This is one in a series of posts offering quick internship advice by students wrapping up their summer programs. Read the whole series here.

Social media can make or break an internship. If the person reviewing intern candidates scans your profiles and finds embarrassing Facebook photos or profanity-laden tweets, you’re probably not going to hear back. Two strikes if you tweet once a month.

On the other hand, using social media skillfully is an easy way to grab the attention of people in the newsroom who otherwise might not notice you. And as an intern, the bottom of the food chain, you want all the positive attention you can get.

Here are four ways to ensure you stand out on social media during your internship.

This is one in a series of posts offering quick internship advice by students wrapping up their summer programs. Read the whole series here.

My internship with The Seattle Times has been a fun, interesting learning experience. Just like any internship should be.

I’m interning on the business and metro desks at the Times this summer, with my first few weeks spent with the business folks. I’ve always lived by the idea of jumping right into opportunities as I see them, but doing so in an informed manner.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Associated Press and Google today announced the second recipients of a national scholarship program targeted at college students whose innovative projects exemplify the new journalist in the digital media age. The Online News Association, the world’s largest membership organization of digital journalists, administers the program.

The AP-Google Journalism and Technology Scholarship provides $20,000 scholarships for the 2013-14 academic year to six promising undergraduate or graduate students pursuing or planning to pursue degrees at the intersection of journalism, computer science and new media. A key goal is to promote geographic, gender and ethnic diversity and identify and support creative new talent and work in the field.

We’re extending the deadline to June 7 for applications for the 2013 MJ Bear Fellowships for early-career digital journalists, in honor of founding member MJ Bear.

Apply for the MJ Bear Fellowship

The search committee will select three promising, up-and-coming digital journalists — two in the United States or Canada and one internationally, in partnership with MSN International — who are just beginning to make their voices heard in the industry.

This is one of a series of blog posts from the second ONA class of MJ Bear Fellows, three journalists under 30 who are beginning to make their voices heard and expand the boundaries of digital news. Fellow Hagit Bachrach is a video producer at the Council on Foreign Relations.

As part of my MJ Bear Fellowship, I had the great fortune of being mentored by Paul Cheung, Global Interactives Editor at the Associated Press. A few months back, Paul invited me to shadow him for the day and check out the great work he and his team are doing up close.

With less than two months to go until I graduate from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, I’ve been looking back at my experience over the past two years. I’m among a handful of students at the school who are really interested in data journalism and making pretty and functional online news packages. It’s made me think about how J-schools need a more structured and thorough track for us computer-assisted reporters, for lack of a better term.

Forget the saying. Jacks-and-Jills-of-all-trades are, in fact, masters of one: the agile education. The ability to learn quickly is obviously helpful in all contexts, but it is becoming essential in the world of data journalism.

Nearly every week there is some new hot data visualization tool, social networking service or productivity application to speed up processes. Those who have the ability to stay on top of these rapidly changing technologies have an immense advantage in the job market. To be a successful computational journalist, you need to have an affinity for shiny things.

It would be a hopeless task to know the ins and outs of every piece of technology related to journalism — especially while excelling at school or a full-time job. The only way to stay up to date is to learn by doing.

Join the ONA13 brainstorm on Branch

What do you want to see at ONA13? We’ll be opening the ONA13 Suggestion Box soon, which will allow anyone to submit a session idea, but before we do, we’d like you to help shape the direction of ONA13.

Join the conversations we’re hosting on Branch now: What do you want to see at ONA13? and What is the most creative learning experience or presentation that you’ve seen lately? Over two dozen journalists have already weighed in.

Deadline Approaching for Data Journalism Awards

Applications are due April 5 for the Data Journalism Awards, administered by the The Global Editor’s Network, and recognizing outstanding work in the field of data journalism worldwide. Eight awards will be given in four categories, with 15,000€ in prize money. Submit your work.

Innovation Uncensored

ONA members, save $50 on registration for Fast Company’s signature Innovation Uncensored event April 23-24 at Terminal 5 in New York City, where you can meet today’s most creative and daring business leaders.

This is one of a series of blog posts from the second ONA class of MJ Bear Fellows, three journalists under 30 who are beginning to make their voices heard and expand the boundaries of digital news. Fellow Tricia Fulks is the story director and researcher for Hollow: An Interactive Documentary.

A behind-the-scenes look at a Hollow's development meeting.

I’ve written about Hollowa few times here, and if you haven’t been able to tell, I’m pretty excited about the team and what we’re doing. Even more exciting is the fact that although our project won’t be out in the world until spring, people already are talking about it.

One of the smart things we’ve done from the get-go is continue to update our audience on what’s happening behind the scenes. We chart our progress through Kickstarter updates, Hollow’s blog and, of course, social media. We’ve also spoken at various events and networked with those in our industry. This is critical, not only to be transparent with the community we’re working with, but to create hype around what we’re doing.

And guess what? That hype — it’s working.

Help us brainstorm for this year’s Online News Association Conference. We’ll be opening the ONA13 Suggestion Box soon, which will allow anyone to submit a session idea, but before we do, we’d like you to help shape the direction of ONA13. Lots of journalists have weighed in on our first ONA13 Branch, “What would you like to see and experience at ONA13?” and this second Branch is a space to capture inspiring conversations, presentations and other experiences that could enrich this year’s conference.

The first step is to ask to join the Branch. We’ll quickly approve you and you can weigh in. Want to see what we focused on last year? Check out the ONA12 site.

Once you’ve joined, be sure to invite others. We want to hear from as many people as possible!