HOW TO ENTER
This year's award will spotlight excellence, innovation and impact in journalism for children [up to age 12] about the COVID-19 global pandemic that takes a solutions journalism approach.
DEADLINE: 15 April 2021
WHO CAN ENTER
The competition is open to any kind of news organization in any country run by people of any age and on any platform. However, your focus for this year's award is children age 12 or under.
Entries can be self-nominated or submitted by a third party. Remember that initiatives must effectively serve, support, attract and/or learn from children (through age 12) while reinforcing the role of journalism in society.
REGISTRATION
Before you can send an entry as a candidate or nominate an initiative, please register it HERE.
ENTRY FORMAT & CONTENT
Your entry should take the form of a presentation pdf deck (created with PowerPoint, KeyNote, etc.) of no more than 5 MB. Links are permitted within the deck to videos or other supporting materials in English or, for videos, with English subtitles.
ENTRY CONTENT - Be sure to include
1. A first slide with the project's name and a very short description.
2. A second slide in this format (Note if your "organization" is simply you, just say so!)
Then explain in the slides that follow (as many as you need that yield a file less than 5MB) these elements:
3. What you did
4. How you did it (what resources, personnel, etc.) Be sure to describe funding..
5. Why you did it (what the initiative was to accomplish, elements of innovation)
6. How you know it worked out (what it did accomplish, clear evidence of benefits for organization and the audience). This is a key element.
7. What should happen next and advice for others who want to try it.
ENTRY FILENAME - Should be in this format
ENTRY - JOURNALISM - [YOUR COUNTRY] - [YOUR ORGANIZATION] - [TWO WORD TAGLINE specific to your PROJECT]
WHERE TO SEND IT - You will be instructed about where to send your entry once you have registered.
JUDGING CRITERIA
Members of the international jury have been instructed to keep in mind three things:
1. Impact - Effectiveness of the initiative in serving, supporting, attracting and/or learning from young audiences, especially as evidenced by measurable impact.
2. Inspiration - Transferability and adaptability of the idea to other countries.
3. Innovation - This does not preclude an initiative that has been going on for some time that still produces excellent results thanks to adaptation to the times.
SOME TIPS
• It's better to describe one or two highly impactful initiatives in an entry rather than describe everything you do.
• Keep in mind the emphasis on solutions journalism, which calls for "rigorous and compelling reporting about responses to social problems. It investigates and explains, in a critical and clear-eyed way."
• Heavy photos can make your presentation huge. Make them 72 DPI.
• Remember that the judges are all English speakers, so if an element is important for them to consider, translate it (subtitles on a video) or provide a link to a summary in English.