MPA or MPP for Journalism.

[Xoan]

Hello all,

I'm not going to bore you with my life story, basically, I'm a lawyer (4 years prof. experience + 4 years as intern in various law firms) looking to study an MPA-MPP (depending on the school), but my goal is to get a job in media (hopefully a serious magazine like Foreign Affairs, The Economist, Time, etc.) and write/investigate.

Am I aiming at the wrong target? Should I study a Masters in Journalism instead? Is there anybody out here with similar goals?

Thanks to all.

[OregonGal]

You might want to explore a joint degree program with those specific goals and a career transition. I almost went for the Public Diplomacy joint MS/MA degree program at Syracuse--their j-school is one of the best and their public affairs school isn't bad either. The joint degrees are M.S. Public Relations and M.A. International Relations, so it's not a straight-up journalism degree, but you could see if you could tailor the program. Some schools also allow students to independently tailor a dual Masters program (though it's more common to do MPP/MBA or MPH), so it's worth looking into if you know the school you're looking at has a reputable j-school and policy program.

[Xoan]

Thanks a lot OregonGal, I've researched a couple of Joint Degrees and found some very interesting options.

[MMM2015]

Hi Xoan,

I was searching this message board for information about MPA/MPP programs and I found your post. It was almost eerie reading it, because I am also an attorney (with approximately 5 years of experience under my belt) and I'm also looking to get into an MPA/MPP program to break into journalism. I'm interested in writing on international relations and human rights-related topics. Would you mind sharing what programs you've found?

Thanks!

[Xoan]

Hey MAB1980, what a coincidence. Seems to me we are looking for the same programs. I've found a couple of joint degrees that may interest you: 1. NYU Journalism Global-Joint Program in International Relations (Arthur L. Carter Institute of Journalism); 2. The Elliot School's program in Global Communications; 3. American University's SIS-Journalism and Public Affairs joint program, and 4. the Public Diplomacy joint MS/MA degree program at Syracuse that OregonGal mentioned. Of course some Journalism masters have courses in politics or international reporting.

Let me know if you if you've found something else and good luck.

[MMM2015]

Thanks so much!

[kreitz128]

Based on what I understand MPP, you are on target, especially if you want to be an analyst of sorts for media, or report around anything policy related. 

I can definitely relate and have questions on this too.  I want to work as consultant/aid applied researcher in NgO and program evaluation, not necessarily policy, yet I believe policy is a big factor in supporting the work I want to do, and manifests decisions between practice and theory.  Im struggling with imposter syndrome (sounds like you may be too) since I don't want to directly work in politics, yet amongst applied research in social policy.

Can I ask, how will you tie your goals in Journalism back to specific coursework in a Masters in public policy?  Some admissions recommended I do this in my SOP. How do you plan to talk about your long term interests being a fit for the school?

Are there any areas of policy work in the field that you plan to relate to, or will you remain as a generalist?

[ExponentialDecay]

bro, this OP is from 2012...