AP-Google Scholarship Program for Journalism Students

When you're a college student sometimes choosing a major is based on how much money you're going to make outside of college, not on what kind of difference you can make in the world. Student Journalists are disappearing along with print media. Digital Journalism is the new form of media consumers are reaching out to for the latest and greatest. But how are students suppose to survive as digital journalists?

The outlook for surviving as a digital journalist is a bit discouraging, according to the Daily Beast, Journalism is one of the most useless majors. The pay rate sucks,there is no job security and who knows if there's any benefits; however, there is hope for students who are eager to begin a career as a digital journalist with AP-Google's Journalism and Technology Scholarship Program, students are pushed to contribute new methods to digital journalism. Scholarship winners receive $20,000  towards the following academic year.

This years winners come from all over the U.S with some unique ideas on ways to change how digital media is presented.

 Graduate student, John Osborn, is proposing a news game aiming to simulate Political candidates in order to inform players about how the political system works.

We spoke about news games in class, this student example may be a successful tool for generating interest for gamers who may not be updated on all the political news stories.

Another student, undergraduate Kate Zhu, proposed an application, LedeHub.


"LedeHub pushes the trends of digital journalism forward by fostering collaborative, continuous and open journalism while incorporating elements of crowdsourcing to allow readers, reporters and new organizations to come together in unprecedented ways. " 


The student stories are motivating and great examples on how we can take digital journalism to the next level. The website also provides the winners video proposals which may be helpful with our individual video projects.  


The AP-Google scholarship program is accepting applications for next year and is open to undergraduate students as well as Graduate students. Who knows maybe this film project can lead to bigger things...