University of Limerick has linked with Google’s new global university network, which focuses on increasing digital literacy and data journalism skills.
UL Journalism Department is one of 60 journalism schools worldwide to join the Google News Lab University Network.
The network provides both in-person and online training and support to professors and students on topics ranging from Google tool fundamentals, trust and verification, immersive storytelling, data journalism, advanced search and Google Trends, data visualization, mapping and more.
UL Journalism lecturer Kathryn Hayes says: “The journalism department in UL is delighted to be part of this exciting university network which aims to build a global platform for discussion around the future of journalism education.
“We want our students to be entering the work force fully equipped for today’s digital landscape and having access to cutting edge research and storytelling tools will further enhance UL’s reputation for delivering industry ready graduates.”
Earlier this year, University of Limerick journalism students secured three of the five highly competitive Google News Labs Fellowships in top media organisations in Ireland.
BA and MA in Journalism and New Media students will complete eight-week placements at national media organisations, including The Irish Times, The Irish Independent and The Journal.ie.
The students were chosen for the Google News Lab Fellowships from hundreds of applications from journalism students across Ireland.
Speaking about UL’s involvement with the Google University News Lab, Head of Journalism in UL Fergal Quinn said: "This access to the Google News lab will help put journalism@ul at forefront of capitalising on digital news developments. This is vital for preparing journalists for a rapidly evolving media environment.”
According to Matt Cooke, Google News Lab lead for UK, Ireland & Nordics: "journalism schools around the world are doing important work, shaping the future of media by training the next generation of journalists in their classrooms. At the Google News Lab, we believe our tools can play a role in helping to provide some of the skills necessary for these students to succeed in the newsrooms of tomorrow.
“To help better serve this important community, we're glad to welcome the University of Limerick to a new initiative to provide journalism educators with the same level of training and support that we’ve provided to journalists in newsrooms for years."
Other global journalism schools in the network include:
• Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• Stanford University
• University of California, Berkeley;
• University of Hong Kong
• Indian Institute of Mass Communication in New Delhi