Master in Digital Journalism and Design

Learn essential skills for the Internet age: web publishing and design, social media, multimedia production, information graphics and much more.

This master’s degree is designed to be completed in one year, or over a fall, a spring and a summer semester. (Working professionals may want to take longer to complete it.) It will prepare recent graduates or practice professionals to excel in the exciting field of digital journalism and in other media- or communication-related fields. As an applicant to the master’s degree in Digital Journalism and Design, you stand to gain an immediate professional benefit: a USFSP-Poynter Certificate of Proficiency in Digital Technology for Journalists.

A Banner Day for DJD: Full Accreditation

On May 6, 2016, the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications unanimously voted to approve full accreditation for the University of South Florida St. Petersburg’s online M.A. program in Digital Journalism and Design.

Face-to-face undergraduate and graduate programs within USFSP’s Department of Journalism and Media Studies have been accredited since 2004, earning re-accreditation every five years since. This marks the first program review for DJD and its initial accreditation. ACEJMC found each degree-seeking program offered by the Department of Journalism and Media Studies in compliance with each its nine standards for excellence.

While programs with multiple ACEJMC-accredited programs are rare, rarer still are accredited programs with online degrees. Today’s achievement validates the hard work our students and faculty have put forth since the first cohort of DJD students in fall, 2012.

Ready to jump into a fully accredited digital learning environment and become a better communicator, designer, and storyteller? Come join us today.

The DJD degree FEATURES 10 courses at the cutting edge of journalism, technology, and design.

Each course addresses an area highly relevant to the practice of digital journalism and design. Together, the courses provide a solid foundation of the practical and theoretic skills required to succeed in the rapidly changing era of online journalism.

• Multimedia Reporting
• Web Publishing
• Digital Media and Democracy
• Multimedia Production
• Entrepreneurial Journalism
• Digital Media Technology
• Social Media
• Digital Media Ethics and Law
• Visual Communication Design and Theory
• Final Project

The College of Arts & Sciences is USF St. Petersburg’s largest college, offering a wide range of academic programs. The College has a legacy of providing programs of excellence in a student-centered atmosphere. World-class research and creative activities are carried out in one of the most beautiful metropolitan campuses in the U.S. Take some time to explore our offerings, where “the world will recognize your degree and your professors will know your name.”

College of Arts and Sciences Mission

To embody the principles and activities of a research-intensive liberal arts college, where our graduates will be well trained within their disciplines, and thus prepared for a graduate or professional schools. Our students will have the critical skills, broad outlook, and civic awareness that will make them engaged and productive citizens. In short, our students will be recognized as citizen-scholars.

Unit Goals/Strategies

1. Make significant and meaningful contributions to ongoing dialogues in our academic fields; 2. Expect our undergraduates and graduate students to engage in research – where feasible, in collaboration with faculty; 3. Cultivate a vigorous liberal arts culture by recruiting talented and diverse faculty and students, maintaining small class sizes, and mentoring those students we have; 4. Encourage free discussions, foster critical thinking, demand that our students write, and when possible, to work across disciplines; 5. Initiate and expand graduate programs and develop formal academic ties to other graduate programs within the University of South Florida system; 6. Introduce, as part of the mosaic of learning experiences at USFSP, civic engagement, service learning, and experiential learning into classes, when appropriate.

Dean Biafora's Welcome

Welcome and thank you for your interest in our graduate offerings at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg (USFSP). As a dynamic research-active institution, USFSP College of Arts & Sciences offers world-class academics and personalized real-world experience in a culturally vibrant, urban, waterfront community. Our student body is diverse; reflecting the demographics of the region, the state, and the nation. Our distinguished faculty is recognized locally, nationally and around the world for their excellence in research and scholarship. Our flexible programs are designed to meet the needs of the students–from the fully online degree in Digital Journalism and Media Studies to the hands-on research focused Psychology graduate program. I encourage you to reach out to the Graduate Program Director of the program of your interest to learn more. Our story at USFSP continues to be written and we are excited to invite you to be a part of our future. Join us in the exploration that is graduate education and research at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg.