Awards for Excellence in Technology Journalism

Call for Entries Now Open
Deadline Extended to June 30
2011 Entry Form and Guidelines

The Awards for Excellence in Technology Journalism are presented by the Public Relations Society of America’s (PRSA) Technology Section. The awards recognize journalists who have published articles that are valuable to their readers; show clarity in communication and are significant in disclosing, explaining, interpreting and reporting innovation.

Categories and Awards

There are two Awards for Excellence in Technology Journalism:

• One award is presented to an individual published in a general or business media source.
• A second award is presented to an individual published in a trade, technical, industrial or professional publication serving a technology industry or audience.

Each winner receives a cash prize award of $1,000 and an award trophy, thanks to this year's sponsors, Microsoft Corporation, Airfoil Public Relations and Padilla Speer Beardsley.

Award Rules

• The awards competition is open to regularly employed members of the staffs of the respective publications and news outlets, and freelance writers who regularly write for such publications and meet all other requirements included in these guidelines.
• The entrant’s name must appear in the masthead of the publication or carried as the byline, or be listed in the credits as producer of the segment.
• If the submitted material does not have an identifiable byline or if the entrant is not a regular staff member with an editorial title or function, the entry form and submission must be accompanied by a letter from the news outlet’s editor or executive producer verifying the entrant as author or producer.
• Submissions must be an article or segment published or produced during the designated calendar year of the awards (for example, published in 2010 for the 2011 awards).
• Entries are limited to three (3) articles per entrant, per category.

Submission Process

• Entrants must submit one (1) copy of the article(s) in PDF format along with the application. Applications must be sent by email to Vada Wilson.
• Audio and video segments must be submitted via email in FLV format along with a written script or transcript in PDF format.
• Columns may be submitted, however, three (3) to five (5) examples must be submitted to be judged as one entry. Single columns will not be accepted.
• Multipart features. If a series of two (2) to five (5) parts is submitted, such series may be submitted as a single entry.
• No books or entire issues of publications may be submitted.

Judging Process

• One prize is awarded in each category to an individual journalist and his or her publication or news outlet.
• Entries are judged by a panel consisting of editors representing the type of journalism practiced in each category.
• To avoid conflict of interests, judges will not be permitted to evaluate entries of their own, or of professional colleagues serving on their own publications. Entrants may not serve as judges in categories for which they are entrants or for which entries from the same publication have been submitted.
• In each of the two editorial categories, judging panels will select the most important and best written body of work based on a technology subject.

Entry Guidelines

Download the Award Guidelines and Entry Form in .pdf format. All entries must include the entry form.