About the Journalism Program

Knox College’s Journalism Program is interested in students who want to make a difference, who believe that serious professional journalism can shed light on society’s problems and help bring about democratic change.

This commitment stems from a proud history of alumni like S. S. McClure (the founder of investigative “muckraking” journalism), Ellen Browning Scripps (one of the first American women journalists), John Huston Finley (editor-in-chief of The New York Times), distinguished CBS investigative journalist Robert “Shad” Northshield, Pulitzer-Prize winning New York Times reporter in Afghanistan Barry Bearak and one important “honorary alumnus,” the two-time Pulitzer-Prize winning author and poet Carl Sandburg. All these Knox people have helped to shape American journalism over the past two centuries.

Knox student journalists study the key issues and the practical skills of contemporary journalism, within two crucial frames of reference. The first is the college’s liberal arts curriculum, which grounds this specialized study in a broader educational program of nationally recognized quality. The second is a direct engagement with the world outside the college. Students learn first-hand how a community—Galesburg, Illinois—works and how to write about it. They also pursue stories of national significance through in-depth reporting. The program itself combines skills courses, where the emphasis is on different types of journalistic writing, graphic design and photography, and reflective courses examining the media’s social and political implications. Students have many internship and independent study opportunities to pursue fields and topics of special interest, multiple on- and off-campus outlets for their journalistic work, and opportunities to build their own files of published stories in all of these venues for their future job search.

Internships & Employment

Knox graduates have worked for a wide range of media firms, as interns and employees, including The New York Times, Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, U.S. News & World Report, Rocky Mountain News, Gannett, Scripps-Howard and Copley newspapers, NPR affiliates and CNN.

Graduate Study

Knox student journalists have pursued advanced study in many areas at leading graduate schools around the globe. Graduate programs in journalism admitting Knox students include: Columbia University, University of Missouri, Northwestern University, University of Indiana and the University of Illinois-Springfield (Public Affairs).