Category Archives: Awards

Amnesty International’s Media Awards open to entries, with digital innovation category

Bureau of Investigative Journalism custody

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism won the digital innovation category in 2012

Amnesty International UK has announced that entries can now be submitted to its annual Media Awards, which the organisation said in a release “recognise excellence in journalism that has made a significant contribution to the UK public’s greater awareness and understanding of human rights issues”.

One of the awards categories is for digital innovation. Last year’s winner was the Bureau of Investigative Journalism for “deaths in custody: a case to answer“.

In a release, Amnesty International UK added that “to encourage a wide range of entries, we have established a sponsorship fund to support a limited number of entries from freelance journalists and filmmakers, as well as small digital and broadcast outlets”.

Entries can be submitted until Friday 1 March. More details are available on the awards site.

2012 Online Journalism Awards now open for entries

Entries are now open for this year’s Online Journalism Awards, which have been organised by the US Online News Association since 2000.

The awards are for entrants from around the world and honour excellence in digital journalism and multimedia storytelling in all its forms – from major news organisations to independent publishers.

Twelve judges will go through the entries in August to select the winners. Eight awards come with prize money from the Knight Foundation and Gannett Foundation.

The deadline is 21 June and the winners will be announced in San Francisco on 22 September. Last year’s winners included Al-Jazeera’s coverage of the uprisings in Egypt and the BBC News website.

Inaugural British Media Awards winners announced

The Economist and Future Publishing took away the most prizes with two awards each at the annual British Media Awards last night.

The Economist was named Media Company of the Year, for being what judges described as “a global leader in publishing and a trendsetter among brands with a foot still in the print world but looking with confidence into a digital future.”

They also received an award for Online Advertising Innovation.

Future Publishing’s N-Photo magazine won two categories, Social Media and Marketing Innovation and Consumer Magazine Innovator of the Year.

In an article on TheMediaBriefing, which runs the awards, Neil Thackray, awards judging committee chairman and Briefing Media co-founder said:

These awards represent the best of innovation in British Media.

And they illustrate how the industry is changing: the lines between media owner, technology company and agency are becoming blurred and the British Media Awards simply celebrate the best media ideas, brands and products, wherever they come from.

The full list of winners is below:

  • Social Media and Marketing Innovation: N-Photo, Future (Highly commended:Huffington Post UK)
  • Online Advertising Innovation: The Economist, for its Phillips campaign
  • Paid Content Innovation: Lloyds List Group, Informa Business Information
  • Most Innovative Technology for Media Owners: ScribbleLive
  • Consumer Magazine Innovator of the Year: N-Photo, Future (Highly commended: The Economist)
  • B2B Innovator of the year: Estates Gazette, Reed Business Information
  • Best Use of Mobile: British Journal of Photography, Incisive Media
  • Commercial Team of the Year: InSkin Media
  • Digital Media Innovator of the Year: InSkin Media (Highly commended: Huffington Post UK)
  • Media Innovator of the Year: Carla Buzasi, Huffington Post UK
  • Media Company of the Year: The Economist
  • Overall Media Innovation of the Year: InSkin Media

Knight-Mozilla Fellowships open for entries

The Knight-Mozilla Fellowships are now accepting applications from those who want to spend 10 months of next year as technologists “embedded in the newsroom”.

The eight partner organisations are the BBC, the New York Times, the Guardian, Zeit Online, La Nacion, Spiegel Online, the Boston Globe and ProPublica.

This year Al Jazeera English, the Guardian, the BBC, Zeit Online and the Boston Globe welcomed a developer, designer or programmer-journalist, funded to produce open-source code and solve challenges within the news organisation.

This year’s winners include Nicola Hughes, who is based at the Guardian, and Laurian Gridinoc, at the BBC.

The Knight-Mozilla OpenNews site explains the fellowships programme.

The centerpiece of the OpenNews program, the Knight-Mozilla Fellowships embed developers and technologists in newsrooms around the world to spend a year writing code in collaboration with reporters, designers, and newsroom developers. Fellows work in the open by sharing their code and their discoveries on the web, helping to strengthen and build journalism’s toolbox.

Details on the programme and how to apply are at this link.

The deadline for submissions is 11 August.

 

 

 

 

Alan Rusbridger and Nick Davies to receive Media Society award

Alan Rusbridger, editor of the Guardian, and Nick Davies, the journalist who uncovered the extent of phone hacking at the News of the World, are to be this year’s recipients of the Media Society award.

In a release, the Media Society, a charity that campaigns for freedom of expression and the encouragement of high standards in journalism, said:

The Guardian’s revelations about phone hacking at the News of the World have not only been the biggest media story of the year, but have also triggered a public debate about the practices of the press, with potentially far-reaching consequences.

Alan Rusbridger, editor of the Guardian since the mid-1990s, has presided over the paper’s development from a broadsheet to its current Berliner format, and its embrace of online journalism. He is an eloquent defender of the importance of journalism for holding power to account.

Nick Davies, meanwhile, has demonstrated the highest qualities of persistence in his following of the biggest media stories in recent years, while his concern for the health and future of his craft is manifest: he is an outstanding advocate of the importance of good reporting as the basis for good journalism.

Last year’s Media Society award went to Michael Grade and the 2010 honour went to Melvin Bragg.

Nick Davies has been handed several awards in the past year, including the Paul Foot Award, journalist of the year at the Foreign Press Association Media Awards 2011 and the Frontline Club award.

In February it was announced that Rusbridger was to receive Harvard University’s Goldsmith Career Award for Excellence in Journalism.

Rusbridger and Davies will be honoured at a Media Society dinner on 24 May.

New £2,000 prize on offer for talented arts journalists

The Observer and the Anthony Burgess Foundation are offering a £2,000 prize for promising new arts journalists, in memory of the prolific novelist and composer who was writing arts reviews for the New York Times, Independent, Times Literary Supplement and Observer right up until his death in 1993.

The prize will be for the best writing on brand new work in the arts which has not previously been published, whether in print or on the internet.

The winning essay might take the form of an interview or profile of a writer, artist or musician; a piece on a new artistic movement or venture; or a review of a book, film, a concert, a ballet or a stage play.

The Observer says:

“When choosing the winner, the judges will be looking for imaginative, original, and thought-provoking arts journalism that would be suitable for publication in the Observer.

“They will be looking for emerging talent, innovative approaches and writing from outside the mainstream, and they are especially keen to read entries from those who have not previously had work published by major media organisations.”

As well as earning a £2,000 prize, the winning entry will be published in the Observer and on the International Anthony Burgess Foundation website.

There is a 1,500 word limit, a £10 entry fee and the closing date is 15 September.

More details can be found on the foundation’s website – and there is more info about Burgess’s work here.

Knight News Challenge opens for applications

The Knight News Challenge – which provides funding for digital journalism innovations – has now opened the first of three new competition rounds.

Last year two British data projects – ScaperWiki and the Open Knowledge Foundation – were among 16 winners to receive funding.

The competition, which is open to “anyone – businesses, nonprofits, individuals” has been redesigned, split into three shorter, more focused rounds instead of one bigger annual award, as announced by the Knight Foundation at the World Editors Forum in Vienna last year.

The theme for the first round is “networks”. Entries will be accepted until 17 March and winners will be announced in June.

Writing on the Knight News Challenge site, John S Bracken says:

The most common question I’ve been asked since we announced the challenge is exactly what we mean by “networks”. We’re trying not to define the term too narrowly, but I thought a look at David Sarnoff, the creator of the broadcast network in the US, might provide some insights into our motivations.

In the 1950 film Mid-Century: Half Way to Where?, Sarnoff foresaw the coming “pocket-sized radio instruments [that] will enable individuals to communicate with anyone anywhere”. According to Cisco, the number of those “pocket-sized instruments” will equal the number of people on the planet by the end of the year … Today’s communications networks are different from the broadcast tower and its one-to-many reach. The internet, and the mini-computers in our pockets, enable us to connect with one another, friends and strangers, in new ways. Witness the roles of networks in the formation, coverage and discussion of recent events such as the rise of the Tea Partyflash mobs, the Arab spring, last summer’s UK riots and the Occupy movement.

We’re looking for ideas that build on the rise of these existing network events and tools – that deliver news and information and extend our understanding of the phenomenon.

A second round, to be held in the spring, will be an open competition, looking for new ideas broadly. The theme for the third round has yet to be determined.

The Knight News Challenge is run by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and awards funding to innovative ideas for techniques and technologies which engage communities with news and information. Since 2007, Knight has invested more than $100 million (£63 million) in new technologies and techniques.

You can apply for the challenge here.

Shortlists out for British Sports Journalism Awards

The Times has picked up 12 nominations in the writing categories for this year’s Sports Journalism Awards, more than any other news outlet.

The winners will be announced on March 12, alongside the entries in the photography and broadcasting categories (the shortlists for which have already been announced).

Chairman of the judges Jon Ryan said:

I don’t recall a time when so many of our judges have commented on the high quality of the entries. I am also delighted that the number of entries kept up during what has not been the easiest time for newspapers.

If you want to show anyone why newspapers are important, why they matter and why journalists should be respected for their writing, news reporting and investigative skills then you need to look no further than the SJA awards. I would like to thank our team of judges for their thoroughness and diligence in reaching their decisions.

The full shortlist can be found on the SJA website.

New York Times takes two wins at George Polk Awards

The George Polk Awards, run by Long Island University, announced the winners of its 63rd event today.

According to a release the New York Times won two of the 15 categories. The first, for military reporting, was awarded to CJ Chivers, and the second was the foreign reporting prize which went to Jeffrey Gettleman and Tyler Hicks for their “numerous exclusives and heart-wrenching photos of ethnic conflict, pillage, famine and piracy”.

It was also announced that Anthony Shadid, the New York Times foreign correspondent who died from an apparent asthma attack in Syria last week, will receive a posthumous award “for extraordinary valor for his work in the Middle East”.

Other winners include the Wall Street Journal, the Associated Press, the New Yorker and the Boston Globe.

“There was a strong field of contenders this year, especially in investigative work,” said John Darnton, curator of the George Polk Awards. “It was a big year for news with the Arab Spring and the Japanese earthquake and tsunami, and reporters from many news organizations went behind the headlines to search for underlying causes and trends.”

The full list of winners can be found here.

Regional Press Awards add new category for best editor

The Society of Editors has added a new category to this year’s Regional Press Awards – for editor of the year.

Entries for the awards, which celebrate the best of British regional newspaper journalism, are now open at www.theregionalpressawards.org.uk

The Society of Editors said today, in a release:

The new editor’s award will recognise the editor of a daily or weekly regional newspaper who can demonstrate either personal journalistic achievement in the public interest, leadership, a personally fronted campaign, an individual battle with authority or simply a great idea. Editors can nominate themselves or can be nominated by senior editorial colleagues.

The closing date is 7 March, the shortlists will be published on 17 April and the ceremony is on 25 May.