Here’s a list of current media and journalism awards, including deadlines for applying. If we’re missing any major awards, please contact Mark Glaser at mark [at] mediashift [dot] org, and we’ll add them to the list. Any featured awards are paid sponsorships. Award descriptions are excerpts, edited for length and clarity.
AUGUST 2017 DEADLINE
The Walkley Awards for Excellence in Journalism
The Walkley Awards for Excellence in Journalism are presented annually in Australia to recognize and reward excellence in the craft. Finalists are selected by eminent journalists and photographers and overall winners judges by the Walkley Advisory Board.
Deadline: August 31, 2017
SEPTEMBER 2017 DEADLINES
Big Sky Documentary Film Festival
The Big Sky Documentary Film Festival premiers non-fiction film in the American West. Screenings take place annually in February in Missoula, Montana. The competitive event is open to non-fiction films and videos of all genres, subject matter, lengths and production dates. World and U.S. premiers, classics, rare and experimental works will be shown during the festival. Awards and cash prizes will be given in multiple categories. There are reduced entry fees for entries received by the early and regular deadlines.
Deadlines: Sept. 1 (regular); Oct. 6, 2017 (final)
New Media Film Festival Awards
For years, The New Media Film Festival has led the way in the pursuit of stories worth telling, the exploration of new media technologies, boundary pushing resulting in new distribution models and creating and establishing new methodologies in the global monetization of content. A total of $45,000 in awards will be given out.
Deadline: Sep. 3, 2017 (early); Nov. 3 (regular); Jan. 3 (late); April 25 (final)
PILOT Innovation Challenge
National Association of Broadcasters
PILOT is calling on all entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs and creative thinkers to submit their ideas for accelerating broadcast innovation in the first annual PILOT Innovation Challenge. The challenge question: How might local television and radio broadcasters engage their communities with next generation content on any device, whether big, small or moving?
Deadline: Sep. 22, 2017
North American Travel Journalists Association
The NATJA Awards Competition honors the “best of the best” from travel media (writers, photographers, broadcast journalists, bloggers, app developers, travel websites) and travel promotion submitted by print and online travel magazines, in-flight magazines, public relations agencies, convention & visitors bureaus and destination marketing organizations (CVBs/DMOs) from the United States, Canada, Mexico and internationally.
Deadlines: Sept. 30
OCTOBER 2017 DEADLINE
Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism
Awarded by the New York Public Library to the author(s) of outstanding, full-length books resulting from print, broadcast, or electronic journalism that impacts public consciousness and policy around an important current issue. The winner receives a $15,000 prize and the book must be scheduled for original publication between January 1 and December 31. Books may be nominated by publishers, agents, or journalists and must be accompanied by the nomination form available online. Books may not be nominated by their authors.
Deadline: Oct. 1, 2017
Hearst Journalism Awards Program – Feature Writing
William Randolph Hearst Foundation
The Hearst Journalism Awards Program was founded in 1960 to provide support, encouragement, and assistance to journalism education at the college and university level. The program awards scholarships to students for outstanding performance in college-level journalism, with matching grants to the students’ schools. The feature writing category is open to color or mood articles covering news, business, feature or entertainment, as opposed to conventional news stories or personality profiles.
Deadline: Oct. 31, 2017
NOVEMBER 2017 DEADLINE
Grady-Stack Award for Interpreting Chemistry for the Public
To recognize, encourage and stimulate outstanding reporting directly to the public, which materially increases the public’s knowledge and understanding of chemistry, chemical engineering, and related fields. Work may have been disseminated through the press, radio, television, films, the lecture platform, books, or pamphlets for the lay public. Applications must include formal nomination and optional support forms, publications and patent list, and biographical sketch or curriculum vitae. Winner receives $5,000, a medallion with a presentation box, and a certificate. Up to $2,500 for travel expenses to the meeting at which the award will be presented will be reimbursed. The medallion will be presented during the award address.
Deadline: Nov 1, 2017
DECEMBER 2017 DEADLINE
SPJ: Fellow of the Society for Extraordinary Contribution to the Profession
This recognition honors journalists who have made an extraordinary contribution to the profession. Honorees must agree to attend the Excellence in Journalism Conference.
Deadline: December 1, 2017
JANUARY 2018 DEADLINES
LIU Post Best of High School Journalism Awards
The LIU Post Best of High School Journalism Awards recognizes the best in high school journalism. High school students or their faculty advisors may enter their best published or broadcast news stories to be considered.
Deadline: Jan. 5, 2018
Eugene S. Pulliam National Journalism Writing Award
Since 1960, Ball State University’s Department of Journalism has presented a national journalism award for writing excellence. Outstanding achievements in print journalism have been honored including reporting, writing, and investigative reporting.
Deadline: Jan. 5, 2018
DEADLINES DOWN THE LINE
Asian Digital Media Awards
World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers
The awards honor Asian publishers that have excelled in their digital offerings.
Middle East Digital Media Awards
World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers
The awards honor Middle Eastern publishers that have excelled in their digital offerings.
Society of Professional Journalists Awards
The Society of Professional Journalists has various awards for professional to collegiate journalists for excellence in various forms of media. Awards are rolling and there are several with deadlines in June. Please check the site for more details.
The Bookmarks Awards
Digital Media and Marketing Association
The Bookmarks Awards, based in South Africa, honor excellence in digital work, from websites, app development and games to multimedia and digital journalism.
The Daniel Pearl Investigative Journalism Initiative
Moment Magazine is launching a fellowship to support reporters pursuing investigative stories that address anti-Semitism, anti-Israel and other prejudices that threaten Jewish rights to dignity and self-determination. One grantee will be awarded $10,000 USD. Applicants will need to make the case for how their proposal addresses problems of anti-Semitism or anti-Israel prejudice in a new way or concentrates on an under-reported aspect of this issue.
The Cabot Prizes
The Columbia Journalism Awards
The prizes recognize a distinguished body of work that has contributed to Inter-American understanding.
Mark of Excellence Awards
Society of Professional Journalists
The Mark of Excellence Awards honors the best in collegiate journalism. Judged at the regional and national level, the annual competition offers 51 categories in newspapers, magazines, photography, radio, television and online journalism.
Charlie Ericksen Internship Supplement
The NAHJ Washington, D.C. awards one internship supplement, named after Hispanic Link News Service Founder Charlie Ericksen, to a student who is interning at a Washington D.C. Area news outlet.
Tribeca Snapchat Shorts
The Tribeca Film Festival and Snap Inc. are excited to bring back Tribeca Snapchat Shorts, now an official Festival category, created in an effort to discover visionary artists in the mobile space. This new category provides the perfect opportunity for people who are passionate about Snapchat and narrative storytelling to present their mastery of the smallest screen. The Festival and Snap Inc. are excited to support the next generation of storytellers and promote creativity on Snapchat.
New America Award
The Society of Professional Journalists’ New America Award honors public service journalism that explores and exposes an issue of importance to immigrant or ethnic communities currently living in the United States.
IWMF African Great Lakes Reporting Initiative
The IWMF designed the African Great Lakes Reporting Initiative to support journalists committed to pursuing stories that go beyond the well-established path of political instability, armed conflicts, and humanitarian crisis in the region.
NYU Journalism Reporting Award
The Reporting Award provides support of up to $12,500 for a work of journalism in any medium on significant underreported subjects in the public interest. In establishing the award, the Carter Journalism Institute’s faculty cited the need for encouraging enterprise journalism during a time of extensive layoffs and budget cuts throughout the journalism industry.
Meyer “Mike” Berger Award
The Meyer “Mike” Berger Award and its $2,000 cash prize are awarded for outstanding human interest reporting across platforms.
Daniel Pearl Investigative Journalism Initiative to Expose Prejudice
DPIJI provides grants to journalists ages 22 to 38 to research and write in-depth stories about a modern manifestation of anti-Semitism or any other deeply ingrained prejudice. Each year, Moment—with the help of an advisory board of journalists—selects one DPIJI Fellow, who receives $5,000 ($2,500 upfront and $2,500 upon publication) to produce a story.
IWMF Awards
The fight for media freedom has never been more critical. For 28 years, the IWMF has been highlighting the work of brave women journalists and honoring their contributions to press freedom around the world. Join the IWMF this year in recognizing essential and diverse voices by submitting a nomination for the Courage in Journalism.
Data Journalism Awards
The awards are an international contest recognizing outstanding work in data journalism worldwide.
The John B. Oakes Award
The John B. Oakes Award for Distinguished Environmental Journalism, which carries a $5,000 prize, is given annually for news reporting that makes an exceptional contribution to the public’s understanding of environmental issues. The award was founded in 1993 by family, friends and colleagues of Oakes (1913-2001), who was an environmental journalism pioneer and an editorial writer for The New York Times.
John Chancellor Award
The John Chancellor Award for Excellence in Journalism, founded in 1995, is presented each year to a reporter with courage and integrity for cumulative professional accomplishments. The prize honors the legacy of pioneering television correspondent and longtime NBC News anchor John Chancellor.
Global Shining Light Award
Every two years, the Global Investigative Journalism Network presents the Global Shining Light Award, a unique award which honors investigative journalism in a developing or transitioning country, done under threat, duress, or in the direst of conditions.
NAHJ Ñ Awards
Six awards will be presented within the Print/Digital, Television, Photography and Radio categories. There will also be two Vanguard Awards – The Al Neuharth Award for Investigative Journalism and the NAHJ Elaine Rivera Civil Rights & Social Justice Award.
National Association of Hispanic Journalists Hall of Fame Award
Do you know someone who is making a difference for Latinos in journalism? Someone who’s coverage of the Latino community goes beyond the who, what, when, where and how? Maybe you know an educator who is grooming young Latino journalists into future stars?
Kurt Schork Awards in International Journalism
Since its inception in 2002, the Kurt Schork Memorial Fund has sought to support those journalists Kurt most admired, the freelancers and local reporters whose work is often poorly paid, mostly unsung and all too often fraught with danger.
Ed Bradley Scholarship
Ed Bradley is best known for his award-winning work in 26 years on CBS News’ 60 Minutes and as the first African American White House TV correspondent. Bradley established the Ed Bradley Scholarship in 1994. Since then, 20 young, aspiring journalists have received the award created by the late CBS News and 60 Minutes correspondent.
RTDNA Undergraduate Scholarships
Scholarships are open to undergraduate students pursuing careers in radio, television, or digital journalism. Winners must be officially enrolled, full-time sophomores, juniors or seniors in good standing when scholarships are awarded for the 2017-2018 academic year.
Gli Occhi Della Guerra
Gli Occhi Della Guerra is opening its newsroom for those who dream of being a reporter. Contestants will have the chance to present their projects that they have never had the chance to develop. A panel of judges comprising of reporters, journalists, photographers will select the best two projects, to which all expenses will be covered and that will be published on the Italian online newspaper www.ilgiornale.it as well as on the website www.gliocchidellaguerra.it.
Robert D.G. Lewis First Amendment Award
From the generosity of the Lewis family, the award is given each year to a student SPJ member who has demonstrated outstanding service to the First Amendment through the field of journalism. The award assists a student with his/her attendance to SPJ’s annual convention.
Online Journalism Awards
The Online Journalism Awards (OJAs), launched in May 2000, are the only comprehensive set of journalism prizes honoring excellence in digital journalism around the world.
Eugene S. Pulliam First Amendment Award
The Sigma Delta Chi Foundation presents the Eugene S. Pulliam First Amendment Award to honor a person or persons who have fought to protect and preserve one or more of the rights guaranteed by the First Amendment.
Eugene C. Pulliam Fellowship for Editorial Writing
The Eugene C. Pulliam Fellowship was established to enable a mid-career editorial writer or columnist to have time away from daily responsibilities for study and research.
TruthBuzz: The Viral Fact-Checking Contest
TruthBuzz, a new contest from the International Center for Journalists and the Craig Newmark Foundation, wants to encourage the viral spread of verified facts across cyberspace.The top three winners will receive cash prizes of US$10,000, US$5,000 and US$2,500, respectively.
Collaborative Reporting Project Open Call
Six reporting projects will be selected to win a $7,000 grant through the Collaborative Reporting Project. The Center for Cooperative Media is interested in hearing from local news outlets across the U.S., and are particularly interested in projects that include collaboration with technologists. The proposals should include original reporting.
Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards
The award recognizes excellence in broadcast, documentary and digital journalism.
Future of Storytelling Prize
Immersive, narrative-driven projects have a chance to win $5,000. Submissions that may include, but are not limited to: virtual, mixed, and augmented reality; web-based, audio, and data-driven works; mobile apps; narrative games; multimedia installations; and multi-platform projects.
International Documentary Association’s 33rd Annual IDA Documentary Awards
The IDA Documentary Awards recognize the best nonfiction films and programs of the year. Award recipients are announced at the IDA Documentary Awards in December in Los Angeles. Entry is open to any documentary, non-fiction or factual program that qualifies for one of the main award categories.
Heroes of the 50 States: The State Government Hall of Fame
Annually, the Society of Professional Journalists and the National Freedom of Information Coalition recognizes such an individual — someone whose service, accomplishments and contributions have left a legacy at the state and local level.
Katherine Schneider Journalism Award for Excellence in Reporting on Disability
The National Center on Disability and Journalism is now accepting entries for the 2017 Katherine Schneider Journalism Award for Excellence in Reporting on Disability, the only journalism contest devoted exclusively to disability coverage. Journalists working in digital, print and broadcast media are eligible to enter.
Thomson Foundation Young Journalist Award
The Thomson Foundation, in partnership with the UK Foreign Press Association (FPA), is inviting young journalists from around the world to submit their most compelling stories. Now leading into its fifth year, the Young Journalist Award is Thomson Foundation’s annual journalism competition, dedicated to finding and inspiring ambitious and emerging journalistic talent from across the globe.
UN Global Youth Video Competition on Climate Change
The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the UNDP/GEF Small Grant Programme have teamed again with tve to launch a video competition for the best youth climate projects happening around the globe. Send an inspiring video diary, a maximum of three minutes long.
North American Digital Media Awards
These awards, presented by WAN-IFRA, the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers, recognize publishers who have adopted digital media and mobile strategies as part of their total product offering to meet the major changes in how people consume news and information today.
Bianca Fortis is the associate editor at MediaShift, a founding member of the Transborder Media storytelling collective and a social media consultant. Follow her on Twitter @biancafortis.