The Center for Journalism Ethics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison seeks nominations for the Anthony Shadid Award for Journalism Ethics. Now in its 14th year, the Shadid Award recognizes ethical decisions in reporting stories in any medium, including print, broadcast and digital, by journalists working for established news organizations or publishing individually.
The award focuses on current journalism and does not include books, documentaries and other long-term projects. Entries should involve reporting done for stories that were published or broadcast in 2022. Individuals or news organizations may nominate themselves or others.
The nomination window opens November 14, 2022.
Deadline for submissions is January 17, 2023.
The Shadid Award includes a $2,500 prize and travel expenses to accept the award and discuss the reporting at an awards ceremony held in New York City on May 17, 2023.
The Shadid Award is different from other journalism prizes in that it seeks to recognize the difficult, behind-the-scenes decisions reporters make in pursuing high-impact stories and in fulfilling their ethical obligations to sources, to people caught up in news events, and to the public at large.
“At its best, journalism brings important stories to light in a way that shows a real duty of care for people whose lives will be affected by the reporting,” says Lucas Graves, chair of the judging committee. “The Shadid Award gives us a chance recognize the tough ethical choices reporters face and the steps they take to minimize harms from their work.”
Recent winners of the award include:
- 2022: Jessica Contrera, Washington Post
- 2021: Margie Mason and Robin McDowell, Associated Press
- 2020: Lakeidra Chavis and Jodi S. Cohen, ProPublica & Jennifer Smith Richards, Chicago Tribune
- 2019: Julie K. Brown and Emily Michot, Miami Herald
A graduate of UW-Madison, Anthony Shadid died in 2012 on a reporting assignment in Syria for the New York Times. He won two Pulitzer Prizes for his courageous and insightful foreign correspondence. Shadid sat on the the Center for Journalism Ethics advisory board and strongly supported its efforts to promote public interest journalism and to stimulate discussion about journalism ethics.
