About Columbia Journalism School

Reporting begins here.

Columbia Journalism School is global, influential and innovative.

Centered in the media capital of the world, it leads the way to a better future — backed by more than 100 years of experience in educating trailblazers of the industry.

Our Mission

Columbia Journalism School’s purpose is to educate students from all over the world to become conscientious, accomplished professional journalists. The school equips them to perform a vital and challenging function: through evidence-based reporting, to find out the truths of complicated situations, usually under time constraint, and communicate them to the public in a clear, engaging fashion. The school also produces and disseminates research about the changing contexts — legal, economic, technological, social — in which journalism takes place, with the aim of helping to shape the future of the profession and of training leaders in scholarship about our field.

Upholding Pulitzer’s Legacy

More than a hundred years after his death, the name Pulitzer is all but synonymous with journalism of the highest caliber. Yet little more than a century ago, Pulitzer was an extraordinarily controversial figure. 

Coverage of the Spanish-American war led to a calamitous press war that had soiled his name. Alarmed, Pulitzer determined he would use his fortune to enshrine the highest values of journalism in two prominent ways: the Pulitzer prizes, and a great school of journalism.

 Today, we uphold the belief that a multiracial, multicultural democracy requires vigilant and consistent reporting on the rights and experiences of all people; and that journalism’s obligation is to the public and that it must remain independent and transparent about its methods and affiliations and responsible for its errors.

“A journalist is the lookout on the bridge of the ship of state.” Joseph Pulitzer

At the heart of the School's mission — training reporters to cover a multifaceted and ever-changing world — is the precept that the journalism community must be an authentic reflection of that world. Columbia Journalism School believes that meaningful representation of minority groups is essential to telling the full story.

Columbia Journalism School lives up to that purpose and has done for more than a century. At the heart of the School's mission — training reporters to cover a multifaceted and ever-changing world — is the precept that the journalism community must be an authentic reflection of that world. Columbia Journalism School believes that meaningful representation of minority groups is essential to telling the full story.

Looking to the Future

The school's tradition is rooted in the bedrock values of ethics — but it looks forward, with cutting-edge innovation and media scholarship. 

Under the leadership of Dean Jelani Cobb and a distinguished faculty, the Journalism School continues to drive initiatives that educate top journalists, uphold standards of excellence for the profession as a whole and ensure that the press strives for the public good.

The school is also working to ensure journalism becomes more accessible. More diverse voices better tell the story of democracy — and help fortify it further.