Web Publishing Roll Up: Creative Technologies & the Future of Web Journalism

By Marisa Peacock (@marisacp51) May 20, 2009

What comes first: creativity or technology? Some say you can't have one without the other, while others might claim they are entirely separate concepts. Yet, when it comes to web publishing, it seems that creative technologies go hand in hand. Just ask the New York Times or the Medill School of Journalism.

Creative Technology at The New York Times

The New York Times has been working hard trying to be innovative. They are coming at it with guns blazing from all sides, hoping something, anything will stick.

The Times has followed up its Times Reader desktop application with another online news reading product, called Times Wire. It merges twitter and friendfeed, and updates every minute with the latest news and blog posts from across NYTimes.com.

Times Wire readers can choose to view the full stream of content from across the site or just or the section of their choice. They can customize their view from their favorite sections and blogs. It also features a photo gallery, displaying the latest news in pictures. Times Wire is the first NYT product built with its own Newswire API and launched May 12.

The Nielsen Journalism Lab offered a series about New York Times Research and Development Labs, whose members spend much of their time these days envisioning the future of newspapers. Throughout the week, videos featured interviews with principal players like design integration editor and several creative technologists They also talked about web 2.0, the online consumption on news, as well as the role of advertising.

Not only does Nielsen's series help identify future newspaper technologies, it exposes the NYT as being committed to staying alive not just in the present but in the future.

Programming Knowledge + Journalism Degree = Future of Media

Speaking of the future of the journalism and the web, The Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University is giving away full scholarships, plus expenses, to software developers. Yes, that's right.

Because coding and journalism are in great demand now — at traditional media companies as well as startups, people who can build better systems for news production and distribution will also be coveted.

Newsrooms want journalists who can help figure out the best way to present data-driven stories on digital platforms. Startup companies want developers who understand how people use and consume information. With that in mind, The Medill School hopes that with a programming knowledge and a master's degree in journalism from Medill, graduates can help invent the future of media and journalism.

Medill partnered with the Knight Foundation to create this scholarship program for people with strong technology skills who are interested in pursuing a journalism master's degree at Medill. While possibly idealistic, the program is based on the belief that journalism is a key foundation for a functioning democracy and that in the 21st century, programmer/developers are enormously important to the future of journalism. Learn more about how to apply and other requirements.