By: Desiree Everts

The rise of the data journalist and computational journalism is an unstoppable trend — and one that we’ve written about before on PBS MediaShift and Idea Lab. (See our special series about teaching data journalism and how to help journalism programs explore computational thinking.) Columbia University’s Tow Center for Digital Journalism has been on the forefront of examining that trend and how it can help newsrooms and educators strengthen journalism.
To that end, it has announced it has secured $3 million in additional funding from the Knight Foundation to expand its efforts in digital journalism. The funding will extend Knight’s earlier contribution to the program for another three years. Previous Tow-Knight projects have run the gamut from changes in newsroom architectural design to the use of drones and sensors. With the new funding, Tow hopes to build on that tech focus to look at how it can shape the future of journalism.
“The purpose of this is to aid the profession in experimentation with and adaptation of new technologies, and to inform the practice and teaching of journalism. The overall goal is to strengthen journalism within a rapidly evolving…

Originally posted on Mediashift

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