Radio–Television Journalism students produce Update News, an award–winning weekly newscast that airs throughout the Bay Area and on the Internet. They shoot and edit news footage in digital and analog formats and work in computerized newsrooms with Internet access, and in a studio equipped with a professional teleprompter system. The newscast they produce has been honored many times as the Best College Newscast in the state.

In recent years, students have won close to 300 awards in statewide, western regional and national competitions, including first place awards in the prestigious William Randolph Hearst Foundation national competition.

The strong liberal arts and journalism education, combined with important hands-on experience, prepares students to work in broadcast and corporate fields.

The Broadcast Journalism program offered through the San Jose State University School of Journalism and Mass Communication is nationally accredited. The Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications (ACEJMC) accredits only those programs which meet high academic standards.

Students seeking a Bachelor of Science degree in Journalism with an emphasis in Radio and Television Journalism receive a strong liberal arts education. In addition, they get an exceptional journalism education. They take courses covering such topics as Law and Ethics of the Media, History of American Media, Mass Media and Society, Introduction to Mass Communications Research, and Lifestyles and the Media. Students also receive actual hands-on experience. Heavy emphasis is placed on writing skills and students work in computer labs and computer equipped is placed on writing skills and students are also required to serve internships in professional news operations, prior to graduation.

Students work on two broadcast news staffs. Radio students produce and air stories over the university’s KSJS-FM radio. Student reporters cover news and sports issues and events of interest to the university community. The students have won several awards, including the California Intercollegiate Press Association (CIPA) Best College Radio Newscast award several times. They have also won many other awards in western regional Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), and national William Randolph Hearst Foundation broadcast competitions.

UPDATE NEWS is the school’s award-winning television newscast. The student staff members produce and anchor the half-hour weekly newscast which airs in nine San Francisco Bay Area counties over public television KTEH. The newscast also airs live on campus and, through the university’s Television Education Network (TEN), at various junior college campuses in Santa Clara country and the Monterey Bay Area. The newscast is closed captioned, making it available to the hearing-impaired. UPDATE has been on the air for 36 years.

In April of 2000, CIPA once again judged UPDATE NEWS the Best College Newscast in the state, the newscast has won the award sixteen times since 1982. UPDATE staff members have won numerous states, regional and national awards in competitions conducted by CIPA, SPJ, Women in Communications and the William Randolph Hearst Foundation.

In the last fifteen years, broadcast journalism students have garnered at least 267 awards in state, regional (four western states), and national competitions. In May of 1999, San Jose State broadcast journalism major placed first in the nation in the prestigious Hearst Foundation Television News Competition. He was the third SJSU Broadcast Journalism student to place first in the competition in the last five years. In the past ten years, 24 of the school’s broadcast majors have placed in the top 20 in the national competition. Ten of those students placed in the top ten on the nation. San Jose State’s School of Journalism and Mass Communications has placed in the top ten in the nation in the Hearst competition six times since 1989.

Students in the broadcast program work with SVHS camcorders while covering stories in the field. There are ten editing bays as well as a dubbing station that allows video/audio dubbing between various tape formats. A newly purchased digital editing system and digital camera will be put into service soon. The newsroom is directly wired into the internet via Ethernet. The studio is equipped with a professional news set and anchors work with IFB’s and a computerized teleprompter system.

The SJSU school of Journalism and Mass Communications Broadcast Journalism program prepares students for a wide range of communications careers. The success of the program can be judged not only by the numerous awards won, but also by the number of graduates working in the field today. A recent survey of 344 graduates found that 88–percent had been, or were working in media related jobs…74–percent of them in broadcast companies. Graduates are working as news directors, anchors, producers, assignment editors, photographers and editors at radio and television stations across the nation, and in some international news operations in places like Guam, Saipan and Hong Kong. Other alumni are working in such areas as corporate media, educational video production, print journalism, journalism education, advertising and public relations, several graduates have gone on to get advanced degrees.