Columbia University wants to know about Digital Journalism!

New York's Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism received $2m from the Tow and Knight Foundations just last month (April 2012) to find out the effects of digital journalism. This money will be given to the Tow Center for Digital Technology who has been conducting research since 2010 at Columbia. The supporters of the this research suggest that the focus will be on these three aspects of digital journalism:

• “Impact: measuring how new practices and tools affect audiences and newsroom resources;
• Transparency in journalism: focusing on public data – what’s available, what’s not, and what’s useful and relevant to people’s lives;
• Data visualization: examining which visuals work best in informing and engaging readers.”

With so much money invested in the world of digital journalism, it is evident that it may be here to stay. Print journalists may need to get on board quickly and learn the trade of digital journalism.

ONACamps Continue to Train Future Digital Journalists

Good news to all potential and inspired journalists! The Online News Association (ONA) recently declared the continuation of their training camp for digital journalists thanks to the $50,000 sponsored by the Gannett Foundation. ONA is on its fourth year offering free digital training especially to independent, inspired, and determined journalists, bloggers, and entrepreneurs according to the article ONA Receives Renewed $50,000 Gannett Grant to Train Digital Journalists from the MarketWatch.

ONA, according to their official website, is "a nonprofit membership organization for digital journalists, connecting journalism, technology and innovation". The training camps give the new digital journalists an opportunity to improve their technical skills and learn about possible tools they can use. ONA has brought many training sessions for digital journalists throughout the U.S. since 2009.

The Gannett Foundation is sponsored by Gannett Co., Inc which "invest in the future of communities in which Gannett does business". The spokesman for Gannett announces their excitement in being able to help keep the program going for all the digital journalists that may feel lost in this rapidly changing landscape of journalism.

 The next training camps are scheduled to take place in June and July in New Orleans and Las Vegas.

This is a great news for people who are inspired to become a competitive digital journalist. It provides these digital journalists necessary tools to fully utilize their skills. Experts from different fields gather to give professional training on things such as network strategies, free web tools, blogging, and marketing through social networks which are all very relevant and hot topics in the field of journalism nowadays. 

For more information, visit the official Online News Association website or the ONACamps page. 

Image from http://journalists.org/

Report by Ashley Huang