Software developers offered new round of scholarships to study journalism

A pioneering program to bring software developers into journalism will be expanded under a new grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation to Northwestern University.

The three-year, $250,000 grant will enable Medill to provide scholarships to at least six people with computer science backgrounds to earn a master’s degree in journalism. The grant supplements a $639,000 grant that has allowed nine computer programmers to earn Medill master’s degrees since 2008. Under the new grant, scholarship winners will be encouraged to develop a curriculum tailored to their interests, meeting the requirements of Medill’s MSJ degree while also incorporating advanced course work in computer science. Scholarship winners will also have the opportunity to work in the Knight News Innovation Laboratory and Medill’s new Watchdog/Accountability Initiative. The Knight Lab, a joint project of Northwestern’s journalism and engineering schools, is developing innovative technologies to be used by journalists and publishers in Chicago and beyond. The Watchdog/Accountability Initiative specializes in investigative reporting on systemic flaws in government and public institutions. Under the new grant, Medill will build partnerships with media companies who are interested in hiring journalists with computer programming expertise. Media partners will be asked to provide financial aid to supplement Knight’s scholarship funding, and also offer paid internships for the scholarship winners.