Attaining the goals articulated in the JCOM Mission Statement requires that JCOM majors exhibit proficiency in the following areas:

1.     Journalism and Communication skills: Writing and verbal skills, information-gathering, fact-checking, the synthesis of ideas, deductive logic.

2.     Technological skills: Both the ability to use effectively as well as the knowledge of current delivery systems for information and their impacts.

3.     Philosophical grounding: Understanding of the philosophical, historical, ethical antecedents of modern mass Journalism and Communication practice in the context of the First Amendment and a free and open society, and how those lessons apply in day-to-day mass media practice for media producers and consumers.

4.     Critical thinking: The ability to evaluate mass media messages and campaigns, to understand how media and society interact and implications of that interaction.

5.     Professional and personal responsibility: Affirmation of the individual’s responsibilities as either a producer or consumer of information in a democratic mass media age.

6.     Market savvy: Exposure to real-world situations that instruct and demonstrate application of classroom lessons.