The Canadian Journalism Foundation (CJF) Jackman Award for Excellence in Journalism honours a Canadian organization that embodies exemplary journalism with a resulting impact on the community it serves. Since 1996, the CJF has celebrated news organizations that embrace ideals of journalistic excellence – accuracy, independence, accountability, courage and originality – with this annual award. Applicants can enter in one of two categories: Large media organization (more than 50 full-time employees) or small media organization (50 full-time employees or less). The category is determined by the size of an organization’s staff for reporting, production, technical and presentation support, as well as the staff they can draw upon within any larger organization of which they are a part. Entrants must indicate which of these two categories they represent. There is a $200 application fee for large media organizations and a $100 application fee for small media organizations.
Only material published or broadcast in the previous calendar year may be submitted. Only one entry will be accepted from a single Canadian print-media outlet, news broadcast program or online news organization. Entries can have up to three individual items on a common theme. These can include articles, editorials, blogs, photographs, cartoons, videos, radio broadcasts, interactive graphics and multimedia projects. In addition to a brief synopsis of the work submitted, the following questions must be addressed, with the relative importance (as a percentage) of each question provided here:
- Describe the extent of work that went into the production of the story or series (15%).
- Explain why your news organization selected this topic (15%).
- Describe, with supporting evidence, the impact of the story/stories, including identifying the specific communities affected (15%).
- Detail the resources in time and numbers dedicated to the work submitted, compared to the overall resources of the news organization (15%).
- From this list of standards for excellence in journalism, select up to three that are most applicable to your submission and explain why you selected each of them: originality, courage, independence, accuracy, social responsibility, accountability and diversity (40%).
Judging criteria and deadline
In evaluating each qualifying entry, judges will consider the quality of writing/storytelling, the clarity of work submitted and the stated impact on the community. Deadline for entries is Friday, February 19, 2016 at 11:59 p.m. (EST). The finalists will be announced in April. The winner will be determined by a jury of experienced industry professionals and will be announced at the CJF Awards held in Toronto on Thursday, June 16, 2016. For more information, please visit:
http://www.cjf-fjc.ca/awards/cjf-jackman-award-excellence-journalism
