The article is devoted to the problem of development of creative abilities of the future of the journalist in the process of professional preparation, the activation of its creative potential as a factor of personal and professional self-development of the student. A special emphasis on the theoretical ideas about the essence and the structure of the creative potential of the person of the journalist as a complex, multifaceted concept, which combines the personal reserve of the capacity and capabilities. Creativity is represented as a system phenomenon, a set of interrelated elements: capacity, the creative process, the degree of individual development of creative abilities, qualities, and providing creative activity of future journalists.