News awards get modern makeover
By ZHANG YI | China Daily | Updated: 2022-06-14 09:28
The All-China Journalists Association on Monday released a revised evaluation method for the China Journalism Awards, one of the country's most prestigious journalism prizes, consolidating the number of awards categories from 29 to 20.
The award categories were optimized by merging similar categories and canceling unsuitable categories, with the aim of focusing on news work and serving the integrated media development of the country, the association said in a statement on Monday.
The original categories had accumulated some problems after 31 years of development, including not adapting to the trend of integrated media development, it said.
The awards categories were classified according to media types such as newspaper, radio, television and internet, which didn't align with the reality of media development, it added.
The association said that there were also problems of crossover awards with categories classified by both media type and the type of work. For example, there were both live TV and live mobile categories in terms of video broadcast.
The 20 streamlined awards categories with 380 news entries contain 14 basic awards categories including news, commentary, documentaries, series reports, news photography, news cartoons, and six special categories including international communication and integrated reporting.
The reform is a necessary measure to proactively adapt to changes in the media, the association said, adding that the awards categories for new media products have been expanded to encourage integrated media development and innovation, so as to better serve economic and social development and the needs of the people.
With a focus on front-line news work, the revised approach stipulates that officials at the vice-ministerial level and above shall not take part, and those at the bureau level who are not the chief creators are also excluded.
The pool of judges has been expanded with more experts and fewer officials from administrative departments, according to the association. The evaluation method will be used for this year's awards.
The China Journalism Award is the highest annual award for outstanding news works approved by the central leadership.
