VOICES Publishing from the AAJA National Convention
Back in the days of 56K baud modems, the Online News Association formed to support the small but growing world of digital journalists.
ONA’s structure is similar to AAJA, including about 30 chapters started around the world since 1999, and a national base that coordinates scholarships, fellowships and professional development through the annual ONA conference.
Google has been one big supporter of the association, collaborating through the Associated Press-Google Scholarship. For the past two years, six students have each received a $20,000 scholarship to work on a project that lies at the intersection of journalism and technology. The students are chosen from a committee of 10 leaders in the industry, including one representative from Google and one from the AP.
“There weren’t a lot of scholarships, and there still aren’t a lot of scholarships for the digitally focused journalists right now,” said Irving Washington, ONA’s director of operations. “These are the folks that will be working in the newsroom of the future so it’s really important to identify those students now.”
The ONA administers the scholarship by marketing, recruiting and working with students throughout the process.
One of the recipients, Rebecca Rolfe, worked on the project “Thank the Academy,” an interactive data visualization of how Oscar winners express their gratitude. The project includes a database of speeches, who thanked who and who cried.
Google also sponsors ONA’s student newsroom, which is a part of its annual conference, similar to AAJA Voices. Google covers the student journalists’ travel, lodging and registration.
Google also sends guest speakers and representatives to ONA’s annual conference.
Although it is a relatively young news association, ONA attributes its financial success to its strong commitment to its core values.
“We’re just really focused on mission, which is to really connect technology and journalism,” Washington said. Not only has the conference sold out the past six years, he said, but “it also attracts other organizations to us as well.”
Derek Lieu, an AAJA and ONA member, recalls attending a past conference and seeing this mutual partnership.
“Because they specialize in technology, they don’t have to focus attention on other things like print or broadcast, things that AAJA does very well,“ said Lieu, a web producer at the Chronicle of Philanthropy. “It sort of behooves Google to have people use its tools.”
Washington sees the collaboration not only as an investment for both parties, but ultimately an investment for the future of journalism.
“As newsrooms become more digital, nobody knows what the future holds but we’re all collaboratively in this game trying to figure it out,” Washington said. “And the investment in the younger generation is crucial, that were investing in this younger generation because they will be the ones figuring it out.”
