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ProPublica hires journalism-programming graduate

Posted: 10/02/09 By: Laura Oliver

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Not-for-profit investigative journalism organisation ProPublica has recruited a graduate from one of the world's only journalism-programming courses.

Brian Boyer, who took the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University course, has joined ProPublica on a three-month paid internship.

According to ProPublica's director of online development Scott Klein, the specialised training of Boyer, who helped create news commenting system News Mixer, was key to his appointment.

"Interactive journalism, such as our 'Missing Memos' feature or our TARP coverage, requires a combination of news judgment and computer programming skills. Brian's got serious programming chops and elite journalism training, so his internship was kind of a no-brainer for us," Klein told Journalism.co.uk.

Boyer will be involved in developing web applications and interactive features for mapping, data presentation and source document presentation, he added.

Last week Guardian owner, the Scott Trust, launched a new bursary to support postgraduate training in software development to help meet a growing demand for these skills in the media.

"Journalism has always needed people from a bunch of different fields and interests, and the necessary skill set keeps changing. As new technologies enable new kinds of journalism, new skills are required of the people doing the work. What's happening today is no different," said Klein.

"I don't know if every journalist will need these skills, but I do think people with programming skills are well matched to doing data-rich stories, and for creating the 'news resources' that are increasingly in demand on the web."

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