Columbia and Stanford Creating $30 Million Institute to Bridge Journalism and Tech

From Mashable:

Technology has caused journalism some growing pains, with the rise of bloggers and the plethora of ever-adapting social media tools. The Institute was created to recognize this disconnect and bring the two closer together. It’s also a way bring the East and West coast closer together, according to the release:

The East-West collaboration of the two schools will enable students at both institutions to build upon their ideas with professors and innovators at both universities. At both locations there will be a strong emphasis on executing new ideas and demonstrating products and prototypes. The Institute will establish ongoing links to business leaders and media companies to bring its innovations to market.

In that sense, the Institute won’t be a traditional “school.” There will be an emphasis on creating products and projects, much like a media-based venture capitalism firm. “This is way beyond the honorable project of teaching journalists how to be more adept at using Twitter and setting up good web pages,” says Nicholass Lemann, dean of Columbia Journalism School. “This gives the two institutions a partnership really to lead the way towards the future interaction of media and computer technologies by building big, important things.”