journalism research topic you have selected, make sure it satisfies all the above-mentioned tips. The journalism research topic is said to be good only if it meets the requirements shared above.

List of Journalism Research Paper Topics and Ideas

When it comes to writing a journalism research paper, you need to invest a lot of effort and time to search and find the best journalism research topic. Hence, to make your topic selection process easier, here, we have composed a list of exclusive journalism research topics and ideas.

Explore the complete list of ideas and pick a powerful journalism research topic of your preference.

Top Research Topics on Journalism

• What are the duties and roles of a professional journalist?
• How have technological and scientific developments affected journalism?
• Discuss how influential people control the freedom of journalists and the media.
• How has social media affected modern journalism?
• Explain the challenges that journalists in varying topographical situations face every day.
• How can journalists change the perception of women as being materialistic?
• A journalist should be well-versed in different topics about local and international news- Explain.
• How do the media facilitate the stereotypical representations of females by portraying them as materialistic objects?
• How has technology affected the mediums that journalists used to reach people?
• Discuss the major problems that are experienced by journalists as they discharge their duties.
• Are social media websites making third-person journalists?
• Is social media making print media obsolete?
• Can journalism be used to help improve marginalized sections in society?
• How has COVID-19 revealed the role of journalists at a global level?
• How are electronic media channels shaping modern-day journalism?
• Discuss the impact of Yellow journalism on the sports and entertainment industry
• How do power-hungry politicians misuse media houses and journalists?
• Discuss the dangers of investigative journalism
• Impact of fake journalism on people and society as a whole
• Political scandals cause media introspection.
• How are women journalists treated in the world?
• What are the challenges faced by women journalists in Middle-East countries?
• Discuss the role of journalism during World War I and World War II
• Impact of journalism on the lifestyle change of Henry Meghan
• Is it good to consider, social media and blogging as the future of journalism? Explain with justifications
• What is communication?
• Media, Censorship, and Propaganda.
• The freedom of speech and its impact on the media.
• The main aspects of communication.
• The triggering topics.
• The phenomenon of hype and its usage of the media.

Best Journalism Research Topics

• How can journalists help the masses understand topical issues better?
• What is the role of the media in reducing crime?
• Discuss the negative implications of media in influencing violence.
• What is the link between media and the growth of the fashion industry?
• What is the subsequent impact of media on the growth of an economy?
• Discuss the likely implications of partisan advertisement outlets.
• What are your thoughts on denying an operational license to partisan media outlets?
• Examine how media has impacted your living over the last ten years.
• Elaborate on the potential beneficiaries of media versus society-influenced violence.
• Investigate how the media industry has evolved because of technological advancement.
• How has journalism contributed to political turmoil in Kenya?

Read more: Excellent Communication Research Topics To Consider

Excellent Journalism Research Paper Topics

• How significant is the media in the war against crimes?
• Use of mainstream media in strategic communication
• How the media influence political patterns
• Media use by kids and adolescents
• How society benefits from a free media
• Scare strategies that the media use to accomplish goals
• How do the media influence immorality?
• Do video games form a part of the media?
• Media censorship and propaganda
• How the media portrays popular culture and identity

Research Paper Topics in Mass Communication and Journalism

• What are the benefits of international journalism ?
• How effective are social media marketing campaigns
• Explain how journalists altered the coverage of news relating to World War II.
• Define media downshifting and discuss why people are reverting to newspapers again.
• Discuss mass communication laws in the U.S.
• Define journalism ethics and highlight its importance in news coverage.
• Investigate why radio still commands a huge following.
• Explain different types of media and differ according to the audience.
• Investigate terrorism in media and highlight examples in the world today.
• Highlight some relevant media disasters and explain how to prevent them.

Journalism Thesis Topics

• How media houses benefit from advertising
• Explain why video blogs are the new diaries.
• How effective are media companies as compared to single bloggers with regard to news coverage?
• Define fan fiction and fandom in the media.
• Explain the critical attributes of communication.
• Discuss the peculiarities of children’s media.
• How do the media affect the political class in a country?
• Key stakeholders of modern media
• How the media influences the articulation of major social matters
• How the media preempt situations

Unique Journalism Research Topics

• Investigate how the government regulates the media.
• What is the role of mass media in spreading awareness?
• Explain how readers can confirm the truth and credibility of news articles.
• Discuss the relevance of media in the growth of a steadfast country.
• Explain how social media has impacted the reporting of police brutality cases.
• What was the impact of mass media on the scope of the Vietnam War
• Determine whether governments should have exclusive power to censor news reporters and journalists.
• Elaborate on the main drawbacks facing journalism.
• Discuss whether media outlets are responsible for the spread of unverified stories.
• Analyze why media agencies should cease using metaphors in headlines.
• Media psychology- How it applies to communication.
• Explain the role of media in the growth of the music industry.
• Analyze the influence of media on innovations.
• Explain the implications of a one-sided media and why it might be dangerous to society.
• Analyze the media violations of a person’s freedom and rights.
• Investigate the Black Lives Matter movement and analyze the role of media in advancing it.
• Examine how media affects the diminishing of traditions and culture.
• Why is the press essential in spreading political rivalry among the political subject and class?
• What role does mass media play in promoting learning activities?
• Examine the role of mass media on the political class of America in the 18th century.

Investigative Journalism Research Topics

• What is the role of transculturation in media translation
• Discuss the objectification of women and its adverse psychological impacts.
• Discuss whether politicians depend on media to retain their power.
• Explain why mass media is more of a propaganda tool for the government.
• Explain why the media should not include graphic images depicting violence or war brutality.
• What are the historical development and cultural impact of media in the U.S.?
• How some governments silence investigative journalists
• An investigation into the key stakeholders of modern media houses.
• How magazine covers are used to get more sales
• How journalists can maintain high-quality reporting without necessarily spending more
• What are the negative impacts of television advertisements on children?
• How the media is helping call centers to create jobs and help the unemployed members of society.
• Examine how the image of the Arab woman appears in Arab media.
• How the media makes the USA look like the ultimate ruler
• Conduct a comparative analysis of news reports between FOX and BBC News.
• How mainstream media is promoting the upsurge of public misinformation and fake news
• How influential politicians make key decisions for some media houses
• What are the moral lines that separate investigative journalism from the violation of people’s privacy?
• How the media is helping rebrand some countries- Case study of Nigeria.

Read more: Best Visual Analysis Essay Topics and Writing Guidelines for Students to Focus On

Interesting Journalism Thesis Topics

• Examine some of the most significant anticipated changes to journalism in days to come
• Is it true that the internet makes people read less about current events?
• Elaborate on different ways by which mass media outlets benefit from advertisements and product promotions.
• Discuss why it is not appropriate for celebrities and superstars to undergo trials by the media.
• Define stylized writing and elaborate on whether it is acceptable in today’s internet-reliant world.
• Discuss the critical negative influence mass media may have on students.
• Elaborate why televisions need to stop showing sexual content.
• Examine media and its influence in the articulation of social matters like racism.
• Investigate the impact of new media on digital learning budgets.
• Examine if journalism can seek the truth without breaking the journalism code.
• What are the causes and impacts of media addiction
• Discuss the effect of mass media on one’s emotional and psychological wellbeing.
• Highlight how disabled people are represented by the media today
• Discuss why we should trust the media to deliver accurate news.

Engaging Journalism Dissertation Topics

• Discuss the representation of women journalists in the media fraternity.
• Describe ways to regulate mass media to guarantee that students are only minimally exposed to inappropriate content
• Discuss the reasons that make the United States of America considered a global superpower from media perspectives
• The imperativeness of journalism for disadvantaged social groups
• A Critical review of the methodological trends and controversies surrounding the Use of opinion poll
• Critically analyze how the British journalists try to win over the royals
• Homophobia in modern sports and the role of media channels in increasing such negativism Homophobia
• Discuss the role of media in promoting same-sex marriage
• Evaluate the role played by media in helping GenZ athletes to seek their ‘authentic voice’
• Describe the impact of replacing sports journalism with mindless gossip columnists
• What were the restrictions on journalists for covering the FIFA World Cup 2022?

Great Journalism Research Paper Topics

• What is the effect of media on diplomacy
• A case study of pollution as a social issue and the media’s role in combating it.
• Investigate the impact of fear created by media reporting crimes.
• Hidden messages are passed through the media.
• Discuss the role of media as an agenda-setting tool.
• Elaborate on the flaws representation of black women in media.
• Discuss the use of women and their sexuality in mass media advertisements.
• How media images represent different entities
• Could virtual reality be the future of modern media?
• Do the media create or react to events?
• What moral distinctions exist between the invasion of privacy and investigative journalism?
• Are journalists nowadays more focused on attractiveness than on delivering more accurate news?
• Discuss the main issues that journalists face when performing their responsibilities.
• What impact have advances in science and technology had on journalism?
• What can journalists do to combat the idea that women are materialistic?

Captivating Journalism Research Ideas

• Is it possible for the media to serve society’s underprivileged groups?
• Describe how the American media presents adversaries and rivals from throughout the world
• Does the internet really cause individuals to read less about current events?
• Why has the internet changed the way news is reported?
• Examine some of the key upcoming developments in journalism that are most anticipated.
•  Can journalists continue to report on high-quality stories without spending more?
•  Nigeria is a case study of how the media is assisting in the rebranding of some nations
•  How powerful politicians affect some media outlets’ ability to make important judgments
•  A description of the difficulties emerging nations face when it comes to information freedom
• How sexual material is used on the front pages of health publications to draw readers
•  Does the media influence events or just report on them?
•  What impact does the internet have on how the media evolves?
•  Why is radio still a vital type of media in the twenty-first century?
•  Describe ways to control the media to limit the exposure of pupils to inappropriate information
•  Do powerful and influential big media firms have too much sway?
• Do they have to be broken up into smaller pieces?

Latest Journalism Research Topics

• Describe the Part of the Media in the Russia-Ukraine Crisis.
• Discuss the popular media tactics of political parties in the United States
• Consider the necessity for real-life tales in the media of today.
• Write about literary journalism in recent times.
• Investigative reporting on the Brazilian drug trade
• Mass media censorship in North Korea
• FIFA world cup 2022: restrictions on journalists for covering the event
• Critical analysis of how the British journalists try to win over the royals
• Describe the effects of media misdirection and misinformation.

The Bottom Line

From the list of outstanding journalism research topics and ideas suggested above, you can use any idea as an inspiration for writing a research paper. If you are not sure what topic to choose or how to write a journalism research paper, then take Public policy assignment help from us. We have a team of professional academic writers who have good knowledge of mass media and communication to craft a research paper on the best journalism topics.

Quickly avail of our writing service and get a top-quality, plagiarism-free research paper as per your requirements on time at an affordable rate.

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The 20 Best Colleges for Journalism

What’s covered:, how we made this list, what are your chances of acceptance to these top journalism schools.

A degree in journalism can open a number of doors for students. Many journalism majors foresee themselves working in newsrooms and breaking stories for papers and television networks, however, they’re also commonly employed in careers such as public relations, social media, speech writing, and advertising. Journalism is a hands-on major and the best colleges and universities expect their students to build real-world experience while earning their degree—making it an attractive option for students who are as interested in participating in an internship and contributing to student-run media as they are to sit behind a desk. 

CollegeVine took a number of factors into consideration when building our list of the 20 best colleges for journalism, including the reputation of the program, overall school quality, and median earnings of graduates of the major. Also weighed were the popularity of the major within the school, the size of the program relative to school size, and the student-faculty ratio of the program.

1. Northwestern University

Location: Evanston, IL 

Undergrad Enrollment: 8,600

Acceptance Rate: 9%

Middle 50% SAT/ACT: 1490-1550/33-35 

Northwestern has a reputation for graduating top-notch nationally acclaimed reporters. Past graduates include:

• Peter Alexander, White House correspondent and co-anchor of Weekend Today at NBC News
• Michael Wilbon, co-host of ESPN’s Pardon the Interruption
• Sheinelle Jones, host of the 3rd Hour TODAY
• Pradnya Joshi, national weekend editor at The Washington Post

Northwestern journalism graduates fill more than just high-profile roles in the media; the school boasts an expansive high-quality network of more than 18,000 alumni working in journalism, media, communications, and other industries worldwide. 

2. University of Missouri | Mizzou

Location: Columbia, MO 

Undergrad Enrollment: 22,400

Acceptance Rate: 82%

Middle 50% SAT/ACT: 1130-1350/23-30 

The University of Missouri has the distinction of providing the world’s first undergraduate degree in journalism in 1909, a master’s degree in journalism in 1921, and a doctorate in journalism in 1934. Today, the Missouri School of Journalism, also known as the “J-School,” remains at the top of the field. A core belief of the J School is providing students with first-hand experience in a professional setting, known as the “Missouri Method,” and placing them in professional newsrooms—such as an NBC affiliate, an NPR member station, and a digital-first community newspaper—along with providing opportunities at other outlets, like advertising agencies. 

3. Boston University | BU

Location: Boston, MA 

Undergrad Enrollment: 18,500

Acceptance Rate: 20% 

Middle 50% SAT/ACT: 1390-1490/31-34 

Boston University journalism students are master storytellers, taught to analyze and explain complex events while upholding journalistic standards. BU journalism students benefit from a faculty of professional reporters who have excelled in their field and have written best-sellers, produced award-winning documentaries, and won awards like the Pulitzer Prize—BU College of Communication alumni and current faculty have been awarded two dozen Pulitzer Prizes. Hands-on learning plays a central role in a journalism degree at BU and students are afforded a variety of excellent experiential opportunities at the school-sponsored television and radio stations, its newspaper, and paid fellowships with WBUR, Boston’s NPR news station. 

4. University of Florida

Location: Gainesville, FL 

Undergrad Enrollment: 35,400

Acceptance Rate: 31%

Middle 50% SAT/ACT: 1310-1450/29-33 

Journalism students at the University of Florida learn foundational skills required to succeed in the field of journalism, such as writing, reporting, and ethics. Journalism students also explore new forms of media, including social media, data journalism, and coding. The University of Florida’s journalism curriculum allows students to pursue two-course specializations in nearly a dozen areas like photojournalism, narrative nonfiction, television, audio, and social media. University of Florida journalism students also have ample opportunity to gain firsthand experience—the college is home to seven broadcast stations with more than 200 students working for them each semester.

5. New York University | NYU

Location: New York, NY 

Undergrad Enrollment: 26,700

Acceptance Rate: 21% 

Middle 50% SAT/ACT: 1390-1510/31-34 

Students at NYU’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute are curious, relentless investigators led by career journalists at the top of their field. NYU journalism students benefit greatly from the school’s location—New York City is a center of culture, power, business, and politics, and is home to numerous national media networks, influential newspapers, and major publishers. NYU believes in developing educated journalists and creating a connection between journalism and the larger study of history, politics, culture, science, literature, economics, modern society, and moral philosophy. Consequently, undergraduate journalism students at NYU are required to pursue a double major.

6. University of Texas at Austin | UT Austin

Location: Austin, TX

Undergrad Enrollment: 40,800 

Acceptance Rate: 32%

Middle 50% SAT/ACT: 1230-1480/29-34 

UT Austin students in the Moody School of Journalism and Media work to develop the skills needed to succeed in the ever-changing world of media—from writing and reporting to the digital skills needed by today’s investigative reporters, social media editors, and data analysts. UT Austin has offered journalism for more than a century—it opened its doors in 1914—and counts 31 Pulitzer Prize winners among its alumni. UT journalism students will find numerous opportunities to gain real-world experience available to them on campus, including:

• The Daily Texan , the campus’s daily newspaper
• Texas Student Television , the nation’s only student-run, FCC-licensed TV station
• KVRX, the university’s student-produced radio station
• Texas Travesty , UT’s official humor publication
• Cactus Yearbook , the annual university yearbook (and UT’s oldest publication)
• Burnt X , a digital-first alternative news site

7. Arizona State University | ASU

Location: Tempe, AZ

Undergrad Enrollment: 42,800 

Acceptance Rate: 88% 

Middle 50% SAT/ACT: N/A 

ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication is one of the best colleges for journalism in the country and home to Arizona PBS, the largest media outlet operated by a journalism school in the world—almost two million homes are reached nightly by ASU’s student newscast! ASU journalism employs a “teaching hospital” method of education in which students don’t learn by sitting behind a desk; rather, from day one, they’re provided with hands-on training in real journalistic environments under the supervision of top professional journalists. 

8. American University

Location: Washington, D.C. 

Undergrad Enrollment: 8,200 

Acceptance Rate: 39%  

Middle 50% SAT/ACT: 1290-1430/29-33 

Helping to make American University one of the best places in the country to study journalism is its location. News breaks every minute of every day in Washington, D.C., and whether it’s from the White House, Capitol Hill, or federal agencies, the policies forged in D.C. have a ripple effect on communities around the world. American University has internships at major news outlets like The Washington Post , USA TODAY , National Public Radio , and Bloomberg . It also features an alumni mentoring program that helps graduates bridge the gap between the classroom and the professional world. 

American University offers two journalism tracks: journalism (for those interested in careers in newspapers, magazines, investigative journalism, and long-form reporting) and broadcast journalism (focused more on audio and video storytelling).

9. Emerson College  

Undergrad Enrollment: 3,800

Acceptance Rate: 41% 

Middle 50% SAT/ACT: 1220-1380/27-32

Emerson College provides students with the traditional skills and principles in which journalism is grounded while also preparing them to adapt to the ever-changing field. Emerson journalism students learn to tell compelling stories through a variety of outlets and maintain journalistic integrity. Emerson students build resumes and gain firsthand experience through a variety of coursework, internships, and extracurricular activities, and are taught by faculty who have worked at renowned news outlets such as The Wall Street Journal , Boston Globe , CNN , and The Washington Post.

10. Ohio State University | OSU

Location: Columbus, OH 

Undergrad Enrollment: 46,800 

Acceptance Rate: 68%

Middle 50% SAT/ACT: 1260-1420/26-32 

Ohio State University journalism students learn to become strong communicators and storytellers while building traditional skills like writing, reporting, and interviewing, along with familiarizing themselves with more interactive and modern journalistic platforms, like social media, multimedia, and blogging. All journalism students at OSU hone their skills and gain real-world experience by participating in an internship and working on The Lantern —OSU’s award-winning and historic student-run newspaper which has been published since the 1880s. 

11. Syracuse University

Location: Syracuse, NY 

Undergrad Enrollment: 15,200 

Acceptance Rate: 69% 

Middle 50% SAT/ACT: 1230-1380/27-32 

Journalism students at Syracuse University’s Newhouse School learn the skills needed to work on any story for any platform—both print and digital. NYC Magazine Experience is a unique offering available to Syracuse students in which they spend three days in New York City meeting with editors, networking with alumni, receiving resume critiques, and even getting advice on finding an apartment. Outcomes are an important part of a degree from the Newhouse School and, thanks in part to its enthusiastic and involved alumni, 90% of its students find jobs within six months of graduation.

12. University of California, Los Angeles | UCLA

Location: Los Angeles, CA 

Undergrad Enrollment: 31,500 

Acceptance Rate: 14%

Middle 50% SAT/ACT: N/A

UCLA doesn’t offer a specific journalism major, but it does offer a degree in communications which provides an excellent pathway to a career in journalism. A special Field Studies class is available to UCLA communication majors that covers seven areas of communication work, including journalism, through which students attend two-hour seminar sessions and spend seven hours in approved community settings weekly. Ultimately, Field Studies allows students to gain personal experience in real-world settings and expand their professional networks.

13. Washington and Lee University

Location: Lexington, VA

Undergrad Enrollment: 1,800 

Acceptance Rate: 25% 

Middle 50% SAT/ACT: 1410-1530/32-35 

The education of journalists at Washington and Lee University dates back to the 1860s when the school established printer scholarships. Although media platforms have changed since the mid-1800s, Washington and Lee’s mission remains the same: educate students to inform communities. Washington and Lee journalism students have an opportunity to spotlight their skills on The Rockridge Report , a newscast, and website that has been recognized for its excellence since its inception in 1985. Journalism students at Washington and Lee University are required to complete a summer internship.

14. Columbia University

Acceptance Rate: 7% 

Middle 50% SAT/ACT: 1340-1510/32-34 

The Columbia Journalism School is one of the most well-known schools in the field. Columbia University is home to the world’s oldest graduate program in journalism and is responsible for awarding the Pulitzer Prize, one of the highest achievements a journalist can attain. Unfortunately, Columbia does not offer an undergraduate degree in journalism, but it does offer undergraduate programs like film and media, political science, and creative writing—all of which build valuable skills that students will find beneficial when pursuing a graduate degree in journalism. 

15. George Washington University | GW

Undergrad Enrollment: 12,500 

Acceptance Rate: 43%

Middle 50% SAT/ACT: 1320-1460/30-34 

George Washington University’s Journalism and Mass Communication program provides students with the foundation needed to succeed in the constantly changing field of journalism. GW students gain broad experience on campus in everything from digital to broadcast to print journalism. GW Students are also provided with numerous internship opportunities and have interned for notable organizations like the BBC, CNN, and Discovery Communications while GW alumni are found in major newsrooms and broadcast across the country. 

16. Indiana University Bloomington | Indiana

Location: Bloomington, IN 

Undergrad Enrollment: 33,300 

Acceptance Rate: 80%

Middle 50% SAT/ACT: 1230–1420/27-32

Students earning a degree in Journalism from Indiana University Bloomington’s The Media School learn to be the eyes and ears of society. IUB journalism students choose one of two concentrations to pursue: News Reporting and Editing or Public Relations. Experiential learning is central to earning a journalism degree from IUB, with 82.8% of Media School students completing at least one internship and, on average, undertaking two internships by the time they graduate. IUB graduates have gone on to have enormous professional success—more than 40 IUB alumni have won individual or team Pulitzer Prizes. 

17. Elon University

Location: Elon, NC

Undergrad Enrollment: 6,100 

Acceptance Rate: 72%

Middle 50% SAT/ACT: 1175-1330/25-30 

Elon University journalism majors gain the knowledge and technical skills required by contemporary media platforms, along with learning the ethical professional practices needed to tell objective stories for the public good. Elon believes in providing journalism majors with academic depth; they’re encouraged to pursue a double major (if not, they must complete a minor) and also are required to complete an off-campus internship. In the past, Elon students have interned for companies such as CNN, ESPN, Live Nation Entertainment, and NBCUniversal.

18. Arizona State University-Downtown Phoenix

Location: Phoenix, AZ 

Undergrad Enrollment: 8,700 

Acceptance Rate: N/A 

Students at Arizona State University-Downtown Phoenix are offered many of the same benefits as those attending Arizona State University, the number seven school on our list of best colleges for journalism. Students work with the world-class faculty of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication to build core journalistic skills while also exploring unique courses like audience engagement, social media, public relations, and Spanish-language news. ASU Downtown Phoenix students are also afforded the opportunity to gain experience through activities like hosting the evening news on Arizona PBS and creating digital advertising campaigns.

19. University of Southern California | USC

Undergrad Enrollment: 19,900 

Acceptance Rate: 16%

Middle 50% SAT/ACT: 1330-1520/30-34

USC journalism students study at the renowned Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism. Los Angeles is a hub for media activity and journalism is a thriving major at USC—the university offers more than 80 undergraduate journalism courses and is home to 300+ undergraduates pursuing a degree in journalism. Outcomes are important at USC and 99% of the class of 2021 was employed within 12 months of graduation—many with notable employers such as NBC News, Vice Media, Entertainment Tonight, and ESPN.  

20. Hofstra University

Location: Hempstead, NY 

Undergrad Enrollment: 6,700 

Middle 50% SAT/ACT: 1190-1350/27-31 

Hofstra University is a leader in preparing students for careers in online, broadcast, or print journalism—81% of students accept a position within six months of graduation, while others continue their education at some of the finest graduate schools in the nation. Hofstra’s accelerated BA/MA Journalism program provides students with the unique opportunity to quickly and cost-effectively earn both their bachelor’s and master’s degrees. Hofstra is located just 25 miles outside of New York City, which provides students with fantastic opportunities for everything from internships to careers. 

Curious about what your odds are of getting into one of the nation’s best journalism schools? Collegevine can help! Our free chancing calculator uses factors like GPA, standardized test scores, and extracurricular activities to predict your odds at the best colleges for journalism along with hundreds of other schools across the country. More so, it can help you identify areas of strength and areas in need of improvement on your college profile to help boost your odds of gaining admission to your dream school.

Related CollegeVine Blog Posts

30 Best Colleges for Journalism – 2024

April 24, 2024

Whether you dream of being the next great investigative reporter, White House correspondent, or SportsCenter anchor, your path begins with an undergraduate degree in journalism. For better or for worse, the journalism field is changing rapidly, with traditional newspaper reporting giving way to social media, video content, podcasts, and other new media advances. The lines between print and broadcast journalism have blurred creating a need for a new generation of versatile, multi-talented individuals. Our list of the Best Colleges for Journalism includes some of most long-revered journalism schools in the country: SI Newhouse (Syracuse), the Missouri School of Journalism, and the Medill School of Journalism (Northwestern), as well as lesser-known but still top-notch journalism schools across the United States.

Methodology 

Click here to read our methodology for the Best Colleges for Journalism.

Salary Information

Want to know how much money graduates of the best journalism colleges make when they begin their careers? For each college listed (and hundreds of additional schools), you can view the starting salaries for journalism majors .

Best Colleges for Journalism

Here’s a quick preview of the first ten journalism institutions that made our list. Detailed profiles and stats can be found when you scroll below:

1) New York University

2) University of Southern California

3) Boston University

4) The University of Texas at Austin

5) University of Wisconsin-Madison

6) American University

7) George Washington University

8) University of Maryland-College Park

9) University of Richmond

10) University of Missouri-Columbia

All of the schools profiled below have stellar reputations in the area of journalism and commit substantial resources to undergraduate education. For each of the best journalism colleges, College Transitions will provide you with—when available—the university’s:

• Cost of Attendance
• Acceptance Rate
• Median  SAT
• Median  ACT
• Retention Rate
• Graduation Rate

We will also include a longer write-up of each college’s:

• Academic Highlights – Includes facts like student-to-faculty ratio, average class size, number of majors offered, and most popular majors.
• Professional Outcomes – Includes info on the rate of positive outcomes, companies employing alumni, and graduate school acceptances.

New York University

• New York, NY

Academic Highlights: NYU is divided into a number of smaller (but still quite large) colleges organized by discipline; in sum, there are 230 areas of undergraduate study across nine schools and colleges. For its size, a commendable 58% of classes have an enrollment under 20 students. While all schools within NYU have solid reputations, Stern holds the distinction as one of the top undergraduate business programs in the country. For those entering film, dance, drama, or other performing arts, Tisch is as prestigious a place as you can find to study.

Professional Outcomes: Within six months of exiting, 94% of Class of 2022 grads had landed at their next destination, with 78% employed and 21% in graduate school. The top industries for employment were healthcare (11%), internet and software (9%), finance (8%), and entertainment (8%). Large numbers of alumni can be found at Google, Deloitte, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, IBM, JP Morgan Chase, Citi, and Amazon. The mean starting salary is $75,336. In 2022, business, arts and sciences, and law school were the most popular grad school destinations.

• Enrollment: 29,401 (undergraduate); 29,711 (graduate)
• Cost of Attendance: $90,222-$96,172
• Median SAT: 1520
• Median ACT: 34
• Acceptance Rate: 12%
• Retention Rate: 95%
• Graduation Rate: 87%

University of Southern California

• Los Angeles, CA

Academic Highlights : There are 140 undergraduate majors and minors within the Dornsife College of Arts & Sciences alone, the university’s oldest and largest school. The Marshall School of Business, Viterbi School of Engineering, and programs in communication, the cinematic arts, and the performing arts are highly acclaimed. Popular areas of study are business (22%), social sciences (11%), visual and performing arts (11%), communications/journalism (9%), and engineering (8%). Most courses enroll 10-19 students, and USC does an excellent job facilitating undergraduate research opportunities.

Professional Outcomes: 96% of undergrads experience positive postgraduation outcomes within six months of earning their degree. The top five industries entered were finance, consulting, advertising, software development, and engineering; the median salary across all majors is an astounding $79k. Presently, between 300 and 1,500 alumni are employed at each of Google, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, KPMG, Goldman Sachs, and Meta. Graduate/professional schools enrolling the greatest number of 2022 USC grads include NYU, Georgetown, Harvard, Stanford, Pepperdine, and UCLA.

• Enrollment: 20,699 (undergraduate); 28,246 (graduate)
• Cost of Attendance: $90,921
• Median SAT: 1510
• Retention Rate: 97%
• Graduation Rate: 93%

Boston University

Academic Highlights: In total, the university offers more than 300 programs of study, 100+ of which are distinct undergraduate degrees spread across ten schools/colleges. Many classes at BU are reasonably small—60% contain fewer than twenty students; only 19% contain more than forty. The student-to-faculty ratio is 11:1. The greatest number of degrees are conferred in social sciences (16%), business/marketing (15%), communications and journalism (15%), biology (11%), engineering (9%), and health professions/related sciences (7%).

Professional Outcomes: Six months after graduation, 90% of BU grads have found their way into the world of employment or full-time graduate study. Across all graduating years, companies employing more than 350 BU alums include Google, Oracle, Accenture, IBM, and Amazon Web Services. Of the one-quarter of grads who move directly into graduate school, many are welcomed onto the campuses of elite graduate programs. For example, engineering students found new academic homes at MIT, Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, and Columbia.

• Enrollment: 18,459
• Cost of Attendance: $86,363
• Median SAT: 1430
• Median ACT: 32
• Acceptance Rate: 14%
• Retention Rate: 94%
• Graduation Rate: 89%

The University of Texas at Austin

Academic Highlights: UT Austin offers over 150 majors, including those at the Cockrell School of Engineering, one of the most heralded undergraduate engineering schools around, and The McCombs School of Business, which dominates in the specialty areas of accounting and marketing. The computer science department is also top-ranked. In terms of degrees conferred, engineering is tied with biology (12%) followed by communication (11%), business (11%), and the social sciences (8%). The elite Plan II Honors Program is one of the best in the country.

Professional Outcomes: Within the College of Liberal Arts, six months after graduating, 68% of Longhorns are employed and 24% have entered graduate school. The for-profit sector attracts 65% of those employed while 19% enter public sector employment and 16% pursue jobs at a nonprofit. Major corporations that employ more than 500 UT Austin grads include Google, Meta, Oracle, Microsoft, IBM, and Apple. Engineering majors took home a median income of $79k and business majors took home $70k.

• Enrollment: 41,309 (undergraduate); 11,075 (graduate)
• Cost of Attendance: $30,752-$34,174 (in-state); $61,180-$69,310 (out-of-state)
• Acceptance Rate: 31%
• Graduation Rate: 88%

University of Wisconsin – Madison

• Madison, WI

Academic Highlights: There are 230+ undergraduate majors offered across eight schools and colleges, including the top-ranked School of Business and College of Engineering as well as the College of Letters and Science, the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, and the Schools of Nursing, Education, Pharmacy, and Human Ecology. Undergrads can expect a mix of large and small classes, with 44% of sections enrolling fewer than 20 students. Business (18%), biology (12%), the social sciences (11%), and engineering (10%) are most popular.

Professional Outcomes: In a recent year, 46% of job-seeking grads graduated with an offer.  Top employers included UW-Madison, Epic, Kohl’s, Oracle, Deloitte, and UW Health. Across all graduating years, companies employing 250+ alumni include Google, Target, Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, PwC, Accenture, and Meta. 28% of recent grads enrolled directly in graduate/professional school; the majority stayed at UW–Madison while others headed to Columbia, Northwestern, and Carnegie Mellon. The university is the top producer of Peace Corps volunteers.

• Enrollment: 37,230 (undergraduate); 12,656 (graduate)
• Cost of Attendance: $28,916 (in-state); $58,912 (out-of-state)
• Median SAT: 1440
• Median ACT: 30
• Acceptance Rate: 49%

American University

• Washington, D.C.

Academic Highlights: There are 60+ undergraduate degrees for students to choose from at AU across six colleges. A low 12:1 student-to-faculty ratio allows 58% of offered courses to be capped at nineteen students; the average undergraduate class size is 23. American’s School of International Service (SIS) is one of the top-ranked programs in the country—its Public Affairs program also receives universally high marks. In terms of sheer popularity, the most commonly conferred degrees are in the social sciences (35%), 17% (business), and journalism (11%).

Professional Outcomes: Within six months of graduation, 90% of AU grads have found employment, are enrolled in grad school, or both. Across all graduating years, more than 100 alumni presently work for the US House of Representatives, the US Department of State, Booz Allen Hamilton, Google, EY, IBM, PwC, and Accenture.  Many of the most popular grad school destinations are only a Metro stop away. George Washington, Georgetown, Johns Hopkins, and American itself head the list.

• Enrollment: 7,917
• Cost of Attendance: $76,176
• Median SAT: 1360
• Median ACT: 31
• Acceptance Rate: 41%
• Retention Rate: 87%
• Graduation Rate: 79%

George Washington University

Academic Highlights: GW undergraduates choose from 75+ majors spread across nine colleges. The school’s 12:1 student-to-faculty ratio translates to a mix of small, medium, and large undergraduate sections. Twelve percent of courses have single-digit enrollments, 10% have over 50 students, and the majority fall in the 10 to 29 range. The social sciences (31%) are the area in which the greatest number of degrees are awarded followed by health professions (17%), business (15%), biology (5%), and computer science (5%).

Professional Outcomes: Within six months of leaving GW, 96% of the Class of 2022 had found their way to gainful employment or graduate school while 4% were still job hunting. Of the 68% of grads already in the workplace, 68% were in a for-profit industry, 25% had entered a nonprofit position, and 8% were working in government. A healthy 27% of those earning their diplomas in 2022 immediately turned their attention to earning an advanced degree. Among that group were 76% seeking master’s degrees, 11% entering law school, 5% pursuing a medical degree, and 3% entering a doctoral program.

• Enrollment: 11,482
• Cost of Attendance: $85,740
• Median SAT: 1410
• Retention Rate: 90%
• Graduation Rate: 85%

University of Maryland, College Park

• College Park, MD

Academic Highlights: Undergraduates can select from 100+ majors across twelve colleges. 18% of degrees are conferred in computer science, followed by the social sciences (13%), with  criminology, government and politics, and economics being the most popular majors.  Engineering (13%), business (11%), and biology (8%) are next in line. The School of Business, the School of Engineering, and the College of Journalism are all top-ranked, as are programs in computer science and criminology. 46% of sections enroll fewer than twenty students.

Professional Outcomes: Within six months of graduating, 96% of Class of 2022 grads had positive outcomes. 67% found employment; the companies/organizations that hired the greatest number of grads included Northrop Grumman, Deloitte, Amazon, and EY. Meta, Apple, and Google employ more than 200 alumni each.  The mid-50% salary range for 2022 grads was $55k-$83k. 21% of the Class of 2022 headed directly to graduate and professional school; 11% entered doctoral programs, 5% entered medical school, and 5% entered law school.

• Enrollment: 30,353 (undergraduate); 10,439 (graduate)
• Cost of Attendance: $31,540 (in-state); $60,918 (out-of-state)
• Median ACT: 33
• Acceptance Rate: 84%

University of Richmond

• Richmond, VA

Academic Highlights: There are over sixty undergraduate majors and many standout programs, including the one-of-a-kind Jepson School of Leadership Studies and the highly regarded Robbins School of Business, which grants 37% of degrees conferred by the university. The international relations, political science, and history departments as well as pre-professional pathways have excellent reputations. 21% of classes have single-digit enrollment, 76% of sections contain fewer than 20 students, and 50% of students participate in an intensive research experience with a faculty member.

Professional Outcomes: One year after graduation, 96% of Richmond grads who were seeking employment had found jobs, with an average salary range of $55,000-$59,000. The most popular sectors were financial services/insurance (17%), accounting (7%), consulting (6%), healthcare (6%), teaching (6%), and sales/business development (6%). Companies where you can find at least 50 Richmond alumni employed include Capital One, Deloitte, PwC, Wells Fargo, EY, Dominion Energy, and Morgan Stanley.  25% of recent alumni chose to enroll directly in a graduate or professional degree program.

• Enrollment: 3,054 (undergraduate); 722 (graduate)
• Cost of Attendance: $84,930
• Median SAT: 1460
• Acceptance Rate: 23%
• Retention Rate: 93%

University of Missouri-Columbia

• Columbia, MO

Academic Highlights: At the University of Missouri, over 300 degree programs are offered across ten schools and colleges. The School of Journalism is highly regarded as are its programs in agriculture, health sciences, and business. By degrees conferred, the most popular areas of study are business/management/marketing (18%), health professions (18%), communication/journalism (11%), engineering (7%), and social sciences (6%).  The student-to-faculty ratio is 18:1, and 43% of classes enroll fewer than 20 students.

Professional Outcomes: Within six months of graduating, 75% of the Class of 2022 was employed and 19% were continuing their education. Popular industries included healthcare, finance, education, consumer & business services, manufacturing & construction, and communications & media. The most Mizzou grads were employed by the University of Missouri itself followed by the University of Missouri Health Care, Columbia Public Schools, KPMG, PwC, and Boeing. Those continuing their studies most often did so at the University of Missouri Columbia followed by other institutions within Missouri.

• Enrollment: 23,752 (undergraduate); 7,566 (graduate)
• Cost of Attendance: $31,272 (in-state); $51,472 (out-of-state)
• Median SAT: 1240
• Median ACT: 26
• Acceptance Rate: 79%
• Retention Rate: 89%
• Graduation Rate: 75%

Emerson College

Academic Highlights: All 26 majors offered by the school have some element of performance or artistry and include highly unique academic concentrations such as comedic arts, sports communication, and musical theater. Emerson has a 15:1 student-to-faculty ratio and 69% of courses seat fewer than 20 students. The Journalism and Communications Studies programs rank among the top in the country. By sheer popularity, the top majors are film/video production, journalism, marketing, theater arts, and creative writing.

Professional Outcomes: Within six months of leaving Emerson, 61% of recent grads were employed, 4% were enrolled in graduate school, and 35% were still seeking their next landing spot. Top employers include the Walt Disney Company, Warner Media, Sinclair Broadcast Group, and CNN. The average full-time salary for employed grads is $40,255. Of those entering a master’s program, the bulk stay put, pursuing a master’s at Emerson in an area like writing for film and television, creative writing, or journalism.

• Enrollment: 4,149
• Cost of Attendance: $73,000
• Acceptance Rate: 43%
• Retention Rate: 86%
• Graduation Rate: 77%

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

• Chapel Hill, NC

Academic Highlights: Undergraduates can choose from 74 bachelor’s degree programs in a number of schools and colleges, the largest of which is the College of Arts & Sciences. 44% of classes have a student enrollment under 20. The social sciences (15%), biology (12%), media/journalism (9%), computer science (8%), and business (6%) are the areas in which the most degrees are conferred. The Kenan-Flager Business School is internationally renowned and requires separate admission. Other strong programs include those in chemistry, journalism, psychology, and political science.

Professional Outcomes: Six months after leaving Chapel Hill, 97% of 2022 grads had entered employment, military service, or graduate school. Among the for-profit companies that hire the most graduates are Wells Fargo, IBM, Cisco, Deloitte, EY, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Oracle, McKinsey & Company, and Goldman Sachs. In the nonprofit sector, a large number of alumni are employed by AmeriCorps, NIH, Teach for America, and the Peace Corps. The average starting salary is $70,619. 18% of 2022 grads enrolled directly in graduate/professional school.

• Enrollment: 20,210 (undergraduate); 11,739 (graduate)
• Cost of Attendance: $27,036 (in-state); $60,040 (out-of-state)
• Median SAT: 1450
• Acceptance Rate: 17%
• Retention Rate: 96%
• Graduation Rate: 91%

The Ohio State University — Columbus

• Columbus, OH

Academic Highlights: There are 200+ undergraduate majors and 18 schools and colleges housed within OSU. Business sees the greatest percentage of degrees conferred at 18% followed by engineering (15%), health professions (10%), and the social sciences (9%). It makes sense that so many flock to the business and engineering schools as they are among the highest-rated undergraduate programs in their respective disciplines. 40% of sections enroll fewer than 20 students, and approximately 20% of students gain research experience.

Professional Outcomes: Upon receiving their diplomas, 56% of Class of 2022 graduates were entering the world of employment while 17% were already accepted into graduate or professional school.  Hordes of Buckeyes can be found at many of the nation’s leading companies. More than 2,000 alumni work for JPMorgan Chase, more than 1,000 are employed by Amazon, and more than 600 work for Google and Microsoft. Of the grads who directly matriculate into graduate or professional school, many continue in one of OSU’s own programs.

• Enrollment: 45,728 (undergraduate); 14,318 (graduate)
• Cost of Attendance: $27,241 (in-state); $52,747 (out-of-state)
• Median SAT: 1340-1450
• Median ACT: 29-32
• Acceptance Rate: 53%

Washington and Lee University

• Lexington, VA

Academic Highlights: The university offers 36 majors and 29 minors. With an exceptionally low 7:1 student-to-faculty ratio, over 80% of class sections contain 19 or fewer students. Instructors earn rave reviews. The renowned Williams School of Commerce, Politics, and Economics offers outstanding programs, as do the Journalism and Mass Communication, English, and History Departments. Altogether, business accounts for 23% of the degrees conferred; the social sciences (25%), biology (9%), and foreign language (6%) are also popular.

Professional Outcomes: Last year, 69% of recent graduates found employment within six months of leaving Lexington; the most frequently entered industries were financial services, economics/finance, education, consulting, and real estate. Companies presently employing more than two dozen Generals including EY, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs, PwC, JPMorgan, Capital One, and Morgan Stanley. Starting salaries are solid with the majority of the cohort being paid $55,000 or more while 18% brought home in excess of $75,000.

• Enrollment: 1,867 (undergraduate); 376 (graduate)
• Cost of Attendance: $87,000
• Median SAT: 1480
• Graduation Rate: 94%

Syracuse University

• Syracuse, NY

Academic Highlights: In total, 200+ majors and 100+ minors are spread across ten undergraduate schools/colleges. The School of Architecture, the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, and the Newhouse School of Public Communication are all revered names that carry a good deal of weight in their respective fields. The most popular majors include communication/journalism (15%), the social sciences (14%), and business (12%). Despite Syracuse’s size, class sizes are kept reasonably low; 63% contain 20 students or fewer.

Professional Outcomes: Six months after exiting the Carrier Dome for the final time in 2022, 59% of Orangemen and women found employment (92% related to their career goals) and 21% continued to graduate school. The companies employing the most ‘Cuse grads include major media/entertainment management companies like Conde Nast, Bloomberg, and Creative Artists Agency as well as big-name corporations like GE, KPMG, EY, Lockheed Martin, and Morgan Stanley. The average starting salary for 2022 grads was a solid $63k.

• Enrollment: 15,739 (undergraduate); 7,209 (graduate)
• Cost of Attendance: $85,214
• Median SAT: 1340
• Retention Rate: 91%
• Graduation Rate: 81%

Northeastern University

Academic Highlights: Northeastern offers 290 majors and 180 combined majors within nine colleges and programs. Experiential learning is had by virtually all graduates, thanks to the school’s illustrious and robust co-op program. The D’Amore-McKim School of Business is a top-ranked school and offers one of the best international business programs anywhere, and both the College of Engineering and College of Computer Science are highly respected as well. Criminal justice, architecture, and nursing are three other majors that rate near the top nationally.

Professional Outcomes: Nine months after leaving Northeastern, 97% of students have landed at their next employment or graduate school destination. Huskies entering the job market are quickly rounded up by the likes of State Street, Fidelity Investments, IBM, and Amazon, all of whom employ 500+ Northeastern alums. Between 200 and 500 employees at Wayfair, Google, Amazon, Oracle, IBM, and Apple have an NU lineage. Starting salaries are above average (55% make more than $60k), in part due to the stellar co-op program.

• Enrollment: 20,980 (undergraduate); 15,826 (graduate)
• Cost of Attendance: $86,821
• Median SAT: 1500
• Acceptance Rate: 7%

University of Minnesota–Twin Cities

• Minneapolis, MN

Academic Highlights: There are 150 majors available across eight freshman-admitting undergraduate colleges. 65% of class sections enroll 29 or fewer students. The most commonly conferred degrees are in biology (13%), business & marketing (11%), engineering (10%), the social sciences (10%), computer science (9%), and psychology (8%). The College of Science and Engineering and the Carlson School of Management have strong national reputations, and the chemistry, economics, psychology, and political science departments are also well-regarded.

Professional Outcomes: The top seven companies snatching up the largest number of recent grads are all companies headquartered in the state of Minnesota: Medtronic, Target, 3M, United Health Group, US Bank, and Cargill. Google, Apple, and Meta all employ hundreds of Twin Cities alumni. The mean starting salary for recent grads was $50k. With 130 graduate programs in science, art, engineering, agriculture, medicine, and the humanities, the University of Minnesota retains many of its graduates as they pursue their next degrees.

• Enrollment: 39,248 (undergraduate); 15,707 (graduate)
• Cost of Attendance: $33,032-$35,632 (in-state); $54,446-$57,046
• Median SAT: 1370
• Median ACT: 29
• Acceptance Rate: 75%
• Graduation Rate: 84%

University of Florida

• Gainesville, FL

Academic Highlights: With 16 colleges and 100 undergraduate majors to choose from, educational experiences are exceptionally diverse. The Warrington College of Business and the Wertheim College of Engineering are highly respected, so it’s no surprise that those two programs confer the greatest percentage of degrees—12% and 14%, respectively. Biology (11%), the social sciences (11%), and health professions (8%) are next in popularity. 53% of sections enroll fewer than 20 students, and 33% of students partake in an undergraduate research experience.

Professional Outcomes: By graduation day, 66% of the Class of 2022 had already procured a first job. The top occupational areas were engineering (13%), health care (13%), computer science (5%), and marketing (4%). 200+ Gator alumni can be found at top corporations like Google, EY, Raymond James, Deloitte, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Oracle, and PwC. The average salary for all 2022 grads was $69k, with a high of $100k for computer science majors. Of those pursuing advanced degrees, a master’s degree was the most popular pursuit (63%) followed by law school (11%).

• Enrollment: 34,552 (undergraduate); 20,659 (graduate)
• Cost of Attendance: $23,530 (in-state); $45,808 (out-of-state)
• Median SAT: 1400
• Graduation Rate: 90%

Indiana University

• Bloomington, IL

Academic Highlights: IU offers 200+ majors. The university’s 18:1 student-to-faculty ratio is not bad for a school of Indiana’s size, and it does make an effort to keep undergraduate classes on the small side. While there are a number of introductory courses that transpire in giant lecture halls, 37% of all sections contain no more than 19 students. Business/marketing is the most popular major accounting for 30% of the total degrees conferred and biology is second at 9%. IU’s computer science degree program is the school’s third most frequently conferred degree at 8%.

Professional Outcomes: Class of 2022 grads reached their next employment or graduate school destination at a 94% rate within six months of receiving their degrees. The median starting salary for A&S grads was $41,000. In the Kelley School of Business, 97% were placed successfully within six months, and the median starting salary was $67,000. Among the most frequently attended graduate schools by recent grads are Indiana Bloomington (including its own law and medical schools), Purdue, Loyola Chicago, Northwestern, and Columbia.

• Enrollment: 35,660
• Cost of Attendance: $25,170 (In-State); $53,860 (Out-of-State)
• Median SAT: 1280
• Acceptance Rate: 82%

Lehigh University

• Bethlehem, PA

Academic Highlights: Lehigh has a 10:1 student-to-faculty ratio, but classes aren’t as tiny as one might expect with such favorable staffing numbers. The average class size is 26 but, on the plus side, 45% of courses have enrollments of 19 or fewer. Undergraduate research is commonplace. With a highly ranked engineering school, it’s easy to view Lehigh as primarily a techie haven. Surprisingly, the majority of students pursue other programs, with Lehigh’s well-regarded business school drawing the most majors (29%); 22% graduate with a degree in engineering and 12% study CS.

Professional Outcomes: Recent grads quickly found its way toward the next productive step in their lives with 97% landing jobs or grad school placements within six months of leaving Lehigh. Among graduates of the School of Business and Economics, the top industries entered were financial services, accounting, consulting, and computer software. The average starting salary for a recent grad is $67,000. Among recent diploma-earners heading straight to graduate school, roughly 30% were studying engineering, one-quarter were pursuing business degrees, 10% were training for health professions.

• Enrollment: 5,624
• Cost of Attendance: $72,000
• Acceptance Rate: 37%

University of Georgia

Academic Highlights: UGA boasts seventeen distinct colleges and schools that offer 125+ majors. Business is the most commonly conferred undergrad degree, accounting for 29% of diplomas earned. It is followed by biology (10%), social sciences (8%), communication & journalism (8%), and psychology (7%). Top-ranked programs include animal science, business, communications, and public and international affairs. 49% of sections enroll fewer than 20 students, and no matter your major, UGA encourages you to conduct research with a member of the school’s faculty.

Professional Outcomes: 96% of the Class of 2022 was employed or continuing their education six months after graduation. Popular employers include Accenture, PricewaterhouseCoopers, the Walt Disney Company, and Deloitte. Salaries vary between colleges; engineering grads had a median starting salary of $65k while journalism and communication grads reported a $50k median. In 2022, 24% of graduates enrolled directly into a graduate/professional degree program, with the most commonly attended schools including Columbia, Duke, Emory, Georgia Tech, Penn, and UVA.

• Enrollment: 30,714 (undergraduate); 9,893 (graduate)
• Cost of Attendance: $28,142 (in-state); $48,538 (out-of-state)
• Median SAT: 1310

Arizona State University

Academic Highlights: The faculty-to-student ratio is a fairly high 19:1, but not all classes call for stadium seating. In fact, 40% of course sections seat fewer than twenty students. Business is the concentration in which 22% of total bachelor’s degrees are conferred. Engineering (9%), biology (9%), and the health professions (7%) are the next three most popular. The WP Carey School of Business offers many highly ranked programs as does the Fulton Schools of Engineering.

Professional Outcomes: A healthy 83% percent of ASU graduates looking for work are employed within six months of earning their degrees. The median salary for an ASU grad is roughly $55,000. Among the school’s top fifty employers are Amazon, Apple, Intel, The Vanguard Group, and Walt Disney Company. Approximately one-fifth of recent grads enrolled in graduate school. Similar to employment, the size and scope of the university lead to many graduate pathways. Many grads continue at ASU itself, but some continue at various prestigious institutions.

• Enrollment: 65,492
• Cost of Attendance: $28,142 (in-state); $48,284 (out-of-state)
• Median SAT: 1250
• Median ACT: 23
• Acceptance Rate: 90%
• Graduation Rate: 69%

Southern Methodist University

Academic Highlights: In total, SMU offers 100+ majors and 85 minors. Thanks in part to an 11:1 student-to-faculty ratio, 56% of classes enroll fewer than 20 students. This career-minded student body gravitates toward pre-professional degrees, particularly in business (27%) and engineering (6%). SMU’s Cox School of Business is top-ranked and has especially strong ties to Wall Street. Programs in engineering, sports management, and the performing arts are also very well-regarded.

Professional Highlights: On graduation day, over 66% of recent grads already had their first jobs or graduate school destinations in hand. Six months later, that figure was in the mid-90s. Major corporations employing the greatest number of Mustangs are Lockheed Martin, AT&T, EY, IBM, JPMorgan Chase, Microsoft, Deloitte, American Airlines, Accenture, Oracle, Amazon, and Goldman Sachs. In 2022, the average starting salary was $55k across all majors ($77k for Cox School of Business grads). In a typical year, 25% of seniors elect to immediately pursue an advanced degree.

• Enrollment: 7,115 (undergraduate); 4,727 (graduate)
• Cost of Attendance: $89,676
• Median SAT: 1405
• Acceptance Rate: 61%
• Graduation Rate: 83%

University of Massachusetts Amherst

• Amherst, MA

Academic Highlights: 110 majors are offered across eight undergraduate colleges, including the highly ranked Isenberg School of Management. Programs in sports management, architecture, computer science, and nursing are top-rated. Of all degrees conferred in 2022, business/marketing diplomas accounted for 14%, followed by biology (11%), social sciences (10%), psychology (8%), health professions (7%), engineering (7%), and computer science (7%). 47% of courses enroll fewer than 20 students, and 30% engage in undergraduate research.

Professional Outcomes: Six months after graduating, 65% of newly minted 2022 grads were employed full-time and 26% were attending graduate school part-time. The most populated industries are health/medical professions (13%), internet & software (10%), biotech & life sciences (4%), and higher education (4%). Companies presently employing 100+ Minutemen and Minutewomen include Oracle, Mass Mutual, Amazon, IBM, Google, Intel, Microsoft, PwC, Wayfair, and Apple. Boston is the most popular landing spot for graduates.

• Enrollment: 23,936 (undergraduate); 7,874 (graduate)
• Cost of Attendance: $37,219 (in-state); $59,896 (out-of-state)
• Median SAT: 1380
• Acceptance Rate: 58%

Rutgers University — New Brunswick

• New Brunswick, NJ

Academic Highlights: Rutgers is divided into 17 schools and colleges, collectively offering 100+ undergraduate majors. 41% of class sections have an enrollment of nineteen or fewer students. The greatest number of degrees are conferred in business (20%), computer science (12%), engineering (10%), health professions (10%), biology (9%), and social sciences (7%). Rutgers Business School sends many majors to top Wall Street investment banks, and programs in computer science, public health, and criminal justice have a terrific national reputation.

Professional Outcomes: Upon graduation, 82% of Class of 2022 grads had secured a first job or were heading to an advanced degree program. 67% headed directly to the world of employment, where the companies hiring the largest number of grads included Amazon, Johnson & Johnson, L’Oréal, and JP Morgan Chase. Investment banks like Goldman Sachs and Citi also employ hundreds of alumni, as do companies like Verizon, Bristol-Meyers Squibb, Novartis, Pfizer, and Google. The median starting salary across all majors was $70,000.

• Enrollment: 36,344 (undergraduate); 14,293 (graduate)
• Cost of Attendance: $37,849 (in-state); $57,138 (out-of-state)
• Acceptance Rate: 66%
• Retention Rate: 92%

Elon University

Academic Highlights: Students choose from 70 majors and can add a number of interesting minors like adventure-based learning, coaching, and multimedia authoring. Elon’s 11:1 student-to-faculty ratio leads to an average class size of 20 students; 51% of sections contain fewer than 20 students. The areas in which the greatest number of degrees are conferred are business (29%), journalism/communication (20%), social sciences (8%), the visual and performing arts (6%), and psychology (6%).

Professional Outcomes: Results of a survey administered nine months after graduation found that 96% of the Class of 2022 had found employment, a graduate school, or an internship. Top employers of recent Elon graduates include Bloomberg, Deloitte, EY, Google, Goldman Sachs, Red Ventures, and Wells Fargo. Recent business grads enjoyed a median salary of $61k while communications majors earned $47k. Just under one-quarter of recent grads gained acceptance into graduate/professional school and many remain at Elon.

• Enrollment: 6,337
• Cost of Attendance: $66,657
• Median SAT: 1260
• Median ACT: 28
• Acceptance Rate: 78%

Hofstra University

• Hempstead, NY

Academic Highlights: There are 165 programs for undergraduates spread across the various colleges housing liberal arts, engineering, business, communications, and nursing/health professions. The average undergraduate class size is 21, and the student-faculty ratio is a favorable 13-to-1. The great bulk of courses enroll between 10 and 29 students; 12% are single-digit enrollment courses, and only 2% of sections contain more than 50 students. 14% of the total degrees conferred are in communication/journalism. Health professions (13%), social sciences (9%), and engineering (8%) are next.

Professional Outcomes: Within six months of exiting with their diplomas, 92% of recent grads had found employment or a graduate school destination; 80% were employed. companies employing more than one hundred alums include JPMorgan Chase, Citi, PwC, Morgan Stanley, EY, Deloitte, and NBC Universal. The median starting salary was $62,000. Recent grads have matriculated into a wide array of graduate and professional schools including every SUNY/CUNY institution as well as many elite universities like Columbia, Yale, NYU, Berkeley, and Brown.

• Enrollment: 6,110
• Cost of Attendance: $73,202
• Acceptance Rate: 69%
• Retention Rate: 83%
• Graduation Rate: 68%

University of Iowa

• Iowa City, IA

Academic Highlights: 200+ undergraduate majors, minors, and certificate programs are available across eight colleges, including the Tippie College of Business, which has a very strong reputation. The most commonly conferred degree is business (24%), with parks and recreation (10%), social sciences (8%), health professions (8%), engineering (7%), and communication & journalism (5%) next in popularity. Over half of its undergraduate sections enroll 19 or fewer students, and 30% of undergrads conduct or assist research.

Professional Outcomes: 96% of Class of 2022 grads found their first job or advanced degree program within six months of receiving their diploma. The most commonly entered industries were healthcare (23%), entertainment/the arts (14%), finance and insurance (11%), and marketing/PR (10%). Companies that employ hundreds of alumni include Wells Fargo, Collins Aerospace, Principal Financial Group, Amazon, Accenture, and Microsoft. The median salary for 2022 grads was $50,000. 28% of recent graduates went directly into graduate school; 76% remained at the University of Iowa.

• Enrollment: 22,130 (undergraduate); 7,912 (graduate)
• Cost of Attendance: $28,846-$32,259 (in-state); $50,809-$54,822 (out-of-state)
• Median ACT: 25
• Acceptance Rate: 85%
• Graduation Rate: 73%

University of Oregon

Academic Highlights: Over 80 degree programs are offered, and students flock in large numbers to the social sciences as 19% of degrees conferred fall under this umbrella. The next most popular academic pursuits are communication/journalism (14%), business (14%), psychology (9%), biology (8%) and the visual and performing arts (7%). The Lundquist College of Business and the College of Education have strong national reputations. The median class size is 20 students (37% contain less than that), and an impressive 80% of undergraduate students engage in some type of research activity.

Professional Outcomes: Members of the Class of 2022 already had their next destination lined up at graduation with 78% already employed or entering graduate school.  For 73% of that group, their outcomes related directly to the degree that they had just completed. More than 1,000 Oregon alumni work for Nike, and hundreds of others occupy offices at Intel, Amazon, Microsoft, Adidas, Google, Apple, and Salesforce. The median starting salary for a 2022 graduate was $51,000.

• Enrollment: 19,565 (undergraduate); 3,598 (graduate)
• Cost of Attendance: $35,721 (in-state); $64,302 (out-of-state)
• Median ACT: 27
• Acceptance Rate: 86%

Fordham University

Academic Highlights: The university offers more than seventy majors, minors, and pre-professional programs. Fordham’s 14:1 student-to-faculty ratio leads to an average class size of 23 students. Some classes will be on the smaller side as 52% of sections contain nineteen or fewer students. Gabelli is a top-rated business program with standout programs in international business and finance and serves as a pipeline to many large firms. Other popular areas of study include communications (10%), visual and performing arts (7%), psychology (6%), and biology (5%).

Professional Outcomes: Class of 2022 graduates found employment, graduate school, or other meaningful activities at a 96% clip within six months of receiving their degrees. Nearly two-thirds of this group landed employment and enjoyed an average salary of $70,000. Significant numbers of 2022 grads found homes at major companies including PwC (36), Ernst & Young (29), KMPG (24), Morgan Stanley (22), and Deloitte (21). The greatest number of recent graduates pursuing an advanced degree landed at Fordham, NYU, and Columbia.

• Enrollment: 10,098
• Cost of Attendance: $85,067
• Acceptance Rate: 54%
• Retention Rate: 88%

We hope you have found our list of the Best Colleges for Journalism to be useful and informative as you continue your college search process. We also invite you to check out some of our other resources and tools including:

• AP Score Calculators 
• SAT Score Calculator 
• ACT Score Calculator
• Best Summer Programs 
• College List Building Tool
• Best Colleges by Major

Andrew Belasco

A licensed counselor and published researcher, Andrew's experience in the field of college admissions and transition spans two decades. He has previously served as a high school counselor, consultant and author for Kaplan Test Prep, and advisor to U.S. Congress, reporting on issues related to college admissions and financial aid.

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