All journalism majors must submit a professional-level digital portfolio before graduation.
Whether you are exploring a profession through an internship, studying abroad, gaining experience with a campus job or learning skills in the classroom, you will be building a professional portfolio that shows your talents to future employers.
Evaluation is on a pass-fail basis. You must pass the portfolio requirement to earn your degree. You are required to seek input and feedback from your journalism faculty advisor at every advising session.
In the months before the posted deadline, you must meet with your advisor to review your portfolio to ensure you are on track to graduate. Once you complete your portfolio, call or email your faculty advisor.
Your advisor will review the materials and either contact you for revisions or approve it and contact the college advising office so it can be noted in GPS.
Managing Your Portfolio
JOU portfolios are managed through a Sharepoint site that can be accessed using the button below. If you find you do not have access, you can request it when signing in to the site - please allow one workday for this request to be handled.
Video instructions for using the site can be accessed using the button below. If you encounter problems, contact your faculty advisor.
Portfolio Guidelines
Your portfolio will consist of five professional-quality pieces plus your résumé and a list of your portfolio items (a total of seven items). Your portfolio should demonstrate your mastery of the field and diverse skills you can bring to the workplace. It should tell your story.
It is your responsibility to seek out opportunities to produce professional-quality materials. Campus media, community media, internships, service learning and student organizations, such as the Kentucky Kernel, KRNL Magazine and WRFL are good places to start.
When selecting work for your portfolio, at least three pieces should have been published or used by an organization. “Published” is defined as being made available to an audience, preferably through curated media where you are working with an editor to get published, and NOT self-published. You may use no more than two items of unpublished classwork.
When selecting your five portfolio pieces, please consult with your faculty adviser about how those should be distributed across categories and mediums.
Here is a checklist to help you complete your portfolio:
- Your portfolio has seven distinct items.
- Five journalism-related pieces
- Your résumé
- List of included work (see below)
- Your portfolio must include at least one example of deadline writing or producing. This item should be produced live or on deadline, with an immediate same-day turnaround. Some examples could include sports/game coverage, event coverage, hard news or live broadcast or live streaming.
- Your portfolio must include at least one example of a feature story. A feature is a typically longer story that, while containing elements of news, aims to humanize, add color, educate, entertain and illuminate. These can include radio stories, broadcast packages, print reports, documentary photography, capstone projects and other approved formats.
- You must demonstrate your ability to create stories using more than one type of media. These can include radio, live streaming, broadcast, print, web, social media and other approved formats. Consult with your faculty adviser if you have questions about the suitability of the medium.
- Include a list that briefly describes the items you included in your portfolio, what your specific roles were, where they were published and when. Links are also good to have on this list if available but should not replace a copy of the work submitted to the system.
Examples of items you may include:
- Original broadcast or digital audio/video reports, such as a PKG or VO-SOT you shot and edited or a wrap you recorded for a newscast.
- Podcasts or radio shows (like Campus Voices) in the roles of producer, host, writer or editor
- Scripts written for broadcast or documentaries
- Anchoring segments (only if you wrote the scripts you are reading)
- Photo galleries or photo spreads online or print (newspaper, magazine, books)
- Graphic designs and layouts for web, print, broadcast or streaming
- Shows, segments or videos for which you were the main producer or director
- Directing, technical directing, audio and/or videography work for a show or significant segment in a live broadcast/stream/podcast/other programming
- Writing or audiovisual sample based on extensive primary and secondary research (such as JOU 333 assignment/project; must be pre-approved by your faculty advisor)
NOTE: Compress all videos to mp4 (h.264 or x.264). Convert or save all print and web files to PDFs. No file may be larger than 500 MB.
Portfolio Completion Deadlines
If you plan to graduate in December, the completion deadlines are:
- Oct. 1 - Deadline to open portfolio.
- Nov. 11 - Deadline to complete revisions, contact your advisor for approval.
If you plan to graduate in May or August, the completion deadlines are:
- Feb. 1 - Deadline to open portfolio.
- April 1 - Deadline to complete revisions, contact your advisor for approval.