Eligibility

The Cronkite Awards are open to journalists, television programs, news specials, local for-profit stations or local public stations, station ownership groups, national networks (for-profit, public, broadcast, cable or streaming), online-original video news and video podcasts (i.e.: YouTube and Twitch). Also eligible is comedy, satire and parody, and commentary and analysis. Non-English entries (accompanied by English translation) are welcome.

An eligible entry must have first been available to the public between Election Day, November 5, 2024, and the 100th day of the Trump Administration, April 30, 2025. The deadline for submitting an entry is May 30, 2025.

Selection Process

There is a fee of $75 per entry.

Entrants should submit a reel of no more than 30 minutes in length. Compilations, bumpers or other interstitial material produced for the entry reel are acceptable but not required. If a reel longer than 30 minutes is submitted, it is possible that only the first 30 minutes will be screened.

The entry form requests a narrative describing how the reel's content addresses: how a free press defends democracy. Submissions can investigate threats that democracy now faces and provide exemplary coverage of efforts to protect the U.S. Constitution, defend the rule of law and hold power accountable.

Entries will be reviewed and scored by a panel of screeners — USC Annenberg faculty, alumni and affiliates with extensive journalism experience. Based on screener recommendations, a shortlist of entrants will be reviewed by a jury of USC Annenberg faculty, alumni and affiliates. The number and categories of prizes will be determined by the judges, based on the entries submitted and shortlisted.

2025 Brooks Jackson Prize for Fact-Checking

Eligible submissions will show that: 

• Fact-checking is not a one-off. Instead, fact-checking segments recur, and they are characterized or featured as fact-checking.
• Fact-checking is a beat, identified with a particular correspondent (or team of two).

Cronkite Award submissions are also eligible for the 2025 Brooks Jackson Prize for Fact-Checking if they demonstrate how fact-checking can be institutionalized within the format of a program or media organization. The Cronkite entry form offers an opportunity to flag a submission’s eligibility for the Jackson Prize.

Entries will be reviewed by a separate jury at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg Public Policy Center. Winner(s) may be local, national or both. The Jackson Prize will honor recurring fact-checking coverage that aired between January 1, 2023 and February 1, 2025. The deadline for submitting an entry is May 30, 2025.