Northwestern offers journalism scholarships to computer whizzes

If you have computer skills and an interest in journalism, consider applying for a new full scholarship at Medill, the world-renowned graduate school of journalism at Northwestern University.

You don't need any journalism experience. Applications are being accepted now.

"We are offering full scholarships to Medill's master's program in journalism ... to people with computer programming skills," associate professor Rich Gordon told cyberjournalist.net. "The goal is, in essence, to try to create more Adrian Holovatys."

"We want students who already have tech skills to come to Medill, learn the culture, craft and mindset of journalists, and figure out interesting ways of connecting technology and journalism. As you know, there are many ways the industry and the academy have tried to teach tech skills to journalists -- the proposition here is that it would be interesting to see what happens if we teach journalism to tech types."

Scholarship winners can enroll at the Chicago area journalism school in January 2009, June 2009, September 2009 or January 2010, according to Medill's website. The scholarships were the result of a Knight News Challenge, which gave Medill more than $600,000 to create an academic program blending computer science and journalism, designed to fill a staffing void at many digital news sites.