Broadcast Journalism Education and the Capstone Experience

Abstract

This study assesses the current state of the television news capstone experience in accredited journalism and mass communication programs in the United States. Specifically, the authors employed a mixed-methods approach, interviewing 20 television news capstone instructors and conducting an analysis of broadcast journalism curriculum information obtained from 113 schools. More than 90 percent of accredited schools offer a television news capstone, and faculty had similar insights about television news instruction and how best to teach the television news capstone course.