Curriculum
The program in Business and Economic Reporting is interdisciplinary. Students earn 44 credits for the Master of Arts degree and Certificate in Business and Economic Reporting. They receive intensive instruction in the fundamentals of business, finance, and economics. And they take specialized journalism courses in which they report and write on contemporary business issues.
Highlights include:
- MBA courses: Students take six MBA courses at NYU’s prestigious Leonard N. Stern School of Business.
- M. A. Journalism courses: Students take six business journalism courses plus a summer internship.
- Internships: Students are required to take two internship credits. Most students take one internship credit in the second semester (Spring) and one credit in the Summer Session between the second and third semesters. Other students take both of their credits during the Summer Session. Students intern in the business and financial reporting section of a newspaper, magazine, broadcasting station, or online publication. Most of these internships are in New York City.
- Multimedia: Students learned how to write for all contemporary media, including traditional print, online, video, podcasts, and slide shows.
- Training in broadcast journalism: Students interested in a career in broadcasting can take a broadcasting course, subject to availability.
- Waiver and replacement of required courses: Students who come to the program with a strong academic background in business, finance, or economics may be waived out of one or more of the required MBA courses. In such cases, students take a more advanced business or economics course instead. The director of the program will make decisions on a case-by-case basis.
The curriculum follows, first Journalism and then MBA courses. Please note that some of the required courses may change from year to year.
M.A. Courses in Journalism
1. Writing, Research, and Reporting Workshop 1 (JOUR-GA 1021) (4 credits)
The teaching of news writing is divided into two courses given during the first and second semesters of study in the program. In Reporting 1, offered in the fall semester, students learn reporting principles and techniques and work on increasingly challenging in-class assignments. Students also use New York City as a laboratory to report actual business news events, including speeches, company meetings, elections, and courtroom activities. Topics include story structure and organization, writing techniques, news judgment, and the development of sources and story ideas.
2. Writing, Research, and Reporting Workshop 2: Covering Business and Financial News (JOUR-GA 1022) (4 credits)
Reporting 2, offered in the spring semester, focuses on feature writing while continuing development of news writing skills. Students will focus on coverage of business and financial news. Under tight deadline pressure, they will write news articles on the stock and bond markets and on business news generated especially by companies in New York and the tri-state region. They will also cover industry beats by developing reliable sources among analysts and company executives.
3. First Amendment Law (JOUR-GA 0011) (4 credits)
The course covers constitutional protections for the press under the First Amendment and statutory law. Subjects covered include prior restraints, libel, invasion of privacy, protection of sources, and free press and fair trial. The course also delves into the ethical principles that guide journalists in their work; even if the law protects the right to publish, ethical considerations may affect how a journalist approaches a story.
4. Specialized Reporting: Investigative Reporting (JOUR-GA 1182) (4 credits)
(This course is selected from the BER roster of courses, and the offering may change from year to year)
Students learn a wide range of techniques for gathering information for in-depth business articles and investigations. They learn how to formulate a strategy for effective reporting and then gather the needed information from interviews, documents, and online sources. The work focuses on collecting information from sources such as government agencies, legal source material, and databases. The course also introduces students to the use of spreadsheets for the analysis of information.
5. Multimedia Storytelling (JOUR-GA 1080) (4 credits)
(This course is selected from the BER roster of courses, and the offering may change from year to year.)
Students learn multimedia in the context of a hyperlocal newsroom, focusing on video, still images, and audio as effective reporting tools.
6. Writing the Long-Form Narrative (JOUR-GA 2046) (4 credits)
(This course is selected from the BER roster of courses, and the offering may change from year to year.)
This seminar focuses on the various components that comprise in-depth magazine stories and non-fiction books. We’ll dissect great modern and classic magazine stories, books and book proposals for story, character arcs, dialogue, scenes, analysis, structure, transitions, verb tense, point of view and style. The goal is to figure out how memorable magazine features and narrative non-fiction books that keep your attention to the very last page are created, then to take what we’ve learned and apply it to our own work. There is one semester-long writing assignment—a 5,000+-word feature story—with several shorter related pieces involving scenes, character, dialogue, and analysis, all of which will be incorporated into the final capstone. Along the way we’ll work on pitches and story memos, research and interview techniques, time management, outlines, editing and multiple drafts, and all the challenges today’s non-fiction narrative writers face.
7. Summer Internship (2 credits)
- Internship (JOUR-GA 1290)
Students are required to take two internship credits. Most students take one internship credit in the second semester (Spring) and one credit in the Summer Session between the second and third semesters. Other students take both of their credits during the Summer Session. Students intern in the business and financial reporting section of a newspaper, magazine, broadcasting station, or online publication. Most of these internships are in New York City. - Directed Reading (JOUR-GA 1299)
This course is designed for part-time students, who undertake a substantial project of individual study. Students explore a business or economic subject in depth and produce a publishable article.
MBA Courses in NYU’s Stern School of Business
8. Foundations of Finance (COR1-GB 2311) (3 credits) or similar finance course
Students will learn about the financial markets and the tools available to companies in need of capital. Included: the banking system, the stock and bond markets, options, venture capital, and angel capital. Also: financing choices for corporations, including equity, debt, and derivative financial instruments, and their effect on the value of the company.
9. Financial Accounting and Reporting (COR1-GB 1306) (3 credits) or similar accounting course
“Accounting reports are an important means of communication with investors. This course focuses on the development, analysis and use of these reports. It provides an understanding of what these reports contain, what assumptions and concepts accountants use to prepare them, and why they use those assumptions and concepts. The course uses simple examples to provide students with a clear understanding of accounting concepts. It stresses the ability to apply these concepts to real world cases, which by their very nature are complex and ambiguous. In addition to text-oriented materials, the classes also include cases so that students can discuss applications of basic concepts, actual financial reports, and articles from newspapers. In addition to traditional introductory topics other topics may include mergers and acquisitions, purchase and pooling, free cash flow and financial statement analysis.” (Stern website)
10. Firms and Markets (COR1-GB 1303) (3 credits) or a more advanced economics course
“This course is about economic principles: those governing the behavior of markets and firms-and strategic interactions between firms. Situations faced by leading corporations will be discussed, including supply and demand; how price depends on both costs and the sensitivity of buyers to price; the advantages and disadvantages of size; whether firms should make or outsource their inputs; how to increase revenue by charging different prices to different customers; the advantages and disadvantages of price competition; how to convey information to buyers and sellers; and winner take – most “network” markets. The course structure assumes that all students have had some economics background. They must be comfortable with quantitative concepts and approaches and with graphical/geometric ways of presenting quantitative information.” (Stern website)
11. Global Economy (COR1-GB 2303) (3 credits) or a more advanced economics course
“We use the tools of international macroeconomics to explore the economic environment facing firms operating around the globe. Central issues include the role of economic policy and institutions in the performance of firms and nations; economic indicators and forecasting; employment and unemployment; interest rates, inflation, and monetary policy; global trade in goods and capital; foreign exchange rates; and emerging market crises. These issues are considered from the perspectives of both firms and countries.” (Stern website)
12. and 13. Two Electives (3 credits each)
Choose two courses, meeting applicable prerequisites, and with permission of the BER Director or Assistant Director. Students generally take their electives in subjects that they would like to cover as journalists. These electives are taken during the third semester from a wide array of offering at NYU:
- Another MBA course at the Stern School of Business
- A course at the NYU School of Law
- A course at another NYU graduate school or department