Google launches journalism fellowship with US news outlets

Google has announced the launch of a new journalism fellowship in the US which will be centred on "data driven journalism, online free expression and rethinking the business of journalism".

In an announcement late last week Google called on student journalists "looking to harness the power of technology to tell stories in new and dynamic ways" to apply for the new fellowship.

It also unveiled the partner news outlets it will be working with, which include the Center for Investigative Reporting, the Committee to Protect Journalists, Investigative Reporters & Editors/Computer Assisted Reporting, the Knight Foundation, Nieman Journalism Lab, Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism, Poynter and ProPublica.

"We recognise the value that quality journalism plays in a functioning society and would like to help the next generation of reporters gain valuable skills and experience on the path to creating great content," Google's Maggie Shiels from corporate communications added in the announcement.

According to the fellowship website the fellowship will last for 10 weeks, starting at the Knight Foundation and closing "with a week at Google, split between Google News and YouTube".

"Fellows will be assigned a lead mentor at their host organisations, but will have the opportunity to work with several senior staff members over the course of the summer.

"Fellows will be expected to make substantive contributions to the work of their organisation, including researching and writing stories, contributing to open source data programmes, creating timely data to accurately frame public debates about media in the United States and the world as well as finding new and compelling ways to use data to tell stories."

Applications for the fellowship can be submitted until 31 January. According to the site "for the time being, we are only accepting students eligible to work in the United States".

Google is also involved in a number of other journalism-related projects, such as the Data Journalism Awards, which also launched last week, and the AP-Google Journalism and Technology Scholarship Program.

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