New media scholarship launched for NZ journalists
January 11, 2011
Allaboutthestory.com, a start-up online marketplace for news stories and cartoons, is launching its first scholarship
for NZ journalists.
The Allaboutthestory.com Media Scholarship aims to help build links between the media and web development communities in
New Zealand and contribute towards greater depth in reporting on the web industry.
This February the scholar will attend one of New Zealand’s best known web conferences - Webstock – where they will have
the opportunity to interview big names from overseas tech companies and fill their contact books with the good and great
of New Zealand’s own web glitterati.
Allaboutthestory.com founder and managing editor Julie Starr says web-based businesses constitute a growing and
important sector of the NZ economy and one that offers terrific promise for all kinds of companies - including media
companies.
“Any way you look at it the future of the media is digital, and the more that journalists can learn about covering
business online and operating online themselves, the better.
“This is a terrific opportunity for a journalist not only to learn more about the web and see examples of innovative
journalism overseas, but also to interview some of the world’s most interesting online business people and researchers.
“UK data journalist David McCandless, who wrote ‘Information is Beautiful’, is one of the speakers this year. Data
journalism and information graphics are a fast developing and fascinating area of online journalism and this is a great
opportunity to learn more about how to do them well. I’d jump at this if I were a young journalist.”
Speakers at Webstock 2011 include co-founder of The Pirate Bay, Peter Sunde, Microsoft Research senior researcher danah
boyd, co-founder of Tumblr and founder of Instapaper Marco Arment, data journalist David McCandless, and Ruby on Rails
luminary (and allaboutthestory.com co-founder) Michael Koziarski.
ENDS