The National Press Foundation today announced the creation of two new journalism awards to recognize the contributions of technology and innovation in news coverage and reporting.
"Next year the National Press Foundation celebrates its 40th anniversary of training journalists around the world," said NPF Board Chairman Heather Dahl. "These new awards continue our mission for the next 40 years by helping shape successful journalists and news organizations. By injecting innovation and digital technologies into traditional news values, we help journalism thrive."
* The Innovation in Journalism Award celebrates news organizations that are transforming journalism while maintaining the integrity and standards that make journalism an essential part of a free society. The winner will be selected by a special committee of NPF judges to recognize organizations or individuals who are pioneering new ways of storytelling. Recent examples include NYT's multimedia chronicle of the Tunnel Creek avalanche, "Snowfall," and NPR's true-crime podcast, "Serial."
* The Best Use of Technology In Journalism Award recognizes individuals or organizations that use groundbreaking tools and technology to change the news media landscape as we know it. The competition is open to anyone at a news organization, including reporters, editors, front- and back-end developers, social media producers, data scientists, reporters, editors or others involved in producing cutting-edge digital journalism. Judges will take into consideration both the quality of the journalistic work and the innovative use of technology. A vendor or technology partner (examples: DataMinr, Storyful, etc.) may apply if submitted jointly with a news organization that used their technology.
"It's time to imagine a new generation of awards that will evangelize the innovation going on in our newsrooms today, " said Dahl. "The winners will be honored at our Annual Awards Dinner on Feb. 11, 2016. In addition, winners will present a 'Master Class' that we hope will inspire similar innovation and success in newsrooms."
Nominations for these new awards, as well as NPF's other prestigious honors, are being accepted from journalists and news organizations, as well as judges and NPF Board members. Application instructions for all awards are available on NPF's website.
The National Press Foundation's Annual Awards Dinner brings together more than 1,000 journalists, public affairs professionals and policymakers to recognize journalistic achievement. The event is the Foundation's largest source of general support revenue and proceeds from the dinner underwrite NPF's no-cost educational programs to journalists.
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