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... 

Google Translate Transforms Communication

Global communication has been made easier thanks to Google Translate. The popular service, which began in 2006, has steadily grown to over 200 million active monthly users, with more than 92% of them identified as international users outside of the United States, using both computers and mobile devices according to the digital media culture news site Mashable.

While it has been noted that many free online translation services often sound like literal dictionary translations, Google's ubiquitous presence and digital pervasiveness from the well known Google Search to Gmail to YouTube, and recently, Chrome, have made such flaws a more viable option than not being able to communicate at all.

In fact, global communication is core value not uncommon is at UC San Diego, ranking 7th in the nation with 2,375 international scholars from China, South Korea, India, Japan, Germany, France, and others, according to a publication in the UC San Diego International Center 2010 Annual Report. Student demographics resemble similar statistics with 2,493 international students.

These statistics are not only indicative of the university's globalization, but also of the efforts put in by staff and students to exchange knowledge in this digital age. To put it in another perspective, people are exchanging without the constraints of language fluency or dependence on formal schooling. Benefits like tolerance, awareness, and shared culture are priceless considering the recent focus on diversity within the university.

That isn't to say this software is absolutely fine and dandy. It's perhaps the reason why I just failed my Korean Language midterm because of my own reliance on Google Translate to complete homework. Let's just hope the program keeps up with slang, but I'm grateful nonetheless.

Welcome to Digital Journalism

In Spring of 2012 the Department of Communication at UC San Diego offered a course on Digital Journalism, which was taught by digital media critic Elizabeth Losh. This blog extends our in-class conversation and shows the responses of students to breaking stories in digital news.