Facebook is funding $10,000 scholarships for journalism students.
AFP/Getty ImagesFacebook’s latest effort to leave a mark on the journalism industry is focused on helping students.
The social-networking giant said it’s partnering with the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, Asian American Journalists Association, Native American Journalists Association and National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association to distribute up to $1 million in scholarships over the next five years. Each organization will receive $250,000 through an initiative called The Facebook Journalism Project, with each individual scholarship expected to be worth $10,000.
“The Facebook Journalism Project is committed to supporting the next generation of journalists,” the company said in a blog post.
The move marks the latest way Facebook is responding to concerns about its impact on the news industry. The company has long acknowledged its power as one of the top ways people get their news. And in the past year CEO Mark Zuckerberg has increasingly come to terms with how his service can be manipulated to spread propaganda, hoaxes and false stories.
Most recently, Facebook said it’s going to survey some of the 2 billion people who use its service each month about which news organizations they trust. That’s part of an effort to both identify bad actors and help determine which organizations’ stories show up in people’s news feeds.
