The Internet has transformed the world by bring information into our lives ubiquitously. Information when delivered in a timely, relevant, and personalized fashion can be powerful. In the past it has been the prerogative of the news industry to educate minds, entertain readers, and empower citizens with information. However, the net has taken on this role more broadly. The union of computing and journalism was both logical and natural and has yielded a plethora of online news channels. Also, it has brought us value added citizen reporting in the form of blogs and recommendation networks. While connecting people to news and to social networks is very important, this is not the only way in which computing can help journalism. Computers can analyze vast news collections in an efficient and scalable way. They can extract information, induce structure, and transform and categorize text in ways that makes news easy to browse and search for both readers and journalists. This is a ripe area of research with tangible social benefits. If we can apply computers to make news more efficient to produce, distribute and absorb and fundamentally more truthful, it can better inform the actions taken by both individuals and nations.
