Education
UL journalism students in major Google fellowship success
Journalism students from the University of Limerick have secured highly competitive Google Fellowship in top media organisations in Ireland. Three out of five places on offer in Irish newsrooms went to UL students. Photo by Oisin McHugh True Media
UL journalism students in major Google fellowship success
Journalism students from the University of Limerick have secured highly competitive Google Fellowship in top media organisations in Ireland.
Three out of five places on offer in Irish newsrooms went to UL students.
The students, who are studying BA and MA in Journalism and New Media programmes in UL, will complete eight-week placements at national media organisations, including The Irish Times, The Irish Independent and The Journal.ie. The UL students were chosen for the Google Fellowship from hundreds of applications from journalism students across Ireland. The Fellowships offer those excited about journalism, in particular, data driven journalism, opportunities to research and write stories and create timely data to accurately frame debates about issues in Ireland and around the world.
The successful UL students are:
▪ Jennifer Purcell, Rosbrien, Limerick, BA in Journalism and New Media with The Irish Times
▪ Cillian Sherlock, Claremorri
Matt Cooke, Google News Lab lead for UK, Ireland & Nordics said:
“We’ve seen a huge response to this year’s Google News Lab Fellowships, with over 1,000 student applications from across Europe. This was the first time we’ve offered Fellowships in Ireland specifically and hundreds of Irish students applied – all eager to gain real experience from a professional newsroom. Congratulations to those students from the University of Limerick who were selected and to the newsrooms taking part.”
The UL students will complete their placements in summer 2017, between June and September. Students will receive a stipend of up to €6,000 as part of the placement.
UL Journalism subject leader Fergal Quinn said:
“We are thrilled to see our students win what were very highly sought after fellowships. These positions will provide excellent launchpads for three very talented young journalists as they seek to establish themselves in the industry.”
“There are lots of exciting innovations happening right now in terms of the means by which journalism work can be done and we want to be at the forefront of these”
According to Kathryn Hayes, Journalism Lecturer in UL, the successful ‘fellows’ now have an excellent opportunity to gain valuable experience in digital journalism, working in diverse news organisations.
“Journalism in University of Limerick is expanding rapidly and seeking to increase and enhance our capacity in the area of digital journalism in particular in areas including social platform production; search and SEO; trust and verification, UCG curation; developing audiences and analytics. The successful ‘fellows’ now have an excellent opportunity to further enhance these skills while working in leading news organisations.”
For more information on the University of Limerick click HERE