Top-ranked in the nation, UM’s School of Journalism strives to help students think critically about the communities they live in through hands-on-training – and find and tell stories that shed light on important topics. Our students learn by doing while reporting at home and across the globe.

Points of Pride

• Student performance. UM Journalism ranked in the top 10 of all accredited journalism programs around the globe. Students continue to win major awards from the most important organizations, including the Hearst Journalism Awards, the Society of Professional Journalists and the Emmy awards.
• Public service. The most recent accreditation site team cited “a strong tradition of service to Montana and to the profession of journalism. In a state with limited media resources, the School plays a key role in keeping citizens informed, giving voice to underserved populations and providing forums to assess media performance.
• Faculty. Journalism faculty members have received national recognition for excellence in teaching. They also inspire students with their own projects – from writing an e-book about presidential debates, to multimedia shows about disappearing towns, to kayaking solo up to Alaska.
• Unprecedented experiential learning opportunities across the state and globe, including:
  • Montana Legislative News: every legislative season, students live and work in the state capital to cover the Montana legislative session for nearly 200 broadcast, print and web publications.
  • The Native News Honors Project: every year our students travel across Montana’s seven Indian reservations to cover pressing issues and publish in-depth investigative stories that appear in four Montana newspapers and on a robust multi-media website.
  • Montana Journalism Abroad: every spring students get the opportunity to go on a unique trip abroad to practice investigative reporting on a faculty-led international trip.

UM Foundation Support

• Don Anderson Hall, completed in 2007, was a $14 million project funded by the largest number of private donors for any public building in the history of Montana.
• Private donations are helping to launch The Montana Media Lab — our newest initiative at Don Anderson Hall. The lab will specialize in hands-on media workshops for all skill levels taught by industry experts. The lab will also design and implement media literacy and digital storytelling projects in rural public schools across Montana. Our students will be involved on the ground level with our new technologies as well as teaching the skills they learn in middle schools across the state.
• The Impact Fund helps students report for projects such as the "Made in Montana" business profiles and the Native News Honors Project.
• We offer over $175,000 annually in scholarships to our students, thanks to donor support!

Thank you for your gift.

Have a question about supporting the School of Journalism? Contact our team.