CINCINNATI, Nov. 29, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The Scripps
Howard Awards, one of the nation's most prestigious journalism
competitions, will accept entries from Dec.
1 to Feb. 2.
The Awards' 65th competition will present $170,000 in prize money for work across 16
categories, including the Impact Award, which will honor the year's
best work from all winners. The awards will be presented on
April 19, 2018, with a live show
hosted by "60 Minutes" correspondent Lara
Logan.
With a focus on high-impact reporting, the awards recognize
journalism that spurs action; news organizations that go the extra
mile to expose previously undisclosed or misunderstood information;
and journalists who embrace new tools, channels, technologies and
approaches or creatively use established methods to provide more
meaningful experiences for their audiences.
"Journalism plays an indispensable role in our democracy," said
Liz Carter, president and CEO of the
Scripps Howard Foundation, which administers the Awards. "The
Scripps Howard Awards reflect the media landscape today, and the
changes we have introduced to categories are designed to keep the
program relevant and recognize the significant and impactful work
of dedicated journalists."
Awards changes
The 2017 awards include one new category, while three others
have new names:
- Multimedia Journalism is a new category for 2017 that
honors the best use of multiple platforms for storytelling or
coverage of an event or issue.
- Visual Journalism (previously the Photojournalism
category) recognizes excellence in still photography and
video.
- The Digital Innovation category has been renamed
Innovation and recognizes those who experiment with methods
of story gathering and presentation to deliver works of
impact.
- The Impact Award recognizes journalism that serves the
public through coverage of an issue leading to changes in the
public, private or business sector. Winners in each of the other
categories compete for this award, which was previously known as
the Public Service Award.
Past winners of the Scripps Howard Awards have represented some
of the most important journalism of recent times. In 2016,
Eric Eyre of the Charleston
Gazette-Mail took home the First Amendment award for a series that
brought to light an epidemic of prescription painkillers that gave
West Virginia the nation's highest
drug overdose rate. And in the Business/Economics Reporting
category, the International Consortium of Investigative
Journalists, McClatchy and the Miami Herald uncovered a massive
network of offshore bank accounts linked to drug kingpins, arms
traffickers and people close to Russian President Vladimir Putin. The stories led to several
inquiries, audits and investigations.
Topic of the Year
The title of the Topic of the Year category is "America
Divided," with a focus on work that exposes, explores
or contributes to the understanding of polarizing issues such
as immigration, Confederate monuments, freedom of speech, gun
rights and demonstrations at sporting events and their effect on
communities, families, institutions or policies.
Finalists to be announced in February
Judging will take place Feb. 22-23
at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies in St. Petersburg, Florida. Finalists will be
announced on Feb. 27, with winners to
be announced on March 6 via live
streams on YouTube and Facebook.
The awards show will be held at historic Memorial Hall in
Cincinnati on April 19, and the show will once again be
streamed live on YouTube and Facebook.
Keep up with the latest news on the Scripps Howard Awards
through Facebook and Twitter, and find out more about how to enter
at shawards.org.
About the Scripps Howard Foundation
The Scripps Howard Foundation supports philanthropic
causes important to The E.W. Scripps Company (NYSE: SSP) and the
communities it serves, with a special emphasis on excellence in
journalism. At the crossroads of the classroom and the newsroom,
the Foundation is a leader in supporting journalism education,
scholarships, internships, minority recruitment and development,
literacy and First Amendment causes. The Scripps Howard Awards
stand as one of the industry's top honors for outstanding
journalism. The Foundation improves lives and helps build thriving
communities. It partners with Scripps brands to create awareness of
local issues and supports impactful organizations to drive
solutions.
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SOURCE The E.W. Scripps Company