For students at Arizona State University, they have long been told to “fight with your might and don’t ever yield” and this mentality certainly applies to student journalists in the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communications. Named in honor of former CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite in 1984, the program at ASU has been designed to be a professional school of journalism with an emphasis on liberal arts as the foundation for success.

“We are a professional school of journalism so that’s the approach we take,” said Marianna Barrett, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at The Walter Cronkite School.

So what can students expect at the Walter Cronkite School?

There is a rigorous and competitive program at ASU, with an emphasis on liberal arts classes to facilitate the skills classes that are offered, known as he values group and the skills group, said Barrett.

 “Because we’re an accredited school, journalism students can take no more than 40 credits of journalism classes and the rest are liberal arts classes,” she said.

Students take four values classes in the program, one per year, that act as the core classes for their coursework.  Students select from classes like Principles in History of Journalism, Ethics and Diversity, Mass communications and Law, and Business of Future of Journalism, said Barrett.

On the skills side, all print focus students take a beginning reporting class, an online media class, an intermediate reporting class and an editing class. For students interested in broadcast, they take a different video shooting and editing class, while print students take a print editing class.

“We have a couple of specializations – print, broadcast, digital, and public relations,” said Barrett. “Depending on which specialization students take, that will impact the upper division skills classes that are required.”

One of the most distinct requirements at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism is the professional and competitive experience that is created for students.

“We require all students to take a three-credit internship but we highly recommend that students take multiple internships,” said Barrett.

While students can only get credit for one, three-credit internship, they’re encouraged to take more for experience.

 “We also have a partnership with the Arizona Republic,” said Barrett. “They do spot news reporting for the Republic.”

This partnership is for students who have all taken the beginning news class and multimedia class and have developed some basic journalism skills.

As the shift towards multimedia continues, ASU is onboard with the transition.

“There is still an emphasis on writing in every course that we teach, but we require our students to take an online media class,” Barrett said.

Students are learning to build websites, how to write for online readers and how to shoot images and video for websites.

Since students are provided with online media education, their students do really well in many contents for The Society of Professional Journalists, said Barrett.

So why pick ASU over UA?

The Walter Cronkite School does have a one up on UA student journalists. While the program is strictly news oriented, they so offer a minor in media analysis for students not interested in news, said Barrett.

While the program does not teach students how to be journalists, it does educate them on different aspects of the media than the straight-news that is offered in most programs.

“It teaches them how to be more critical consumers of the media but doesn’t prepare them to be media critics.”

With its rigorous standards and professional curriculum, students from The Walter Cronkite School are graduating as competitive journalists, ready to take on a career in the media. It just goes to show that Arizona State knows how to “outshine all others” and to “give ‘em hell Devils!”