Wednesday, March 14

Newspapers Now Winning Television Awards

The National Press Photographers Association (NPPA) has posted its list of “Best Television Photojournalism 2007” awards and this year they include categories for one-man bands (NPPA calls it solo video journalists- the SVJ) and video produced by the web. This is another signal of convergence and new media as the “Television” awards were once the domain of camera and editing teams from television.

Now newspapers are winning in the “Web” category with video stories on the web—as is the case for The Washington Post with an award for “48 Hour Web Editing.” More evidence old media’s world is changing. This would also signal an opportunity to rename the awards. Perhaps it's time to change "television" in the award title to "video."


The NPPA 2007 Best TV Photojournalism Awards posted on the Poynter Institute’s web site also includes student awards. One category recognizes work done in a seven day deadline period called "weekly assignment." Perhaps we should look at this as an assignment in our classes engaging video production? You can check out all the winners online. Poynter even include the judge’s comments. I am annoyed by the “Neighborhood America” spot that runs before you can see the stories. That’s one way to underwrite the cost of posting the winners and reaching chief photographers and news directors.