Eligibility

The Cronkite Awards are open to television stations, station groups, networks, news programs, news specials and individuals, including students and apprentice and emerging journalists. Local station entries can come from markets of any size. Broadcast, cable, commercial and public television are eligible, as are online-original video news sites. Non-English entries (accompanied by English translation) are welcome.

An eligible entry must have aired between February 1, 2021, and January 31, 2023.

Selection Process

There is a fee of $50 per entry (the fee will be waived for students and for apprentice and emerging journalists).

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 disinformation and the assault on democracy. You may wish to cover, e.g., how your newsroom defines disinformation; the entry's reception and impact; production challenges; interactive, collateral or cross-platform content; how your entry models best practices.

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.

The 2023 Brooks Jackson Prize for Fact-Checking 

Eligible Cronkite Award submissions are also eligible for the 2023 Brooks Jackson Prize for Fact-Checking if they demonstrate how fact-checking can be institutionalized within the format of a program or the news schedule of a station. Jackson eligible reels 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).

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.

Airdate cutoff: January 31, 2023
Entry deadline: February 22, 2023 DEADLINE EXTENDED TO MARCH 1, 2023
Winners announced: April 2023