In an effort to help journalism schools stay up to speed with the fast pace of digital technology, two foundations recently announced a new funding.

The Carnegie Corporation of New York and the John S. James L. Knight Foundation stated that they would be giving $3.9 million for an initiative that seeks to help all journalism and mass communications programs in the United States get up to speed on new technology. The announcement was made at a meeting with the top deans of journalism schools at Harvard's Shorenstein Center.

The president of Carnegie Corporation, Vartan Gregorian, said that the funding was important to ensure the long-term viability of the Fourth Estate.

"The initiative has developed a new cohort of well-educated journalists who are analytical thinkers and adept communicators, as at home in the virtual universe as they are in the day-to-day world of what has become a news cycle that knows no global borders and never sleeps," said Gregorian. "Yet of even greater importance, this investment has fortified journalism’s role as a pillar of democracy."