Winners announced in 2019 Mirror Awards competition for media industry reporting

Winners in the 13th annual Mirror Awards competition honoring excellence in media industry reporting were announced today at a ceremony in New York City, hosted by Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. CNN anchor Alisyn Camerota was master of ceremonies at the luncheon event, which was held at Cipriani 42nd Street.

The winners, chosen by a group of journalists and journalism educators, are:

BEST SINGLE ARTICLE/STORY

• “Face the Racist Nation” by Jesse Brenneman and Lois Beckett for WNYC Radio and Guardian US

BEST PROFILE

• “James O’Keefe Can’t Get No Respect” by Tim Alberta for Politico

BEST COMMENTARY

• “The great remove” by Sarah Jones (Columbia Journalism Review)

BEST STORY ON JOURNALISTS OR JOURNALISM IN PERIL

• “How Duterte Used Facebook To Fuel the Philippine Drug War” by Davey Alba for BuzzFeed News

BEST STORY ON SOCIAL MEDIA IN THE CROSSHAIRS – tie

• Series of pieces on junk news by Miles O’Brien, produced by Cameron Hickey, for PBS NewsHour
  • “How Facebook’s news feed can be fooled into spreading misinformation”
  • “Inside Facebook’s race to separate news from junk”
  • “Why we love to like junk news that reaffirms our beliefs”

And

• Series of pieces on problems with Facebook for BuzzFeed News
  • “Growth At Any Cost: Top Facebook Executive Defended Data Collection In 2016 Memo — And Warned That Facebook Could Get People Killed” by Ryan Mac, Charlie Warzel and Alex Kantrowitz
  • “How WhatsApp Destroyed A Village” by Pranav Dixit and Ryan Mac
  • “‘We Had To Stop Facebook’: When Anti-Muslim Violence Goes Viral” by Megha Rajagopalan and Aisha Nazim

JOHN M. HIGGINS AWARD FOR BEST IN-DEPTH/ENTERPRISE REPORTING

• Series of pieces on Leslie Moonves by Ronan Farrow (The New Yorker)
  • “Trouble at the Top”
  • “As Leslie Moonves Negotiates His Exit from CBS, Six Women Raise New Assault and Harassment Claims”

The Newhouse School honored Jeff Zucker, president of CNN Worldwide and chairman of WarnerMedia News and Sports, with the Fred Dressler Leadership Award. David Zaslav, president and CEO of Discovery, Inc., presented.

The school also honored Twitch with the i-3 award for impact, innovation and influence. Wim Stocks, CEO of WorldGaming and Collegiate StarLeague, presented the award, and Mark “Garvey” Candella, director of strategic partnerships, accepted on behalf of Twitch.

Luncheon co-chairs were Nomi M. Bergman, president of Advance/Newhouse, and Thomas M. Rutledge, chairman and CEO of Charter Communications.

The Mirror Awards are the most important awards for recognizing excellence in media industry reporting. Established by the Newhouse School in 2006, the awards honor the reporters, editors and teams of writers who hold a mirror to their own industry for the public’s benefit.

For more information, contact Wendy Loughlin at wsloughl@syr.edu.