ITHACA, NY — Nominations for the Izzy Award for calendar year 2015 are now open. The annual honor for outstanding achievement in independent media, named after legendary journalist I. F. “Izzy” Stone, is a project of the Park Center for Independent Media (PCIM) at Ithaca College.
“The decline — financially and often ethically — of corporate media has left a void that is being filled by journalists who work in the independent media sector,” said PCIM director Jeff Cohen. “The Izzy Award honors the best of these journalists who are giving in-depth coverage to issues and stories neglected by conglomerated media, from environmental degradation to human rights abuses to misconduct by corporate and political leaders.”
The inaugural Izzy Award for 2008 was shared by blogger Glenn Greenwald and “Democracy Now!” host/executive producer Amy Goodman.
2009: Investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill.
2010: Shared by New York City investigative outlet “City Limits” and author/“Truthdig” cofounder Robert Scheer.
2011: Shared by journalist Sharif Abdel Kouddous and the investigative outlet Center for Media and Democracy for its work on “ALEC Exposed.”
2012: Nonprofit outlet “Mother Jones.”
2013: Shared by John Carlos Frey for his reporting on U.S./Mexico border deaths and Nick Turse for his reporting on civilian casualties of U.S. wars from Vietnam to Afghanistan.
2014: Shared by author Naomi Klein for her columns and book “This Changes Everything” and investigative journalist David Sirota for reporting on corruption and collusion in the $3 trillion U.S. pension fund industry.
In 2014, previous Izzy winners Glenn Greenwald and Jeremy Scahill were inducted into the newly established I. F. Stone Hall of Fame.
For more information on the Izzy Award, visit www.ithaca.edu/indy/izzy/.
In 1953, during the height of the anti-communist witch hunts, Stone launched “I. F. Stone’s Weekly,” through which he challenged McCarthyism, official deception, war and racial bigotry. In 1999, a poll of prominent journalists and academics ranked the publication as number 16 among the “Top 100 Works of Journalism in the United States in the 20th Century.” Ithaca College houses a unique collection of mementos from Stone, who died in 1989.
Izzy Award winners are selected by a panel of judges with expertise in independent media. Joining Cohen on the panel for the eighth year in a row are communications professor and author Robert W. McChesney and Linda Jue, executive director and editor at the G. W. Williams Center for Independent Journalism.
This year’s Izzy Award will be given for work published, broadcast or posted in 2015 by an independent media outlet, journalist or producer. The award may relate to a single piece or a body of work. Journalists, academics and the public at large may submit nominations by the January 18, 2016, deadline. The judges may also nominate. The winner will be announced early next spring, with an award ceremony to follow.
Nominations should be submitted via a brief e-mail (250 words or less) that includes supporting web links (no more than six) and/or attached materials to Brandy Hawley at bhawley@ithaca.edu.
Launched in 2008 and located within Ithaca College’s Roy H. Park School of Communications, PCIM is a national center focusing on media outlets that create and distribute content outside traditional corporate systems and news organizations.
