The Peach Report

Recently, citizen media expert Dan Gillmor complained that journalists “have a tedious tendency to give themselves prizes, more so than any other business I can name.”

Of course it is important for journalists to remember why they got into the business – to expose truths, to tell meaningful stories and so on, not to win prizes. But I’d bet journalists give themselves awards not (just) out of our self-congratulatory nature, but because it’s easy to do so. Unlike some other professionals, such as doctors, teachers and computer repair technicians, our work leads to a product that is widely seen and judged. That makes it a snap to create contests and give out awards. In that respect, journalism is similar to the advertising industry, which also gives itself plenty of prizes.

That said, here comes another braggy blog post. PoweringANation.org has won a bunch of new awards.

In the Best of Photojournalism contest, we took home:

• PoweringANation.org
  Overall Best Use of the Web Award
• PoweringANation.org
  1st Place, News or Feature Multimedia Package (INDE)
• Mining the Mountains
  2nd Place, Documentary Video (INDE)
• Roping the Wind
  2nd Place, Feature Video (INDE)

The judges wrote, “In Powering a Nation, we liked this one for having not only the strongest content, but also the most elegant and easy to use navigation. We loved the flash graphics, the individual stories, and the depth of information.”

Receiving these awards was especially exciting because Best of Photojournalism is a professional contest, and PoweringANation.org was a student-produced project.

In addition, the Society of Professional Journalists Region 2 recently awarded a First Place “Mark of Excellence” to Debating Coal’s Future, the four-part story for which I was the lead producer last summer. Several of my teammates also won awards; here’s the complete list.