Journalism/Blogging Certificate of Achievement

The Journalism/Blogging Certificate of Achievement focuses on teaching students to be professional storytellers, to record history, to investigate government and business practices and to create lighter community features that take their viewers behind the scenes. They will learn multidisciplinary skills, including filming and editing videos and creating podcasts, blogs, and vlogs. They will be ready for a job market that requires more skills than just writing or editing, that demands reporters who can be “backpack” journalists, able to report instantly in a variety of methods. They will also have an integral understanding of the laws and ethics behind reporting and they will  know how to present stories fairly and accurately. 

Upon completion, students are versed in the most up-to-date methods of storytelling, including video, podcasts, social media as well as reach professional levels of print and broadcast media. Skills can be applied to reporting, producing, and editing news, creating marketing and digital content, writing newsletters or blogs and exploring methods to better reach customers and clients. This certificate can lead to career opportunities in media, website design and creation, blog or vlog development and maintenance, corporate marketing and public relations, local media, and/or any non-profit, for-profit, companies, government entities, small businesses, or community organizations where communication skills are valued. Students pursuing this certificate can range from those looking to learn to communicate and write better to professionals who wish to refresh their marketing skills to community members. The certificate can lead to a degree in journalism or transfer to a four-year college.

The Journalism/Blogging Certificate of Achievement is projected to have an enrollment of 30 students/year with 20-25 completing the certificate annually.

Cabrillo College is seeking approval from the Chancellor’s Office for the Journalism/Blogging Certificate of Achievement in Career and Technical Education. 

The journalism program is designed to give students the skills to investigate, write and edit news and feature stories and make them compelling for a large audience. While the numbers of jobs in the major media varies, they are now at a height in Santa Cruz where new outlets are hiring professionals and interns at the highest rate and salaries in recent memory. Journalism, of course, is more than an opportunity to make money. It is the only profession guaranteed in the Constitution covered by the First Amendment. There is a need for those whose mission is to tell the truth and keep the government accountable to the populace. To paraphrase Thomas Jefferson, a good media is more important than a good government. 

A certificate in the field can lead to a job right out of Cabrillo, as it has for some, or to a four-year degree as it has for many more. The Cabrillo program stresses professionalism, ethics, fact-checking, strict deadlines and fairness. Those skills make the students prime candidates for jobs in the media, or frankly, anywhere that communications skills are valued. Many have gone to work for websites and in corporate marketing and public relations, as well as in local media. 

Cabrillo students have taken reporting and management jobs at the Watsonville Pajaronian, the Santa Cruz Sentinel, Santa Cruz Local, Good Times, the Gilroy Dispatch, the Hollister Record, and the Morgan Hill Times. 

The need for journalism professionals has been advocated for by local businesses and organizations and supported by current, regional labor market research (TOP Code 0602.00). Based on all available data, there appears to be an undersupply of Journalism workers compared to the demand for this cluster of occupations in the Bay Region and in the Santa Cruz-Monterey Sub-Region (Monterey, San Benito, and Santa Cruz Counties). There is a projected annual gap of about 1,076 students in the Bay Region and 39 students in the Santa Cruz-Monterey Sub-Region.

The journalism program is aligned with Cabrillo’s mission, master plan, and statewide community college work in Guided Pathways. Approval of this program will benefit local publications, fulfill corporate needs  of the local and bay area community, augment college enrollment, and support non-traditional and underserved minority students in a viable career and academic path. This program would give our students the knowledge and skills they need to gain acceptance to a four-year institution or excel in the workforce. The goal is for certificate completers to be gainfully employed whether they continued with a AA/AS degree or transferred to a university. Working with employers to identify earning potential is promising, with potential for a starting salary of $18/hr - $22/hr for writers and authors to a high of $21/hr -$30/hr for an editor. The labor market data shows great potential for job growth in this area. Expected growth in the field is expected to be at an average of 11% increase in the next five years.   It is critical to give community college students educational and professional experience that is necessary to be successful, and provide a solid income potential.

The Journalism/Blogging Certificate of Achievement requires 21-29 units of course credit including six required courses for 19 units and two elective courses for 2-8 units.

Course	Title	Units	Year/Semester (Y1 or S1)
ENGL 1A/1AH/1AMC/1AMCH or ESL 1A	College Composition	3.00	Y1, S1
AP26A	Visual Storytelling	3.00	Y1, S1
JOURN 21A	Mass Communications	3.00	Y1, S1
JOURN 54A	Newspaper Production	3.00	Y1, S1
Electives		1.00-4.00	Y1, S1
ETHN 3	Race, Ethnicity, and Society	3.00	Y1, S2
JOURN 23A	Reporting for the News Media	3.00	Y1, S2
JOURN 35	Writing for the Broadcast Media	3.00	Y1, S2
Electives		1.00-4.00	Y1, S2

The Journalism/Blogging Certificate of Achievement is an interdisciplinary program in the journalism department at Cabrillo College. The majority of core courses and elective classes are in the journalism department.

Currently, we are not aware of a similar program in Northern California and the Monterey Bay area, none of the surrounding colleges such Monterey Peninsula College or Hartnell College offer such a certificate.