Students will have a chance to become better experts with digital media, according to journalism.columbia.edu. The Tow Center for Digital Journalism at the Columbia School of Journalism, which was established in the beginning of 2010 and provides journalists with skills and knowledge to lead the future of digital journalism as well as research and development, is open. Emily Bell, former director of digital content for Britain's Guardian News and Media, will oversee the project and help the center "devise and publicize innovative methods of digital reporting and presentation, serving both established and new media companies," states the article. This center is also going to explore the relationship between journalists and citizens as "readers seek ways to judge the reliability, standards and credibility in media."

Bell is going to teach graduate students as well as study news companies, develop models for "creating and delivering information" and set up business innovations to support these ideas. She will also oversee scholarly research and "advise on how to raise additional funds through research, program grants and gifts." Bell will also oversee the new duel Master of Science Program in Computer Science and Journalism with Columbia's Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science.

"These students will receive highly specialized training in the digital environment, enabling them to develop technical and editorial skills in all aspects of computer-supported news gathering and digital media production," states the article. The Columbia Journalism School and Tow Center are accepting applications at the moment for a digital media professor to help lead and inform people about the "new venture." The first research article from the Tow Center, which was released in September of 2010 looks at "traffic metrics that confront online news sites" and looks at how those numbers affect advertising and editorial decisions.

Last January, the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism said it had $10 million to create the Tow Center for Digital Journalism. "This amount fulfilled the requirements established by The Tow Foundation, which in February 2008 made a $5 million pledge to create a center dedicated to the teaching and research of professional journalism in digital and emerging media at the Journalism School," according to the author of the article. The center has investments in medical research, performing arts, higher education, vulnerable families and the juvenile justice system reform.

According to presszoom.com, the center's mission is to serve as a research and development center for journalism and educate student with the knowledge to "lead the future of digital journalism." In a letter by Emily Bell, she states that she was lucky enough to meet Leonard and Emily Tow and discovered they shared an interest in the possibilities of digital media. Thus, the center was created.

Sources: journalism.columbia.edu (1), journalism.columbia.edu (2), presszoom.com
Image: journalism.columbia.edu (1)