J-schools are far from blameless for the lagging state of modern journalism, but at least Medill is doing something about it. Through an ad in the free version of Twitterific, I just saw that the school is actively recruiting programmers to apply for scholarships:
Medill believes that journalism is a key foundation for a functioning democracy and that in the 21st century, programmer/developers are enormously important to the future of journalism. So we have partnered with the Knight Foundation to create this scholarship program for people with strong technology skills who are interested in pursuing a journalism master’s degree at Medill.
“The skills and insights that technology developers have are increasingly important to the analysis, delivery and accessibility of information needed in a democracy,” said Rich Gordon, who teaches interactive journalism at Medill. “At the same time, the journalistic skills learned at a place like Medill can yield important ideas for applying technology in ways citizens will find relevant and engaging.”
These are full scholarships to an expensive and prestigious journalism school and are the result of a partnership between Medill and the Knight Foundation. If you’re a coder – or know one – this is definitely worth checking out.