Writing for Print and Digital Media

You’ve graduated from Columbia College, and you’re covering the second presidential campaign of your reporting career.

You covered your first as an undergraduate at Columbia College.

You’re filming your second documentary and hoping it will show at Sundance.

You showed your first doc at Columbia’s Nickelodeon Theatre as

an undergraduate at Columbia College.

You’re writing fall fashion tips for an online magazine.

You know all about Web zines; you designed one as an undergraduate at Columbia College.

How did you get so savvy?

You chose the Writing for Print and Digital Media track in the Division of Languages and Literatures. You prepared for a career in journalism, public relations, digital video, web publishing, or creative writing.

Exciting internships that lead to careers.

Internships allow you to gain new skills, network, find mentors, and experience the real world in the field you have chosen. Students with internship experience have a much better chance of landing a job upon graduation—often, right where they interned!

Before you graduate, you’ll work in your field as an intern:

Olivia Frain filmed, edited, and produced content for the WIS-TV daily news report and, immediately after graduation, was hired by a major Florida television station.
Vicki May Workman interned as a public relations writer for the Central SC Cobras, a new semipro women’s soccer team and was offered a job with the team before graduation.
Sjaan Hydrick filmed and edited alongside an SCETV video producer, garnering credits on a feature-length film for her exceptional video editing skills.
Valarie Flowers researched and wrote publicity materials for the Historic Columbia Foundation.
Chelsea Tyson and Amber Lacey reported and edited for The United Methodist Advocate, a publication of the United Methodist Church.
Kelli Weston assisted the South Carolina Film Office in updating their location directories.
Giesela Lubecke worked in every aspect of the publishing industry at Bruccoli Clark Layman, Inc., home of the Dictionary of Literary Biography.
Krystle Remigio interned for Gamecock Productions, where she filmed and edited sports highlights.

Web publishing

Digital video

Public relations

Writing

Real-world, hands-on experience.

Claudia Smith Brinson, with 30 years of experience in journalism, is a Pulitzer finalist and a two-time winner of the Knight Ridder Award of Excellence. She has provided national coaching in reporting, writing, and editing. Brinson has also won an O. Henry award for her short fiction.

Shane Slattery-Quintanilla is a filmmaker and writer with degrees from Harvard College and the University of Michigan. He shot and coproduced The Ballad of Esequiel Hernandez, an Emmy-nominated documentary film narrated by Tommy Lee Jones and broadcast nationally on PBS in 2008.

Add a second major or a minor in WPDM.

Many students choose to earn a second major or a minor in writing for print and digital media to prepare for careers in business, history, politics, religion, medicine, or law.

Why New Media?

Interest in what’s happening in our community, state, region, and nation hasn’t gone away. But how we get information—from a newspaper on the kitchen table or from an iPhone in our hands—is changing.

We’ll prepare you for a changing world. You will work with the latest technology while learning time-tested interviewing, storytelling, and editing practices.