New Media Scholarships

You may think the blog you created a few years back was no big deal. It was just a place you went to vent when you were annoyed about classes or wanted to weigh in on a particularly interesting political issue. No one read it…or so you thought. In truth, your little blog played a vital role in the emergence of new media.

If it seems like everything is online nowadays, you’re right and with the technological advancements happening every day, our society is going to become even more dependent on the Internet than it already is. To be clear, new media isn’t just about putting information online, it’s about how that information is created and how it affects those who access it. Wikipedia is an excellent example – as the site itself says, it combines “Internet accessible digital text, images and video with web-links, creative participation of contributors, interactive feedback of users and formation of a participant community of editors and donors” – and countless colleges (UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism, the University of Maine and Columbia’s Journalism School have launched dedicated new media programs to prepare their students for what will surely become the norm. But is there a way to pay for schooling in a field that’s still in its infancy?

Since new media is still just that – new – there aren’t as many new media scholarships as, say, nursing or law, but more are being created every day. The American Library Association, the Institute for Humane Studies at George Mason University, the Institute for Interactive Journalism and the McCormick Foundation and even NBC are offering new media scholarships, grants and internships for students interested entering the field after college. Scholarships.com lists several new media scholarships but majors are also often eligible for journalism, communications and art awards plus essay, video and design scholarships. To find even more new media scholarships that fit your skills and interests, conduct a free scholarship search!