Medill To Offer J-School Scholarships to Comp-Sci Grads

• By Paul McCloskey
• 05/29/07

The Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University is making scholarships available to those with undergraduate degrees in computer science, as well as programmers and Web developers, under a grant that recognizes that the Web has become an essential media technology.

The three-year, $639,000 grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation would pay for "Knight News Challenge Scholarships" for students enrolling at Medill as early as September 2007. The money has been set aside to support people and organizations with innovative ideas for using digital news or information to build community, according to the foundation.

Scholarship recipients will need to meet Medill's normal admissions requirements for a master's degree in journalism. The school wants to use the scholarships is to attract a new type of student to one-year master's program.

"We believe there are programmers who want to do work that makes a difference to society's future," said Rich Gordon, associate professor and director of Medill's new media program. "We want the new scholarships to generate interest among computer specialists who want to make a difference and who might never have considered applying their technology skills to journalism."

Collaboration between computer science and journalism students will yield innovative ideas such as a Web service that allows readers to research the voting record or campaign contributions by individual legislators, for example, Medill officials noted.

"The skills and insights of technology developers are increasingly important to the analysis, delivery and accessibility of information needed in a democracy," said Gordon. "At the same time, the journalism skills learned at a school like Medill can produce ideas for applying technology in ways citizens will find relevant and engaging."

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• News Challenge