AP-Google scholars in digital journalism announced

The Associated Press and Google have announced the latest recipients of their journalism and technology scholarship program, giving six recipients $20,000 each to research projects in digital journalism.

The scheme, administered by the Online News Association, was first launched last year and seeks to support creative and innovative students who are pushing the sector forward.

“Supporting innovation at the intersection of journalism and technology is crucial to the future of news," Sue Cross, AP senior vice president for the Americas, said in a press release. "We are pleased to team up with Google in supporting the initiative and ideas of six impressive students who will be shaping that future.”

Below is a list of the AP-Google Journalism and Technology scholars for the 2013/14 academic year, based on ONA's announcement:

Adam Allevato

Adam Allevato, who studies mechanical engineering at Colorado State University, is building a Wordpress-based news platform that is deeply-integrated and determined by consumer needs. At the university, as webmaster of its Rocky Mountain Student Media Corporation, he is credited with having "helped transition the organisation to an online-first, demand-driven newsroom".

Lindsey Cook

Lindsey Cook aims to promote computer science among female journalism students with her project, journochiCS, as well as "provide a community of awareness and resources". She is studying journalism and computer science at the University of Georgia.

Nonny de la Pena

Nonny de la Peña, a Harvard graduate and Annenberg Fellow doctoral candidate at USC's School of Cinematic Arts, is focussing on immersive journalism through virtual reality and gaming platforms. She is a former Newsweek correspondent and award-winning documentary maker.

Tyler Fisher

Tyler Fisher, a journalism undergrad at Northwestern University, Knight fellow and webmaster of North by Northwestern, is looking to create a "second-screen app and framework for local broadcast news" called Teleprompt.

Nilkanth Patel

Nilkanth Patel is an editorial production associate at The New Yorker who will begin studying journalism and computer science at Columbia University in autumn with a focus on data visualisation. With his funding he aims to make "interactive news a more pervasive component of reporting by creating tools to make data visualization quicker and easier for budding journalists".

Erik Reyna

Erik Reyna, who is studying new media at Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, wants to develop a website that will help "non-programmer journalists in the creation of news package templates through the use of code snippets".

The students were selected by committee with an aim to promote "geographic, gender and ethnic diversity" while also rewarding those working at the crossroads between journalism, computer science and new media.

Richard Gingras, senior director of news and social products at Google, commended the high calibre of the projects in a statement, and said: "It is this rich new thinking and these fresh new efforts from these scholars that will ensure that the future of journalism can and will be better than its past.”

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