The journalism program at SDSU has an obligation to the profession and to society to promote and maintain high standards of professional competency.
Journalism education emphasizes the training of writers, reporters, and editors for the mass media.
It also seeks to prepare and guide students interested in pursuing careers in a wide range of informational and interpretative multi-media environments. The courses offered by the journalism program are designed to give students a working knowledge of the skills, concepts, and values needed to succeed as competent professional communicators. They focus on the basic elements of factual and analytical writing, editing, communication law and theory, history, ethics, and responsibility in the mass media. The journalism degree requires three-fourths of the student's course work to be outside journalism because journalists need to know the workings of society, the role of government, the economic and political structure of their environment, and how the natural world works. The journalism major is designated as an impacted program and specific regulations related to admission are imposed.