The Park Center for Independent Media at Ithaca College is now accepting nominations from journalists, academics and the public at large for the first annual Izzy Award, named after legendary maverick journalist I. F. Stone. To be presented each year for "special achievement in independent media," the Izzy Award will recognize an independent outlet, journalist or producer for work created/distributed outside of traditional corporate structures.
“With independent media having increasing impact in politics and culture, our award spotlights the premiere figures who are following in the independent footsteps of Izzy Stone,” said Jeff Cohen, founding director of the Park Center for Independent Media (PCIM).
In 1953, Isidor Feinstein “Izzy” Stone launched his “I. F. Stone’s Weekly,” a muckraking newsletter through which he exposed and campaigned against government deception, McCarthyism and racial bigotry. A 1999 poll of journalists ranked the publication as number 16 among the “Top 100 Works of Journalism in the United States in the 20th Century.” Stone’s honors included a special George Polk Award in Journalism, the Conscience-in-Media Award from the American Society of Journalists and Authors, and the American Library Association Intellectual Freedom Award. He died in 1989.
The award winner will be chosen each year by a panel of judges who have expertise in independent media. In addition to Cohen, this year’s judges include communications professor and author Robert W. McChesney, and Linda Jue, director and executive editor of New Voices in Independent Journalism. The winner will be announced and the award bestowed in February or March.
The first Izzy will be given for work published, broadcast or posted in 2008 by an independent media outlet, journalist or producer. The award may relate to a single piece or a body of work. Nominations should be submitted in a short e-mail or letter by January 15, 2009—along with any supporting web links or materials. The judges may also make nominations.
Send nominations to:
Brandy Hawley
Ithaca College
Park Center for Independent Media
953 Danby Road
Ithaca, NY 14850
bhawley@ithaca.edu
For more information, visit https://www.ithaca.edu/indy/izzy.
Launched in 2008, the Park Center for Independent Media is a national center for the study of media outlets that create and distribute content outside traditional corporate systems and news organizations. Located within Ithaca College’s Roy H. Park School of Communications, the PCIM examines the impact of independent media institutions on journalism, democracy and a participatory culture.
