Coder-journalist: Governments Should Open Up Their Data

Rich Gordon
1:13 AM | bio | Comments: 2

Ryan Mark, one of the first two winners of our journalism scholarships for computer programmers, wonders why it's so hard to get usable government data. I wrapped up my second quarter of journalism school and my daily reporting class a couple of weeks ago. Learning firsthand what goes into a simple news article gave me a new-found respect for the work that's required. Making call after call, leaving messages with people who will never call you back, and then taking notes while paying attention to what somebody is saying is quite a difficult way to spend a day. The Internet... continued...

Topics: Education, Government & Politics, Technology
Tagged: coder-journalist, data, governments, medill

A "Programmer-Journalist" Contemplates Careers

Rich Gordon
11:37 PM | bio | Comments: 0

Halfway through his Medill graduate journalism education, programmer Brian Boyer reflects on the paths that might lie ahead: When I first spoke to Rich Gordon about becoming a "programmer-journalist," the meaning of the term was unclear. Not being the sort to be concerned by ambiguity, I dove into journalism school with no plans for what might come after. Six months into my re-education, I still don't know what to do with myself, but the potential jobs for which a programmer-journalist would be well suited are becoming clear. I will try and enumerate them here. Also, I will try and avoid... continued...

Topics: Education, Technology

How Technologists Can Boost a Journalism Classroom

Rich Gordon
7:08 PM | bio | Comments: 1

So what happens when people with computer programming backgrounds are part of the same journalism class with more traditional students? Liza Kaufman Hogan, a former CNN.com senior producer, found out this spring when she taught the introductory new media journalism class at the Medill School of Journalism. The class, "Interactive Techniques," revolves around blogging. Students create their own blogs (using Wordpress software and a commercial ISP hosting account that they establish and pay for). Class sessions focus on the critical issues involved in online journalism, from copyright to business models. Between classes, the students are required to blog regularly and... continued...

Topics: Education, Technology
Tagged: developers, education, journalism, journalist-programmer, medill

Still Seeking Coders Interested in Journalism

Rich Gordon
10:43 PM | bio | Comments: 13

It's now been almost exactly a year since we announced (thanks to a Knight News Challenge grant) that programmer-developers could earn full scholarships to study journalism in the master's program at the Medill School at Northwestern University. We've got plenty of scholarship money still available -- but we have not been overwhelmed with applications. Here's where we stand: Two scholarship winners are now almost midway through their Medill studies. A third candidate will enroll next month. And we still have the equivalent of six full scholarships yet to award. From the beginning, I've felt that this project's biggest challenge would... continued...

Topics: Education, Marketing, Technology
Tagged: marketing, medill, programmer-journalist, promotion, scholarship

Journalism Class Should be Mandatory in High School

Rich Gordon
5:24 PM | bio | Comments: 1

Today I'm publishing a guest post from Ryan Mark, one of the first two journalist-programmers attending the Medill School of Journalism on a Knight News Challenge scholarship. Ryan is a 2004 graduate of Augustana College, where he earned a BA in computer science. He later served as technology director for ZapTel Corp., a company that sells prepaid long-distance phone cards. Ryan's guest post: One thing I’ve discovered through talking to people, including teachers and others in education, is that the Internet is encouraging more people to contribute. Well, obviously, right? I think we are just starting to learn how to... continued...

Topics: Education, Technology
Tagged: computer skills, education, journalist-programmer, medill, technology

A Coder Practices Multimedia Journalism -- with Open Source Tools

Rich Gordon
11:59 PM | bio | Comments: 4

Ryan Mark and Brian Boyer, the first two programmer-journalists whose Medill education is being financed by Knight News Challenge scholarships, have begun their second academic quarter (of four). They are reporting in Medill's Chicago newsroom and taking our introductory new media class, Interactive Techniques. For the new media class, they (like all the other students) are required to identify a topic that they will monitor and blog about it at least five times per week. All the students are required to set up and manage the technology underpinning the blog as well -- using Wordpress. Ryan's blog is called Digital... continued...

Topics: Education, Technology
Tagged: medill, mozilla, northwestern, open source, openoffice, programmer-journalist, ubuntu

How Will We Find the Programmer- Journalists?

Rich Gordon
8:14 PM | bio | Comments: 1

Thanks to the Knight News Challenge, the Medill School of Journalism can offer full scholarships to our master's program to people with computer programming backgrounds. The first two are on campus now. We're looking for seven more -- and they're not easy to find. Part of the problem lies in the nature of what we're trying to do: attract people to journalism school who might not even be thinking about journalism school as an option. And part of the problem is that journalism school requires students to do things -- like interview strangers and do a lot of writing --... continued...

Topics: Education, Technology
Tagged: education, medill, programmer-journalist, promotion, scholarship

Journalists and Technologists: An Uneasy Courtship

Rich Gordon
4:39 PM | bio | Comments: 4

The first Computation + Journalism Symposium, held Friday and Saturday at Georgia Tech, is over. It's been widely covered in the blogosphere -- you'll find some of the most thoughtful reflections here and here and here and here. As I said before the panel I moderated (on "Advances in Newsgathering"), the event was truly remarkable. More than 200 people -- a mix of academics and professionals, editors and reporters, journalists and Web developers (including the two Knight Challenge journalist-programmer scholarship winners) -- came together to talk about the ways technology is changing journalism and what journalism needs to do to... continued...

Topics: Education, Technology
Tagged: academics, computation + journalism, Digg, google news, journalism, programming

Computation + Journalism = ?

Rich Gordon
11:14 PM | bio | Comments: 0

When the Knight News Challenge awarded me (and the Medill School of Journalism) a grant to offer journalism scholarships to computer programmers, I thought teaching journalism to technologists was a pretty novel idea. But it turns out some faculty at Georgia Tech's School of Interactive Computing were thinking along similar lines. Last spring, Prof. Irfan Essa and Ph.D. candidate Nick Diakopoulos taught an experimental course, "Computational Journalism," for computer science students at Georgia Tech. The course is being offered again during the current (spring) semester. Through readings and guest lectures, students in the two classes have learned how journalism is... continued...

Topics: Education, Technology
Tagged: computational journalism, computer science, education, Georgia Tech, j-schools, Northwestern

Meet the First Two Journalist- Programmers

Rich Gordon
1:30 PM | bio | Comments: 0

The first two "journalist-programmers" -- experienced Web developers who won Knight News Challenge scholarships to attend the one-year master's program at the Medill School of Journalism -- will start their studies here at Northwestern University in just a few weeks. Let me tell you a little bit about them -- and, in the process, remind folks that we're looking for more programmers who are interested in studying journalism and exploring ways they might apply their technology skills to the media world. Brian Boyer is an experienced Web developer and software architect who most recently served as a co-founder of Daixo,... continued...

Topics: Education, Technology
Tagged: education, journalism, programmers, scholarships, web developers

What Will Journalist- Programmers Do?

Rich Gordon
6:13 PM | bio | Comments: 1

One of the most common questions I've gotten about our journalist/programmer scholarships comes from news organizations: "When can we hire them?" And recent developments suggest that the need for people with both journalism and programming skills is only going to increase. For Northwestern's Readership Institute blog, I wrote last week about the growing number of data-driven applications being published on news Web sites. I used the Indianapolis Star's Data Central as a case study. It's worth pointing out, though, that the paper was able to publish most of these databases without involving professional programmers. This reflects one of the driving... continued...

Topics: Philosophy, Technology
Tagged: data, journalism, programmers, programming

What Do You Get When You Mix a Journalist and a Programmer?

Rich Gordon
1:03 AM | bio | Comments: 0

We don't know, but thanks to the Knight News Challenge, we're going to find out. Earlier this year, the good folks at the Knight Foundation gave us money to offer full scholarships to Medill's graduate journalism program to people with strong backgrounds in computer programming. Geeks don't usually apply to journalism schools, but Adrian Holovaty demonstrates regularly that someone with both journalism and technology skills can come up with ideas -- and carry them off -- that most of us wouldn't even think of. As soon as the grant was announced in May, the team at Medill started scrambling. We... continued...

Topics: Education, Technology
Tagged: journalism, medill, programmer, scholarship