{"id":3749,"date":"2024-07-10T13:38:17","date_gmt":"2024-07-10T17:38:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/resources.newhouse.syr.edu\/awards\/?post_type=newhouse_award&#038;p=3749"},"modified":"2026-01-06T10:58:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T15:58:17","slug":"mirror-awards-2025","status":"publish","type":"newhouse_award","link":"https:\/\/resources.newhouse.syr.edu\/awards\/awards-submission\/mirror-awards-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Mirror Awards 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"award_name":"Mirror Awards 2025","award_organizer":["3"],"award_year":["11"],"award_administrator":["294"],"award_organizer_email":"mirrorawards@syr.edu","award_form":["3779"],"start_date":"1733983200000","end_date":"1739681940000","submission_end_date":"1767848340000","submission_reply_template":["219"],"submission_notification_template":["219"],"entry_category_key":"Nomination Category","entry_filters":["Entry Title","Author\u2019s First Name","Publication Name","Author\u2019s Last Name","Publication Date"],"preliminary_judging_pools":4,"judging_preview_fields":["Nomination Category","Entry Title","Author\u2019s First Name","Publication Name","Author\u2019s Last Name"],"judging_full_fields":["Nomination Category","Comments","Entry Title","Entry Url 1","Entry Url 2","Entry Url 3","Publication Name","Author\u2019s Last Name","entry is series","Paywall Password","Entry File 1","Entry File 2","Entry File 3"],"judges_emails":["aegallag@syr.edu","ejgrode@syr.edu","mprussel@syr.edu","omneya.ashanab@nbcuni.com","bplogiurato@gmail.com","molly.simms@gmail.com","chandran@gigafact.org","mgscotto@gmail.com","ken.kneeland@abc.com","wasim.ahmad@gmail.com","djspiegel@gmail.com","denise@denisevalenti.com","barths@cbsnews.com","cdhedges@syr.edu","connor.ennis@gmail.com","bwgorham@syr.edu","dancy.shelvia@gmail.com","jrosman@syr.edu","rsgutter@syr.edu","contessabrewer@aol.com","nmibrown@syr.edu","jnglass@syr.edu","nicholasjdesantis@gmail.com","ale.foresto@gmail.com","fionalgibb@gmail.com","csbrody@syr.edu","kevin.w.sajdak@gmail.com","bjsheeha@syr.edu","cindy.perman@gmail.com","robert.shields@newsday.com","pbbrady1@gmail.com","williamfleitch@yahoo.com","yerinkim32@gmail.com","kristenc23@gmail.com","kkobland@syr.edu","richardjchang18@gmail.com"],"final_judges_emails":["jkkaplan@syr.edu","mchessher@mail.smu.edu","dorian@teemingmedia.com","tbreton@cox.net","andyabrahams86@gmail.com","dadamssimmons@gmail.com","jmaxrobins@gmail.com","dmrubin@syr.edu","hpolskin@gmail.com","edgecliffe@semafor.com","maryromano556@gmail.com","dorothy.bland@unt.edu","rthompso@syr.edu","carlson.margaret@gmail.com","jkkaplan@syr.edu","mchessher@mail.smu.edu","dorian@teemingmedia.com","tbreton@cox.net","andyabrahams86@gmail.com","dadamssimmons@gmail.com","jmaxrobins@gmail.com","dmrubin@syr.edu","hpolskin@gmail.com","edgecliffe@semafor.com","maryromano556@gmail.com","dorothy.bland@unt.edu","rthompso@syr.edu","carlson.margaret@gmail.com"],"judging_criteria":[{"label":"Excellence of craft: ","description":"What is the overall quality of the writing and newsgathering that goes into each piece? This includes careful attention to sourcing.","scale":5},{"label":"Appropriateness for the intended audience:","description":"Does the author use language and examples that will make sense to his or her audience? It is expected, for example, that articles published for a trade audience will be somewhat more technical in tone than those for consumer magazines.","scale":5},{"label":"Framing of the issue: ","description":"Does the author use the story to provide a broader perspective on the media and its role in society.","scale":5}],"final_judging_criteria":[{"label":"Overall 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had the makings of dynamite here.  Great stories.  I found the overall craft and scripts really poor.  They make potentially riveting stories hard to listen to.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":2,"Framing of the issue: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3}},"4074":{"comments":"Great depth on one story.  A big lesson to be learned.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4573":{"comments":"Taken together these three articles make a big statement about the state of journalism and dissent in Russia and China","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4577":{"comments":"","scores":[]},"4580":{"comments":"Important articles bravely published in the Post","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":5,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4605":{"comments":"","scores":[]},"4630":{"comments":"Solid and in-depth.  Could use a bit more craft and framing throughout.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4730":{"comments":"Deep analysis of a very important issue.","scores":{"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":5,"Framing of the issue: ":4,"Excellence of craft: ":4}},"4750":{"comments":"Engrossing reporting","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":5,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4771":{"comments":"Great in-depth reporting.  The craft suffers due to a weak low-energy host for these podcasts.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":5,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4781":{"comments":"Interesting in-depth reporting what goes on behind the scenes of election polling and election-day vote projections.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"4789":{"comments":"Good analysis of news coverage of the Palestinian War.  Could perhaps be more balanced.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4802":{"comments":"A very complicated issue well reported","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4804":{"comments":"Good local reporting, but nothing that makes it award-winning.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"4808":{"comments":"Good in-depth reporting.  Could use a bit more framing.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"status":"submit"},"williamfleitch@yahoo.com":{"3971":{"comments":"It obviously has moments of real power, and it uncovers some true cruelty that has to be answered for. But there is an undeniable undercurrent of \"the cause is unjust so let's make every soldier look monstrous\" that is ultimately flattening to the whole story, thus distancing us from both the overarching conflict and  the actual horrors shown. The problem is not what they have; that's vital and penetrating. The problem is a framing that can't help but call into one's motives and how they came into the story in the first place. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":2}},"4046":{"comments":"The first story is excellent, a fantastic profile of this fascinating woman and the work she does. The other two stories feel like opinion-based followups. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"4051":{"comments":"I *do* wish this wasn't a podcast. But that's my issue, not theirs. This is terrific. It *does* make sense that the moral panic of of stuff like this led, inexorably, to Pizzagate and obsessions with trafficking, to the point that online brains have been broken by it. Why is suddenly pedophila and kids-being-grabbed-off-the-street-everywhere a national obsession? This seems as logical an explanation as easy. I think this is the strongest nominee.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":5}},"4580":{"comments":"I am a regular contributor to the Post's opinion section, so keep that in mind. But I think this is terrific reporting and speaks to what the Post continues to do in the wake of Bezos' repeated bizarre and nonsensical decisions with that section. We'll know the Post is gone when stories like this disappear. But not until then.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":5}},"4775":{"comments":"This is terrific, and important. You actually are already seeing this issue pop up in the early days of Trump 2.0, with CDC websites having to be backed up with actual relevant information. We used to think the Internet was forever. Now we know it's the opposite. This is valuable work, and each one of these stories adds a new vital context as to why.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":5,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4789":{"comments":"There is a lot of good data journalism in this -- albeit done by an anonymous person -- but it is consistently couched in more of an activist bent than a journalistic one.  The arguments, with good data behind it, about falling for propaganda is good, but stuff like \"it should elevate its coverage of the suffering in Gaza to be comparable to that of Ukraine, with the same urgent and moralizing tone\" is awfully vague and has the hectoring tone of social media. There is great data in this! But the story, and the insistence on a \"narrative conspiracy,\" keeps getting in the way. My patience for this sort of media criticism is not high. We get it every year, and it always has the feel of someone going on a Twitter Thread.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"4802":{"comments":"This was in impressive in-depth story ,and it has vivid details. But as we've seen in the wake of this story, this is also maybe a *little* more complicated than JUST a Hollywood smear machine story? All the reporting here is top-notch, but it is also focused almost entirely on a civil lawsuit, specifically one side's view of the dispute. The story itself is not unbalanced, but the sourcing is, if that makes sense?","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"4804":{"comments":"This is exactly why the Baltimore Banner is so important -- precisely why they exist, and why every city should be so fortunate to have them. I think the best of the stories is the second one, because it draws on new materials uncovered by the paper. The prose is straightforward, but it should be. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":5,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"status":"submit"},"pbbrady1@gmail.com":{"3971":{"comments":"Clearly this doc is full of shocking images and VO that is designed to elicit strong feelings. But is it really journalism? Does this film truly hold a mirror up to the media industry and explain its role in society? I'm not sure that it does, particularly when, in the piece, the host says that some of the clips \"could not be independently verified.\" In between the shocking imagery, there's very little of substance about *how contemporary war fighting in the information space is impacting news consumers or society more broadly\u2014and that's what I'm missing to say that this is really an award-winning entry in the Mirrors. Consider that, in the first 11 minutes, we get only two interviews with actual sources. Most of the VO is just recapping the state of play. As I'm watching, I'm thinking about what this story would be like if it had been produced by a TV news magazine program. We shouldn't necessarily gripe about production gloss and project budgets, but this entry needed much more focus and some journalistic bona fides. The strongest moment comes near the end, when the host speaks with a reporter who contextualizes the national media landscape. Otherwise, this isn't, for me, an effective delivery on the promise of the title.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":2}},"4046":{"comments":"Compelling story in the Observer laying it all out, demonstrating firm command of the facts and with a key contextualizing passage: \"Villarreal\u2019s case is part of a pattern of reports in recent years of police and other public officials using threats, searches, and arrests to intimidate U.S. reporters and critics, according to monitoring groups like the Committee to Protect Journalists.\" This is to me the kind of story the Mirrors are made for, even if I don't love seeing a correction on it. (Docking a point for excellence.) I'm also intrigued by the way the author has followed the happenings across media outlets for different audiences\u2014this is something we don't see enough of at the Mirrors. The follow up story in Palabra is also a masterclass in explaining court proceedings in a clear and effective way\u2014top notch stuff that is far better than what we have in some of the other entries. The contextualization given in the PBS story is also top notch. Definitely one of the best entries in my bunch. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":5,"Framing of the issue: ":5}},"4074":{"comments":"Fascinating story with above-and-beyond reporting, the extent of which is thoughtfully explained to the reader. Clearly a story about \"the media\" and its role in society, and I'm impressed by the way the authors avoid taking a position on the overall argument: they are letting the facts and the story speak and leaving the reader\/viewer to make their own conclusions. Admirable\u2014and somewhat atypical among the other entries I have been reading. The follow-on story about the revocation of the award is less interesting, but, if I can be a little meta here, it's the sort of \"impact statement\" that awards committees like to see.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":5,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4573":{"comments":"A super-detailed look at \"transnational repression,\" a concept I'll admit I wasn't familiar with, at least by that term. For me, the writing is somewhat dry, maybe call it perfunctory, which detracts from the overall impact. Clearly the sourcing and raw reporting are excellent. An interesting topic and I like that the author has \"gone long\" with it, but I wonder if this is the most powerful entry in the bunch? This is one of those where better storytelling *could catapult the work to the top, if we got it.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Framing of the issue: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4}},"4577":{"comments":"While I'm glad to see non-traditional platforms represented among my entries, this particular piece is a polemic, not a serious entry that's taking a responsible look at issues in the media and its role in society. Lots of opinion, in lines like this: \"There\u2019s no better recent example of that than immigration and that could be for myriad reasons\u2013including lazy reporting.\" Could be! We don't find out. Not a contender for me.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":1,"Framing of the issue: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":2}},"4630":{"comments":"There's a certain cavalier nature to the storytelling here that I don't personally find that appealing:\n\"We had a sense that it was around and it was doing something.\" \n\"I honestly can't remember.\"\n\"One of the things I heard was...\"\n\"I guess he was technically a lawyer.\"\n\"Maaayyybe.\"\n\"It was either Fortune or Forbes.\"\nOne could say this is how podcasts are, and that the chatty nature of the program is just par for the course in this format. For me, it reads as almost unprofessional\u2014dismissive of the seriousness of the content. The tone is also quite insider-y in a way that feels glib rather than knowing, at least to me. I do like the audio work\u2014the voice memos from court are particularly good\u2014and there's clearly a good bit of production that has gone into this. Those elevate my \"excellence\" rating a bit higher than it would be if this were, say, a written long read. I also don't get much on the framing of the issue, other than a few minutes at the tail end of episode three: what does this saga tell us about the media writ large? Overall, I think this whole thing needed a much tighter edit\u2014but then again, I'm not much of a podcast guy, clearly.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":2}},"4730":{"comments":"Excellent topic and while it's not an aspect that we're really supposed to be judging I must say it's a wonderful digital presentation\/product. Don't love having a correction appended. That said, I really enjoyed this piece. Love the framing of the issue, and the fact that we're using these specifics to speak to the broader role of media\/society: \"While the current infrastructure for deepfake detection is being pressure tested in India right now, the reporting strategies being carved out by journalists during the election offer a preview into the challenges that lie ahead for other newsrooms around the world.\" Excellent, deep reporting mixed with contextualization throughout. And scary stuff for us in society, with passages like this: \"But he admits that turnaround times are a chronic challenge facing journalists. 'You\u2019ve got a content verification problem, but you also have a speed problem and a volume problem. And arguably, the speed and the volume are really the problem.'\" Among the best entries in my bunch.","scores":{"Framing of the issue: ":5,"Excellence of craft: ":5,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":5}},"4808":{"comments":"I may find myself in the minority of judges, but the March story (\"Rupert Murdoch and new 'Washington Post' CEO accused of cover-up in hacking scandal\") is, for me, too scattershot to be effective. It's certainly not a narrative nor is it an effective tick-tock, and it's difficult for me, in spite of the attributions, to sort out what information is coming from where when. The mix of court docs, emails, and indeed the so-called \"damning revelations\" fail to cohere for me; I'm thinking about how this story would read if it were re-tread as a true narrative. The crux of the second piece, \"'Washington Post' CEO tried to kill a story about himself. It wasn\u2019t the first time,\" seems to be that Lewis didn't grant the author an interview. Maybe so\u2014but is that giving us a broader perspective on the media? (The story also retreads NYT and WaPo reporting and has a correction appended; these are not attributes I would associate with award-winning work.) The final piece, which is only notionally connected to the first two, is for me the strongest of the bunch. There's some genuine reporting here, with good on-the-record comments, but it doesn't scream out to me as an award-winning deep dive. For all of the entries, I'm giving a low score for appropriateness because all three are very inside baseball for an outlet that serves an audience of tens of millions of regular folks.","scores":{"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":2,"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"status":"submit"},"robert.shields@newsday.com":{"4051":{"comments":"","scores":[]},"4605":{"comments":"The third entry on the solar panels was the best of the three submitted. Deeply reported and well written. The other two entries seemed like expansion of earlier coverage.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"4612":{"comments":"Nuanced and balance, suffers from lack of participation from some of the subjects.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4750":{"comments":"The Times has lead the charge on this, this is solid, good old fashioned shoe leather reporting on the most powerful media family in the world. Well written, well sourced.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":5,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":5,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4771":{"comments":"","scores":[]},"4781":{"comments":"","scores":[]},"4802":{"comments":"I remember reading this in print. Stunning narrative, deeply researched, an indictment of our social media times.","scores":{"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":4,"Excellence of craft: ":5}},"4808":{"comments":"Solid entry with a sober approach to the storytelling.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"status":"save"},"yerinkim32@gmail.com":{"4577":{"comments":"I'm not sure this entry qualifies as it lacks reporting and is more of an opinion piece.","scores":{"Framing of the issue: ":0,"Excellence of craft: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":2}},"4580":{"comments":"While it's certainly brave and important for these reporters to report on their own institution with a critical eye, I'm not sure this series provides that broader perspective on what this can mean for media overall. ","scores":{"Framing of the issue: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":5,"Excellence of craft: ":4}},"4605":{"comments":"All three really underscore how impactful local news can be in different ways, to the point where corporations are paying for coverage and secretly investing in outlets. Important investigative pieces that draw attention to a larger issue in media\/local news.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":5,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4612":{"comments":"Thought this was super interesting as there's often so much focus on right-wing media. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4630":{"comments":"Really enjoyed this investigative deep dive into Ozy and its legacy, but did feel it ran a little long. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":5,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4771":{"comments":"Interesting to hear about the important role the media played in this story. Really enjoyed this format and the way the stories were broken up into three parts.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4775":{"comments":"These stories highlighted a behind-the-scenes that hasn't really been covered in this way \u2014 why archiving is important to preserve journalism, especially through the lens of reporting under censorship. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4804":{"comments":"Not sure if this series speaks to a larger story on the media.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":2}},"status":"submit"},"kkobland@syr.edu":{"3971":{"comments":"N\/A","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4005":{"comments":"Was this entered into Toner Awards?","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4051":{"comments":"A bit meandering, at least from my point of view.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":1,"Framing of the issue: ":2}},"4078":{"comments":"Is this for Toner Award entry?","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4097":{"comments":"Toner entry?","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4169":{"comments":"N\/A","scores":{"Framing of the issue: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Excellence of craft: ":0}},"4187":{"comments":"I feel these pieces were miscatagorized.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4219":{"comments":"Important work, but I feel stories of this nature need their own category.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":2,"Framing of the issue: ":2}},"4230":{"comments":"Great reporting but I feel these stories are not in the proper category.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4265":{"comments":"Important stories but I feel these were in the wrong category.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4281":{"comments":"Toner Award?","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4290":{"comments":"Toner Award?","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4300":{"comments":"Incredibly important and noteworthy reporting. Not sure it fits in with Mirror Award theme.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":2,"Framing of the issue: ":2}},"4315":{"comments":"Great investigative work but not sure this is in the right category?","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":2,"Framing of the issue: ":2}},"4319":{"comments":"Toner entry?","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4605":{"comments":"The work done by Floodlight is both important and (as their name implies) revealing.  This trend is disturbing, and shows what can happen in a news desert and in a society that appears easily swayed.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"4610":{"comments":"A laborious read.  Sourcing is somewhat limited.  I don't feel this rises to the level of award noteworthiness.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":2,"Framing of the issue: ":1}},"4612":{"comments":"A fascinating read about how the left is 'fighting back,' using a variety of media. Not sure this turns a mirror on the media as much as it does politics.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":2}},"4614":{"comments":"While a supporter of college student media, not sure this piece explained a solution to the problem. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":2,"Framing of the issue: ":2}},"4616":{"comments":"These are wonderfully produced and thoroughly sourced, but yet, not sure in my view that this rises to holding a mirror to the media. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":2,"Framing of the issue: ":1}},"4618":{"comments":"While an interesting topic and subject, this appears more critical of the politicians than an examination\/placing a mirror up on the media.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":1}},"4622":{"comments":"N\/A","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4626":{"comments":"Great work in uncovering an FCC loophole that's allowed this to happen-not sure about how evil their intention, but it's frightening to see how the public good is no longer being served as part of a license requirement.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":5,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":5,"Framing of the issue: ":5}},"4628":{"comments":"Interesting story\/not Mirror Award quality.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":2,"Framing of the issue: ":2}},"4630":{"comments":"Great reporting\/research\/sourcing. Award worthy.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4631":{"comments":"Great piece but is this miscategorized?","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":1,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"4633":{"comments":"I feel like this is telling me something I already know.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":1,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":1,"Framing of the issue: ":1}},"4635":{"comments":"While each piece was interesting on its own, there was a lack of sourcing that made me uncomfortable advancing to the next level.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":1,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":2,"Framing of the issue: ":2}},"4637":{"comments":"N\/A","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4639":{"comments":"Light sourcing for a topic that may not be interesting for wide audience.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":1,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":1,"Framing of the issue: ":1}},"4641":{"comments":"Seemed like more of a life story than a well sourced award winning piece.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":1,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":1,"Framing of the issue: ":1}},"4644":{"comments":"Fascinating opinion piece but lightly sourced.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":1,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":1,"Framing of the issue: ":1}},"4647":{"comments":"Sad tale of mis management but not rising to Mirror Award status.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":2,"Framing of the issue: ":2}},"4649":{"comments":"What an amazing story about a courageous woman.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":2,"Framing of the issue: ":2}},"4651":{"comments":"Important work but again not sure this rises to Mirror status.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":2,"Framing of the issue: ":1}},"4657":{"comments":"This one line says it all: \"There is no script and no teleprompter. It\u2019s basically a nonstop party on live television, and anything can happen. Home shopping is the original reality show!\"","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":1,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":1,"Framing of the issue: ":1}},"4659":{"comments":"Great story and important info to be sure, but not Mirror Award worthy.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":2,"Framing of the issue: ":2}},"4665":{"comments":"Fascinating look at how one can 'game' the music charts but not sure it fits in with turning mirror on the media.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":2,"Framing of the issue: ":2}},"4667":{"comments":"Digitization is a story that demands this kind of attention, but not sure this rises to award level reporting.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":1,"Framing of the issue: ":2}},"4673":{"comments":"Interesting news piece and look at AI, but not sure the writer provides a payoff for the headline.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":1,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":1,"Framing of the issue: ":1}},"4675":{"comments":"Great interviews but limited sourcing (mainly one person).","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":1,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":2,"Framing of the issue: ":2}},"4676":{"comments":"Interesting reads but not rising to award level status.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":2,"Framing of the issue: ":2}},"4680":{"comments":"A topic in which we can all agree, as fact checking during debates is crucial.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":2,"Framing of the issue: ":2}},"4682":{"comments":"Critical and crucial essay but not sure the story rises to Mirror Award status.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":1,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":1,"Framing of the issue: ":1}},"4684":{"comments":"N\/A","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4686":{"comments":"Important but not rising to award level status","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":1,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":1,"Framing of the issue: ":1}},"4688":{"comments":"A fine piece, not rising to award level status.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":1,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":1,"Framing of the issue: ":1}},"4690":{"comments":"Love the topic, not award level material.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":2,"Framing of the issue: ":2}},"4692":{"comments":"Great reporting in each piece and makes the reader realize the difficulty of convincing people reporters are acting on best faith and not political ideology.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"4696":{"comments":"Great work, but having a hard time on whether this turns a mirror on the news media or social media?","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"4700":{"comments":"A great piece and nice to see Reuters still has heart and soul journalism.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":5,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4702":{"comments":"Important topic, not award worthy.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":1,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":2,"Framing of the issue: ":1}},"4715":{"comments":"N\/A","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4717":{"comments":"Of all the important topics addressed by this year's entries, this one seems to top the list.  Crucial reporting on a topic that will affect us all.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4722":{"comments":"Important work in uncovering the story behind this growing in power individual. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4726":{"comments":"Great investigative work into ChatGPT, makes me question everything I'm reading.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"4728":{"comments":"A great news story but not rising to award level status.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":2,"Framing of the issue: ":2}},"4730":{"comments":"As with all pieces from this group, important and interesting--this one however does not have award level feel. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":2}},"4732":{"comments":"This piece made me stand up and take notice. Well crafted and researched.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4734":{"comments":"All submissions from Nieman Lab are excellent works of journalism, but not sure each one in itself rises to award worthiness. This is another great news story but does not rise to award level status.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":2,"Framing of the issue: ":2}},"4736":{"comments":"Great news story but does not rise to level of Mirror Award recognition.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":2,"Framing of the issue: ":2}},"4738":{"comments":"This feels more like research than a news story?","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":2,"Framing of the issue: ":2}},"4740":{"comments":"Frightening look at what we've become in a highly charged information (or lack thereof) age.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":2,"Framing of the issue: ":2}},"4742":{"comments":"A fun read but not rising to level of award worthiness.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":2,"Framing of the issue: ":2}},"4746":{"comments":"N\/A","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4748":{"comments":"A story about a story, not sure this rises to award worthiness.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":2,"Framing of the issue: ":2}},"4750":{"comments":"Another piece that involves incredibly important reporting and in it's entirety is award worthy.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4754":{"comments":"Top notch reporting and a story that reads much like a Disney movie, except much darker. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4756":{"comments":"An important look at a top influencer followed by millions.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":2,"Framing of the issue: ":2}},"4758":{"comments":"While interesting, this sounds more like an examination of how one person ran a news operation as opposed to a deep investigative piece.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":2,"Framing of the issue: ":2}},"4760":{"comments":"Great storytelling, but more of a focus on a person as opposed to a mirror on the media.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":2,"Framing of the issue: ":2}},"4762":{"comments":"It's interesting to see how legacy media is latching onto the story of the demise of NPR, yet in true NYT style this piece is well constructed and brings the reader through the current state of public broadcasting, during a time when all radio is struggling mightly.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4764":{"comments":"Interesting story line, but having experienced this first hand I am not in agreement and therefor cannot flag this for further consideration.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":1,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":1,"Framing of the issue: ":1}},"4765":{"comments":"This series of pieces is a strong examination of the situation as it now stands.  In my opinion this rises to the level of consideration for all. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4769":{"comments":"Great audio podcast that thoroughly examines the issue of AI,  but audience for this may be very niche.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":2,"Framing of the issue: ":2}},"4770":{"comments":"Topic is framed in interesting manner, but sourcing is limited.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":2,"Framing of the issue: ":2}},"4771":{"comments":"While important work, I'm not sure this holds a mirror to the media as much as it does higher ed.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":2,"Framing of the issue: ":2}},"4773":{"comments":"Important work no doubt. This does not rise to award level status.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":1,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":1,"Framing of the issue: ":1}},"4775":{"comments":"A deep and well researched series of stories, framing an important issue which may not resonate with all audiences.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"4779":{"comments":"While not poorly written or framed, I feel this does not rise to the level of a  Mirror Award finalist.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":1,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":2,"Framing of the issue: ":2}},"4781":{"comments":"Great broadcast pieces. Not sure this is turning a mirror on the media as much as polling process.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":1}},"4783":{"comments":"This story is interesting but not sure it rises to level of award worthiness.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":2,"Framing of the issue: ":2}},"4785":{"comments":"These stories, in total, show an excellence in this class and worthy of Mirror recognition.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":5,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4789":{"comments":"N\/A","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4793":{"comments":"Great reporting and a topic that brings sadness to my heart (demise of radio up and down the dial, made worse by high-rise level budgets.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":1,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"4795":{"comments":"Nodding my head in agreement with this piece but not sure the reporting\/opinion reflects award winning work.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":1,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":2,"Framing of the issue: ":2}},"4798":{"comments":"Great opinion pieces, but don't rise to award level. The stories themselves may, but not the recap piece.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":2,"Framing of the issue: ":2}},"4802":{"comments":"While an important topic, this had more of an entertainment story feel.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":2,"Framing of the issue: ":2}},"4804":{"comments":"Incredibly important work in exposing someone who controls a wide swatch of the local broadcast news spectrum.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4808":{"comments":"Dogged journalism and well sourced and researched. Worthy of award consideration.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4812":{"comments":"Excellent work. Personifies what the Mirror Award represents. Great sourcing, research, reporting.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4815":{"comments":"Excellent profile piece, but not rising to Mirror Award level.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":2,"Framing of the issue: ":1}},"4819":{"comments":"Each piece provided great attention to sourcing and detail and takes a brave stance on a vital issue: the state of mind of the current administration.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4823":{"comments":"N\/A","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4825":{"comments":"Great research, very revealing and award worthy. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4827":{"comments":"Well sourced\/researched piece about an incredible important topic: the decline of the power of the press.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4829":{"comments":"A great piece and well sourced. Not sure it rises to award level status.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"4832":{"comments":"A wonderful obit.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":2,"Framing of the issue: ":2}},"4834":{"comments":"N\/A (wrong category?)","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4836":{"comments":"I'm slightly torn on this as the writing, while solid, does not stand out as award worthy. The topic however is of tremendous importance, and the writer gives us a first hand view at how pandering to a specific audience can be financially beneficial.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"status":"submit"},"kristenc23@gmail.com":{"4046":{"comments":"In today\u2019s digital age, more and more individuals are stepping into the role of independent journalists, using platforms like blogs, social media, and podcasts to share news and perspectives. But with this rise of citizen journalism comes an important question: How are the freedoms protected by the First Amendment being challenged in this new landscape? ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":5}},"4051":{"comments":"The story of the rise and fall of the alt-weeklies is a fascinating and complex one\u2014this podcast truly dives into it like a courtroom drama, exploring every twist and turn. But beyond the intrigue, it's also a deep exploration of freedom of speech and the press, which feels more relevant than ever.\n\n","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"4577":{"comments":"While the author provides several examples to support his theory, there\u2019s a significant gap in the piece \u2014 a lack of voices to back up his claims. In the article, he mentions knowing many reporters, so it seems logical that he could have reached out to them for insight. Featuring interviews or perspectives from these professionals would have added depth, especially in addressing who makes decisions about what gets included in the pieces they air or publish. Without these voices, the article feels incomplete, leaving several important questions unanswered.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"4730":{"comments":"This article was excellent!  What I loved most about it is how it touches on something everyone\u2019s talking about these days: AI. The author does an amazing job of bringing up real-world examples, especially showing how AI is being used in the political world. It\u2019s such a timely topic, and the way the author highlights how people are pushing back against AI in politics adds depth to the conversation. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":5}},"4750":{"comments":"Succession 2.0 is the best way to describe these articles. These articles aren't just about corporate power plays\u2014they're about family feuds, loyalty tests, and the fight for control. ","scores":{"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":2,"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Framing of the issue: ":2}},"4775":{"comments":"Wow! This article was beautifully executed. It truly captured everything needed to make a compelling case for the importance of archiving. From the historical perspective to the practical benefits, it showcased why preserving information is crucial for both future generations and today\u2019s society. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":5,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":5,"Framing of the issue: ":5}},"4781":{"comments":"From these two reports,  it\u2019s clear how much effort goes into gathering information from public opinion polling. However, I couldn\u2019t help but wish we\u2019d heard from the politicians or political parties themselves to understand how these polls actually play a role in campaigning. Both of these reports have a crucial mission: to restore faith and trust in the election process. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4789":{"comments":"I really appreciated how well-thought-out this article was, especially with the multiple examples provided. The writer\u2019s focus on the mainstream media\u2019s coverage of the war in Gaza was particularly insightful. However, I feel that there could have been more exploration into how various media platforms covered the war, beyond just the mainstream outlets.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"status":"submit"},"cindy.perman@gmail.com":{"3971":{"comments":"I thought this was an amazing piece, going to the front lines and interviewing multiple sources to show how media -- both social media and traditional media -- are being used in war today. This piece was so illuminating and one I will remember for a long time. The only reason I knocked a few points off was bc it was one-sided, and there weren't statistics or broader framing. That being said, I don't think it ever set out to be that. So, for appropriateness for the intended audience, absolutely a 5. I would very much like to see this piece go through to the next round.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":5,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4074":{"comments":"I think this is an incredibly important story about the role the media plays in war and the responsibility journalists have to protect their sources. However, I think the reporting and framing of this issue could have been better. For example, I think the reporter could have interviewed other journalists and experts about how this type of thing has been handled in the past by other journalists to protect their sources to illustrate the poor decision-making that went on here. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":5,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4573":{"comments":"I think this topic is incredibly important and the reporter found some great sources. But I felt like the depth and framing of the issue were just a little lacking for me. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":5,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"4605":{"comments":"These stories are amazing. They are well reported, well sourced and well written. They shine a light on a huge threat to objective journalism. They provide excellent context for how this fits into the broader media landscape. They are exactly the type of stories the Mirror Awards were created for. This is absolutely my pick for the winner in the Higgins category, and I will be shocked if it doesn't win.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":5,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":5,"Framing of the issue: ":5}},"4612":{"comments":"I thought this was a terrific story. I love that it focused on a really poignant topic and took a deep dive into how media is evolving. I learned some new things in this article and I think it really helped put the whole thing in perspective. I thought it was really well reported, with multiple sources and stats to back it up and, while it focused on left-leaning media, it also had a representation of and comparison with right-wing media. I only took one point off because the writing didn't blow me away and that's what I reserve all fives for. But this is absolutely one of my favorite stories so far.","scores":{"Framing of the issue: ":5,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":5,"Excellence of craft: ":4}},"4750":{"comments":"I think their news gathering is top notch - and kudos to them for making this information about the fight for one of the biggest media companies on the planet public. The stories framed the issue sufficiently, as they were intended. I felt like I wanted just a little bit more wow from these stories, given the content and caliber of journalists.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":5,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4781":{"comments":"I think these were solidly good pieces that did a great job in accomplishing their mission: To peel back the curtain on these processes and prove that they are trustworthy. I was just a little nonplussed by them - they seemed kind of ho-hum at certain points.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Framing of the issue: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4}},"4808":{"comments":"I think he's really good at investigative reporting and not backing down. However, the excellence of craft and broader framing of the issue was lacking. I feel like his investigative journalism is perfect for feeding to NPR for news show snippets but I would have much preferred they gave him some runway to write a long form story and do a long form audio and\/or video piece on this. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"status":"submit"},"richardjchang18@gmail.com":{"3971":{"comments":"Very little of the focus on this documentary is on the role that media outlets play in the issues described. It\u2019s more focused on the role of social media and political language. Because of this, I don\u2019t think this is an adequate submission for the Mirror Awards. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4005":{"comments":"Not judging this award","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4051":{"comments":"I listened to this last year when it came out. And at the time I thought it was one of the most well-done deep-dive profiles on a media entity and owner that piqued my interest, from the stories of interactions with Lacey to the journeys of the reporters who moved on and a theme of the brashness of alternative papers all relating to the underlying story of the charges against Lacey. But I think there are other submissions that apply the lessons of these papers to the broader industry","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":2}},"4078":{"comments":"Not judging this award","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4097":{"comments":"Not judging this award","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4169":{"comments":"Not judging this award","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4187":{"comments":"Not judging this award","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4219":{"comments":"Not judging this award","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4230":{"comments":"Not judging this award","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4265":{"comments":"Not judging this award","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4281":{"comments":"Not judging this award","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4290":{"comments":"Not judging this award","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4300":{"comments":"Not judging this award","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4315":{"comments":"Not judging this award","scores":{"Framing of the issue: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Excellence of craft: ":0}},"4319":{"comments":"Not judging this award","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4605":{"comments":"\u201cControl the narrative\u201d is a well-reported piece examining the power imbalance that an owning entity can exhibit on an entire market\u2019s local news, analyzing many cases all related to Alabama Power. The Chevron piece is a great examination of how news deserts lead to a single rich entity controlling the flow of information for a local community. The writers took the time to talk with locals who have a stake in the issue to get many different perspectives, and in the case of Chevron they put the work in to find out more about the PR firm behind writing the content, which is something I expected to see out of the reporting here. The Ohio story also does a great job on the same template of finding all the connections between the Mount Vernon News and Ariel Corp. Each story talks about how the publications in  question got their humble starts but ended up in the hands of the powerful to be used for public sway, leading readers to take a deep look at why it\u2019s important to know who\u2019s in charge of their local publications. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":5,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":5}},"4610":{"comments":"Not judging this award","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4612":{"comments":"This is a good overview of the varied foundings, operations and purpose of new liberal media, but the piece stops short of outlining why these publications could be problematic. It\u2019s not a deep dive enterprise piexe -- moreso an analysis of the industry at scope and listing how each is unique, which is not as deep of an enterprise basis as other submissions had. But I do like that the reporters highlighted when these publications were and were not transparent with their founding stories, backers and revenue sources. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"4614":{"comments":"Not judging this award","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4616":{"comments":"Not judging this award","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4618":{"comments":"Not judging this award","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4622":{"comments":"Not judging this award","scores":{"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0,"Excellence of craft: ":0}},"4626":{"comments":"Not judging this award","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4628":{"comments":"Not judging this award","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4630":{"comments":"This is a good profile on a media outlet and the fraud trial surrounding it. I don\u2019t think the production and the parts of the reporting that were included in the podcast episodes were as well done as Hold Fast, and it doesn\u2019t do very well with sourcing. Episode 2 does a great job of taking Ozy Media as an example of the worst case scenario of a problem in media and connecting it to the digital media industry. But I think a lot of the conversation came from Banikarim and Hersh on anecdotal stories at places they\u2019ve worked at, not really based on reporting by talking with others in media. Okay for a media audience appropriate for CJR, but even I found it incredibly boring without the level newsgathering that I expected.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4631":{"comments":"Not judging this award","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4633":{"comments":"Not judging this award","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4635":{"comments":"Not judging this award","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4637":{"comments":"Not judging this award","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4639":{"comments":"Not judging this award","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4641":{"comments":"Not judging this award","scores":{"Framing of the issue: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Excellence of craft: ":0}},"4644":{"comments":"Not judging this award","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4647":{"comments":"Not judging this award","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4649":{"comments":"Not judging this award","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4651":{"comments":"Not judging this award","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4657":{"comments":"Not judging this award","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4659":{"comments":"Not judging this award","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4665":{"comments":"Not judging this award","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4667":{"comments":"Not judging this award","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4673":{"comments":"Not judging this award","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4675":{"comments":"Not judging this award","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4676":{"comments":"Not judging this award","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4680":{"comments":"Not judging this award","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4682":{"comments":"Not judging this award","scores":{"Framing of the issue: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Excellence of craft: ":0}},"4684":{"comments":"Not judging this award","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4686":{"comments":"Not judging this award","scores":{"Framing of the issue: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Excellence of craft: ":0}},"4688":{"comments":"Not judging this award","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4690":{"comments":"Not judging this award","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4692":{"comments":"Not judging this award","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4696":{"comments":"Not judging this award","scores":{"Framing of the issue: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Excellence of craft: ":0}},"4700":{"comments":"Not judging this award","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4702":{"comments":"Not judging this award","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4715":{"comments":"Not judging this award","scores":{"Framing of the issue: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Excellence of craft: ":0}},"4717":{"comments":"Not judging this award","scores":{"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0,"Excellence of craft: ":0}},"4722":{"comments":"Not judging this award","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4726":{"comments":"Not judging this award","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4728":{"comments":"Not judging this award","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4730":{"comments":"This is an eye-opening piece on the importance of fact-checking journalists and programs in a pivotal moment for media, outlining the successes and failures of deepfake checking systems in place currently both in India and abroad. I give this high remarks for its wide analysis within this area of media and finding out the problems within the media industry. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4732":{"comments":"Not judging this award","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0}},"4734":{"comments":"Not judging this award","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4736":{"comments":"Not judging this award","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4738":{"comments":"Not judging this award","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4740":{"comments":"Not judging this award","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4742":{"comments":"Not judging this award","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4746":{"comments":"Not judging this award","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4748":{"comments":"Not judging this award","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4750":{"comments":"The reporting in these articles doesn\u2019t qualify as enterprise. They are more explainer pieces based around the court proceedings. And the main struggle here is around the ownership of the news publications, but it doesn\u2019t directly tie this family fight to the impact it will have on media coverage. In some ways I do not think this qualifies for the Mirror Awards at all, and it certainly isn\u2019t an enterprise reporting submission.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4754":{"comments":"Not judging this award","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4756":{"comments":"Not judging this award","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4758":{"comments":"Not judging this award","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4760":{"comments":"Not judging this award","scores":{"Framing of the issue: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Excellence of craft: ":0}},"4762":{"comments":"Not judging this award","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4764":{"comments":"Not judging this award","scores":{"Framing of the issue: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Excellence of craft: ":0}},"4765":{"comments":"Not judging this award","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4769":{"comments":"Not judging this award","scores":{"Framing of the issue: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Excellence of craft: ":0}},"4770":{"comments":"Not judging this award","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4771":{"comments":"Again, I don\u2019t think this series does enough to connect the conflict in the story to the role that media outlets play in society. While it does a very good job at criticizing the messaging of media in general, but the greater focus here is on the messaging from leaders in politics, education and social media; and there are other submissions that do a better job of enterprise reporting on the impacts of media outlets.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":1}},"4773":{"comments":"Not judging this award","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4775":{"comments":"\u201cUnerased\u201d is an excellent mirror looking at the struggles for the media industry globally to maintain what reporters write when faced with government opposition. It looks at many examples within Russia and in other countries and strongly applies each case to the broader issues of security of content and integrity, all told through an underlying compelling narrative with a strong protagonist in Gessen. \u201cSaving the First Draft of History\u201d is also a great look at how U.S. national publications largely fail to keep records of writers\u2019 work with many quality examples. And \u201cWe Had No Place to Save the Stories\u201d is a great profile on the issue of preserving the stories within the AP on how stories were reported. Overall these pieces are fantastic looks at the failures to maintain journalists\u2019 work and how it affects both the reporters and the public. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":5,"Framing of the issue: ":5}},"4779":{"comments":"Not judging this award","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4781":{"comments":"The two profiles on how the Marist pole and the AP elections calling work are both important media stories, and PBS Newshour does a good job of highlighting the processes, nuances and gaps that cause issues for both. Sourcing and methods of getting the experiences of the students\/reporters doing the work is very good. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"4783":{"comments":"Not judging this award","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4785":{"comments":"Not judging this award","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4789":{"comments":"For the first piece in the submission chronologically, I don\u2019t think this submission qualifies for enterprise reporting. This is a data-driven study, and I question the methodology of it. For instance, I\u2019m not sure why this study from The Nation explicitly excluded Fox News; even though it states it\u2019s looking exclusively at \u201cliberal and Democratic Party-aligned support\u201d that doesn\u2019t sound like a valid reason to me to only make this analysis focused on CNN and MSNBC, nor is it correct to assign that label to those publications.  That\u2019s not to say there isn\u2019t value from this study, but I don\u2019t think this is what we\u2019re looking for in this category in terms of the writing and methods of reporting. The second piece reads like an opinion piece \u2013 for example, making many assumptions about the intent of the Biden administration or implying that the reporters on stories didn\u2019t do their due diligence on critiquing Biden\u2019s motivations, sometimes with a mocking tone.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4793":{"comments":"Not judging this award","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4795":{"comments":"Not judging this award","scores":{"Framing of the issue: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Excellence of craft: ":0}},"4798":{"comments":"Not judging this award","scores":{"Framing of the issue: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Excellence of craft: ":0}},"4802":{"comments":"This is an expertly reported piece that analyzing a Hollywood scenario of celebrity media and social media manipulation focusing on the PR firm alleged to have orchestrated it. The team did a great job finding examples within the text messages and media appearances of Lively and Baldoni and diving deep into the history of the PR firm to connect all the dots, creating an enterprise news piece that is truly novel and relevant to the entertainment news reader and average Times reader alike. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":5}},"4804":{"comments":"The first piece chronologically isn\u2019t an enterprise piece; it\u2019s all based on a correspondence, and there are parts of Smith\u2019s history that could clearly have been fleshed out with greater detail. There are two sentences that were contradictory the way they were written, on the Sun deal mentioning $100 million for the Sun and then for a group of papers including the Sun. It also repeats details but doesn\u2019t do much to add to them, as it\u2019s pretty much an explainer on his interaction with the Sun reporters after the sale. The second piece also reads like an explainer on the lawsuit than an enterprise reporting piece. Even though the Sanderlin interviewed several people for the piece, it relies more heavily on info on the lawsuit and proceedings. The third piece is good, getting the opinions on a developing topic from city council members. But I think there are other submissions that dive deep into topics much more effectively. I wish there was more in that piece on the role that Fox45 and the Sun play as two of the biggest media outlets in Baltimore.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":1,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":2}},"4808":{"comments":"Folkenflik's telling of the problems that brewed at WaPo are great, with the accounts from journalists who have opposed moves from leadership. The articles read as explainers, often relying on social media posts rather than individually conducted interviews, so I don't think this is the strongest entry for the Higgins award. And the stories together share the underlying issues but could have done a better job at connecting with a general audience how this role of leadership in media affects readers and not just the folks who work in media.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":2}},"4812":{"comments":"Not judging this award","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4815":{"comments":"Not judging this award","scores":{"Framing of the issue: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Excellence of craft: ":0}},"4819":{"comments":"Not judging this award","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4823":{"comments":"Not judging this award","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4825":{"comments":"Not judging this award","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4827":{"comments":"Not judging this award","scores":{"Framing of the issue: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Excellence of craft: ":0}},"4829":{"comments":"Not judging this award","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4832":{"comments":"Not judging this award","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4834":{"comments":"Not judging this award","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4836":{"comments":"Not judging this award","scores":{"Framing of the issue: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Excellence of craft: ":0}},"status":"submit"}},"profile":{"jrosman@syr.edu":{"3873":{"comments":"","scores":[]},"3906":{"comments":"This was chilling, compelling, sad, and powerful. For this reporter to step out of the shadows took courage. \n\nThe presenter I thought was a bit flat at times. The storytelling was strong but the end didn't stick the landing as well as I had hoped. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":5,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4065":{"comments":"This seemed thin to me and lacked a larger aspect of storytelling to draw you in.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":1,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":2}},"4553":{"comments":"","scores":[]},"4594":{"comments":"This needed a much heavier of an editing pen. Article far too long for what it was trying to tell. Longer isn't always better and in this case it was not. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"4602":{"comments":"","scores":[]},"4603":{"comments":"A focused storyline, well written, compelling, and something fresh. This was not a rehash of DC political issues or catfights but took us into a part of Iowa few new existed and a story that needed to be told.   \n\nL\u00f3pez is a compelling figure. In a good way, the story left you wanting more despite the fact the reader learned quite a bit from this effort. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4604":{"comments":"\u201cEvery time there\u2019s a change in leadership, everybody holds their breath. It\u2019s like, \u2018Oh, somebody started the music again, and one of the chairs is going to get taken away. Or maybe more of the chairs are going to get taken away.\u2019\u201d\n\nInteresting quote inside a compelling article about the latest head of CNN - a place that has been belly-flopping ratings-wise. \n\nThere were times when it had a chance to fill out Thompson a bit more which it breezed by. It raised Thompson being a devout Catholic and missed out on pursuing what that means in a significantly secular business. \n","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4646":{"comments":"Time stamp on this says Dec 30 2023 on its website for when it was published which would make it ineligible under contest rules. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4657":{"comments":"This could have been a much more compelling story about home shopping hosts in general maybe focusing on a number of people... pulling the curtain for the audience to see but this felt thin to me and not all that interesting on its face. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":1,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":2,"Framing of the issue: ":1}},"4748":{"comments":"","scores":[]},"4762":{"comments":"","scores":[]},"4770":{"comments":"This is the category\"One carefully researched and sourced print, broadcast or digital piece covering a person or organization *noteworthy in the media industry*. One profile may be submitted per entry.\u202f\"\n\nThe key being \"a person or organization noteworthy in the media industry\". That's not what this is. \n\n","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4783":{"comments":"An interesting profile on someone significant in the media for more than two decades. The storytelling needed some work in parts. Felt like it was too linear at times but I thought it captivating if for no other reason than to put today's world in context and to remind us how political comedy had in some ways changed how Americans got information about elections and politics and that Stewart was a driving force in that though it's not clear if he believes it's made all that much difference particularly in the cable news chattering class. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4823":{"comments":"Part of the problem is that it was hard to discern who is Ms. Blouin? Financier? Publisher? CEO? Felt like this wasn't a clear feature profile on someone noteworthy within the media industry. Could have used a sharper focus possibly to fit for this. \n\n","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":2,"Framing of the issue: ":2}},"4836":{"comments":"Nothing terribly unique or revelatory to this reader. Feelsl like we've met this cast of characters before.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":2}},"status":"submit"},"connor.ennis@gmail.com":{"3906":{"comments":"This is a harrowing personal story and Pete Gallivan deserves credit for coming forward to tell it. The video is hurt by the choice of music, and the report itself seems to be caught between simply focusing on Gallivan and his decision to go public, and tell the larger story of the abuse scandal. In splitting its time between those two aims, it comes up short on both.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"3930":{"comments":"Pretty pedestrian. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"4594":{"comments":"This read weirdly flat to me. It featured a lot of jargon and buzzwords, even in the quotes. Example: (That imperative\u2014to evolve in connection\u2014defines BoF\u2019s purpose. \u201cOur mission over time, especially as more social issues move into the fore,\u201d Kansara told me, \u201chas been to educate and lead the industry forward.\u201d In the view of many readers, they are succeeding. \u201cI think it says a lot about where Imran comes from,\u201d Tewari said. \u201cHe gravitates towards inclusivity quite automatically.\u201d) It just really wasn't very engaging. I would have liked more concrete examples or moments when BoF found itself in the middle of an industry controversy. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":2}},"4602":{"comments":"A very good profile that delves into the thorny topic of movement journalism. It definitely comes across as sympathetic to O'Connell's view of how journalism should be practiced, but I think its real value was in exploring how this kind of work is being done at a local level and what its aims are.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4603":{"comments":"Excellent piece that touches on the issues of misinformation, the hollowing out of local news and changing demographics in rural America. You finish the article with admiration for Lorena Lopez and trepidation that she may be not be able to beat back the tide of misinformation. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":5,"Framing of the issue: ":5}},"4604":{"comments":"","scores":[]},"4646":{"comments":"","scores":[]},"4649":{"comments":"Very nice piece. Takes a deep look at one nonprofit newsroom and its founder and in detailing the specifics of their situation is able to illuminate the tightrope many of these organizations need to balance on. Not sure the weaving metaphor quite worked, but that's a small nitpick. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4690":{"comments":"This is a terrific profile. You come away with a rich portrait of Garten and her life, a great mix of her backstory and how she is in the current moment. Does it say something larger about the media landscape? Not sure, beyond the fact that a strong personal brand can be a lucrative draw for a loyal audience. But, speaking as someone who has never watched an episode of \"The Barefoot Contessa,\" this article made me want to drive to the Hamptons and hang out in her barn.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":5,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"4734":{"comments":"I found this piece really long and wonky and a bit hard to follow. Lots of acronyms and outlet names and funding numbers. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":2}},"4748":{"comments":"","scores":[]},"4756":{"comments":"","scores":[]},"4770":{"comments":"","scores":[]},"4783":{"comments":"This is more of an essay than a profile. And while it's a smart essay, it feels pretty much in line with numerous \"was Jon Stewart good or bad for journalism?\" pieces that I've read over the years. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":2}},"4823":{"comments":"Fun, gossipy read, but not award-winning work.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":2}},"4836":{"comments":"I thought this piece was strong. Zeroed in on one character but told a larger story about the current political and media landscapes. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"status":"submit"},"djspiegel@gmail.com":{"4065":{"comments":"Sorry, no. this is not a serious entry. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4553":{"comments":"I was too late to recuse myself from this one, but I probably should have been. I'm giving it all 5s so that, worst case, it gets a higher score than deserved and we have to discuss my involvement. I'd hate to drag it down by giving it all 0s. For what it's worth, I think it's objectively a good profile of an important person, and it illuminates several key issues in media today, both economic and political. But, until CNBC is spun out from NBCUniversal (which BTW will shrink his portfolio), Cesar Conde remains my boss' boss' boss, so take everything i say here with a few grains of salt. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":5,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":5,"Framing of the issue: ":5}},"4602":{"comments":"Illuminates an important ethical issue about identity and how one covers their own people. And can one get too involved as an activist to report accurately on the activism?  But it's a bit meandering","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4639":{"comments":"Meh. Not enough examples of Belloni's power, craft, anything. Not enough about having a built-in paywall audience vs. appealing to the masses, or the new economics of the industry. Can't believe i'm saying it's too short but it may be too short. Overall just lacking. The reporter got the access and didn't do enough with it. ","scores":{"Framing of the issue: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Excellence of craft: ":3}},"4657":{"comments":"Total fluff. hard to think of an award-winning interview that includes the question \"so what do you do for fun?\" ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4690":{"comments":"Extremely well sourced and well written, a \"delicious\" profile of an intriguing personality. BUT...it's also heavily promotional, and only exists to push sales of Ina Garten's book and therefore never really has the opportunity to be too critical. It also explains how the author got the access. Additionally, what issue is it illuminating? Also, no real examination of a broader issue in the media. But it was fun to read. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":5,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":5,"Framing of the issue: ":1}},"4748":{"comments":"This one lost me when it started to become about pivoting to podcasting and investing in investigative journalism. Not enough focus on the introspection, reckoning with getting a story wrong 30 years ago. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":1,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":1}},"4756":{"comments":"Very good. Had the access, explains who the subject is and why we should pay attention to him, why he's important to know. And it is both critical (note the many sources who basically say Bet David is an idiot) and fair. The best one of my batch. ","scores":{"Framing of the issue: ":5,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":5,"Excellence of craft: ":5}},"4762":{"comments":"Excellent. Well balanced and well written (would expect as much from NYT) An important examination of changing economics, social changes, and an institution in a crisis of leadership. But is it a profile?? ","scores":{"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":5,"Excellence of craft: ":5}},"4823":{"comments":"maybe it's because this is the 3rd or 4th article about the Hamptons in my batch but i was just completely bored by this one. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"4832":{"comments":"Interesting but it's probably not the winner. Doesn't really illuminate a broader issue. Just a long obit. ","scores":{"Framing of the issue: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Excellence of craft: ":2}},"status":"submit"},"dancy.shelvia@gmail.com":{"3873":{"comments":"This story does a good job telling the story of Mr. Beast, a North Carolina-based Youtuber who has been making YouTube videos for 12 years. There is much description of his career failures and successes, the article doesn't connect to anything broader -- there's no broader perspective on the media and its role in society, or even an in-depth analysis of Mr. Beast's impact on society (we hear about reaction to him, but not so much about his own impact).\nThe article is a comprehensive one that includes details about his absent father, his childhood in a broken home, and his high school battle with Crohn's disease that derailed his aspirations of a becoming an elite athlete. And the article does a good job positioning Mr. Beast as an example of individuals who \"have replaced institutions as the gatekeepers of entertainment and information.\" The article gives plenty of support for that statement, with examples of what Mr. Beast provides, the \"stuff an imaginative 9-year-old boy would try if he had, like, a gazillion dollars.\" To wit, crushing expensive cars, giving strangers life--changing amounts of money, holding contests to see who can do a dumb thing the longest. \nBut still, there's no broader perspective on the media and its role in society.\n ","scores":{"Framing of the issue: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Excellence of craft: ":3}},"4594":{"comments":"The writer has done an excellent job chronicling Amed's rise from an outsider to the fashion world to a mover and shaker within the industry. The overview of Amed's impact on the industry is comprehensive and convincing. One of the strengths of this piece is it gives a deep dive into Amed's personal background (which is interesting!), as well as a dive into his impact on the fashion industry that is equally deep and fascinating -- if not a tad dense. The writer does a great job giving us both a meaty profile and a meaty analysis of that person's impact on their chosen field.  This article really meets the mission of these awards in exemplary fashion.","scores":{"Framing of the issue: ":4,"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4}},"4604":{"comments":"This piece is an incredibly in-depth profile of Mark Thompson -- covering a broad sweep of his life,  from the death of his father at 12 to efforts to drop an Irish accent to his rise from BBC to CNN.  As much territory as this piece covers, it is missing some of the balance that would help this read more like a profile piece and less like a fan letter.  The overview of Thompson's life story is very comprehensive, and covers much territory that has no connection to media or society, and at 7,000 words this piece feels every bit 7,000 words long. The writer does a very good job showing how much Thompson is a change maker at each news outlet he leads, and the ways in which his changes influence society (the iPlayer anecdote is a great example)-- that part of the article is so compelling, and so on the nose for the mission of this award.  The challenge is that good information simply gets buried under the puffery.  Editing would have made this a remarkably poignant and compelling piece, and would have made the parts of the article that speak to the mission of the Mirror Awards much more clear. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Framing of the issue: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4}},"4649":{"comments":"  This is great work here!\n  This piece is all that a profile in this category should be -- it gives the reader details about the interviewee's backstory, from textile artist coping with chemotherapy to founder of a nonprofit newsroom that went on to win awards. And every detail shows how this one person's personal\/professional journey connects to media and its role in society.  This is Gadboi's story, but also the story of a new wave of newsroom:  \u201cOne where someone who\u2019s not a journalist and doesn\u2019t really identify that way, but sees a need for essential news and information, just starts going out and starts covering stuff,\u201d she said. In that way, the writer fulfills the mission of the Mirror Awards. We get a compelling interviewee, a compelling story and a compelling look at the news industry. Well done, well done.\n ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":5}},"4722":{"comments":"Smith has a varied and deep background, and this piece walks us through his childhood (including his time as a high school athlete and his father's occupation as an engineer) as well as his acquisition of The Baltimore Sun and FCC battles.  I do think the reader gets a ton of that, when the real strength of the story is Smith's acquisition of the Baltimore Sun and his media impact, which this article does a great job detailing, but there is a ton of backstory about everything from his political donations to his brother's surgical career. Less of that would have strengthened this piece, but overall, still a great job.\n ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"4762":{"comments":"This writer does a good job highlighting previously-published criticism of NPR, and using those comments to \"raise questions about the long-term vitality of NPR.\" But the challenge is the articles doesn't go beyond that compilation of grievances and doesn't provide any answers to the question it posits.  This reads like a good research paper or history paper of grievances - what is missing is something more, a broader perspective. If the article were to answer those questions about the long-term vitality of NPR, that would help this article match the mission of the Mirror Awards. But without that, this article doesn't quite get there.\n\nThe article also doesn't deliver in its promise to tell readers of internal conflict. The article quotes a statement from NPR's new leader, Katherine Maher, saying\u201cThe obstacles we face are real, but the quality of the programming and the integrity of the mission are also indisputable. They offer a strong basis from which to build our future.\u201d And NPR spokeswoman Isabel Lara express confidence in new initiatives. We do get closer to conflict later in the article when the writer points out a letter from three years ago about NPR's podcasts: \"....a group of executives at member stations sent a letter to NPR\u2019s chief executive at the time, John Lansing, expressing concern that the organization\u2019s growing portfolio had \u201ccaused distress on local stations\u2019 sponsorship revenue.\u201d That's the closest the article gets to supporting the statement about internal conflict. The article later tells us about two people who disagree with the company's decisions. More to support this claim would help strengthen the article.\n\n\n\n \n \n\n \n\n ","scores":{"Framing of the issue: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Excellence of craft: ":3}},"4770":{"comments":"This is a very strong piece from Brooke Gladstone chronicling JD Vance's rise to national prominence in politics. A strength of this piece: the cataloguing of his rise to prominence in the national political conversation, and his background before he became Trump's running mate. The writer also does a great job delving into Vance's significance - and impact -- within the Republican Party, and connecting that media coverage to how society received him. This is strong work. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4783":{"comments":"The writer does a great job showing Jon Stewart's rise in prominence as host of The Daily Show -- the behind-the-scenes look at how he came to the role is interesting, and the writer does a great job explaining the show's origins as a Comedy Central gamble. The biggest strength:  the writer shows Stewart's impact on how viewers consume news, politics and entertainment, and does a great job showing how Stewart ushered in an era of show hosts who straddled the line between comedian and commentator. This piece is one of my favorites.\n ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4815":{"comments":"The writer really gives a great sense of who Jessica Valenti is -- and chronicles her work over the years and explains how her influence in this arena came to be. From the rise of her career to the garlic tattoo on her arm, the writer lays Valenti bare for the reader. The story is great, the writing is great, Valenti is definitely a compelling source to write about. But the article is more a story about Valenti (a well-told story!) and her impact and not really a story about media and its role in society. That key element is missing. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":2}},"4832":{"comments":"I think this is a very well-written piece that serves Chuck Philips well. The articles does a great job making the case for the impact of his career, and the novel way he found his way into the profession. I do wish there was more about Hilburn's choice to hire Philips at the beginning of the article -- such pivotal details were buried beneath content that wasn't really about Philips. And he had a great story. The end of the article gave great details about how Philips carved a lane for himself as a journalist, wading into topics for his articles that other reporters did not go. The trajectory of Philips' career was also well told -- his career was one that had an unexpected arc that makes for an interesting read. I think this was a very very good piece.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"status":"submit"},"bwgorham@syr.edu":{"4065":{"comments":"Good piece for a local publication, but does not really \"frame the issue\" compared to the other entrants in this category.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":1}},"4553":{"comments":"Another good profile about a person trying to change a large news medium\/platform at a time of unprecedent change and challenge.  This one seemed to be much mroe about the individual - which a profile should do - and maybe a little less on what his performance in the job tells us about the changing times, especially since the author was not able to get a follow-up after the McDaniels firing.  But well written and smart.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"4604":{"comments":"Excellent profile, and I think it does a better job of connecting the individual at the heart of this profile to the issues affecting news and media.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":5,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":5}},"4649":{"comments":"Excellent profile that does a great job of highlighting one stellar example of a larger trend that is relevant for the news industry today.  Well written and reported, I like this one a lot.","scores":{"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4722":{"comments":"Fairly good, straightforward piece about how the major owner of the Sinclair Broadcast Group has bought the longstanding newspaper of Baltimore.  Lots of good details culled from previous interviews, but I feel like the article didn't frame the issue of the implications of this purchase as well as it could have, especially given that Smith is claiming that print is dead.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"4734":{"comments":"Excellent in-depth story on the problems facing small, independent non-profit news outlets in terms of funding from foundations and donors.  Well-sourced, well written and highlights the problems in nuanced ways.  Well done!","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":5,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":5}},"4748":{"comments":"Very strong piece about the Boston Globe's foray into multiplatform journalism around revisiting the Stuart murder.  I wish it had lingered a bit more on how \"the media\" even to this day seem unwilling to admit they made mistakes in how they covered the murder when it happened.  The piece does talk to a number of those reporters, and they have regrets, but the story missed a trick by not pursuing that further (and quickly pivoted to focusing on the racist cop, which is not unimportant, but is a convenient pivot).","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"4770":{"comments":"Very good and interesting piece, but does it actually lay out how the media \"created\" JD Vance? I'm not sure that it does. If anything, it seems like the piece does a good job of suggesting Peter Thiel or Curtis Yarvin created JD Vance. This profile does explain how these two folks and \"The New Right\" would seem to have had an impact on Vance, but I am not sure it gives me enough to say he isn't simply an opportunist who saw the political winds shifting and decided it was smarter to follow them.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"4836":{"comments":"This is a solid piece that is written well, but I felt at the end of it like it was missing some larger context.  How does he feel about mainstream journalism - and its fact-based, verifiable reporting - compared to airing opinions, which may or not be based on verifiable facts, that conform to what people want to hear? Does he think he is performing a public good, or is it all about the benjamins? What size is his audience, and who are they? I just feel like there was more this piece could have addressed.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"status":"submit"},"barths@cbsnews.com":{"3873":{"comments":"Strong profile -- less so a \"mirror\" on the industry but shares a full picture of a YouTube creator I wasn't as familiar with.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"3930":{"comments":"Just ok - doesn't speak to larger industry trends.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":1}},"4553":{"comments":"Great access that illuminates key themes in the shifting industry","scores":{"Framing of the issue: ":5,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":5,"Excellence of craft: ":5}},"4602":{"comments":"Gets at a key debate on objectivity in journalism through a strong profile.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4639":{"comments":"Strong profile that speaks to larger trends and themes in the industry.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":5}},"4690":{"comments":"Enjoyable read -- less sure if it truly is a mirror on the industry writ-large, though.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"4722":{"comments":"Strong reporting and context.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"4734":{"comments":"Don't believe it's truly a profile -- uses anecdotes, but is more a larger report on funding processes. Enjoyed it nonetheless.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":2}},"4756":{"comments":"Really strong profile on a personality I hadn't heard of before. Made me want to keep reading with strong areas of push back and probing. Framing included context of the larger industry.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4762":{"comments":"The authors often dismiss the journalistic debate at NPR and jump to larger business model trends, but in this industry, the two are so intertwined, it feels like it misses the mark a little. Less a profile than a report on NPR's business challenges.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":2}},"4815":{"comments":"Often felt sentence structures were long and inelegant and story didn't always flow from one paragraph to the next.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":1,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":2,"Framing of the issue: ":2}},"status":"submit"},"wasim.ahmad@gmail.com":{"3873":{"comments":"Very traditionally written profile - not bad at all, tells us a lot - does the requisite interview with the mother, friends, employees, etc. All fine.\n\nDid feel that it glossed over some of the negatives - the lawsuit about burger delivery service, safety issues, toxic workplace, etc.\n\nNot sure what more to say about it - it was all a very \"standard\" profile of this new media star.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":5,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":5,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"3906":{"comments":"Tough story to hear - about a journalist being a victim in a church abuse scandal that is being covered by his station.\n\nThat said, the story just scratches the surface, not going deep into other people's stories alongside him, letting the diocese get by with a canned statement, and laying it on really thick with old photos and moody music. A lot of flash but little substance here other than Gallivan's interview.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":2}},"3930":{"comments":"As an alum of a SUNY school, I hate to dunk on a college paper's piece here, but it's written like the very first profile assignments I give my students in an intro-level journalism class.  Given that it's a college paper, entirely possible that's the case. The whole thing reads like it's written in a \"see spot run\" structure and is difficult to follow. Dots aren't connected, we never get below the surface, there's lots of basic journalism structural issues. Applaud the effort, but not really a good fit for this contest.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":5,"Framing of the issue: ":1}},"4602":{"comments":"The comments for this entry pitch it as a piece about reporting on the trans community as a trans person, and largely the piece is about that and does that well, but it veers very much into the weeds with Occupy Wall Street, the media industry at large, etc. and then doesn't seem to tie together the point well.\n\nIt's an important piece and it gets there bit by bit, but takes to long to get to the point and is a hard read for that reason.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":5,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4603":{"comments":"This was written in a very different time in June 2024, but it's even more relevant today. It is an excellent piece that interweaves issues of misinformation spreading around minority communities, how the conuntry's demographics are changing, and how this woman overcame the challenges of coming to this country from Nicaragua and establishing a Spanish-language newspaper to form a successful print publication when most others are going down the tube.\n\nIt takes real diversity issues and wraps them around this one person's story to great effect. This is an embodiment of the type of piece we should be elevating here.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":5,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":5,"Framing of the issue: ":5}},"4639":{"comments":"In terms of well-researched pieces, this was great, having lots of voices in here, good and bad about the person being profiled. Also giving space for people attacked in the piece to defend themselves and it was made clear that this was the case. Clean reporting and well-written. A bit of inside baseball at times and gets a bit-too listy for my tastes, but a decent piece overall.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":5,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":5,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"4657":{"comments":"This is terrible. It's just a transcript of the interview. There are so many exclamation points it makes my head hurt.\n\nAlso, every photo is credited to the person being profiled. I'm sure the photographers would have something to say about this.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4748":{"comments":"An interesting piece about the team that created this podcast that revisits an old murder in Boston, but seems like an odd fit for a profile piece - it's not really a profile and should have been in the \"best single article\" category.\n\nIt also feels like it only scratches the surface here about the newspaper's complicity in its coverage of the murder, and after scratching that surface, spends the last quarter of the story talking about the size of The Globe's newsroom and how audio stories are the future for this legacy newspaper.\n\nFeels disjointed and incomplete.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":2}},"4756":{"comments":"Well-written with lots of good details. I can appreciate the details about this early life in Iran, joining the army, etc. but then the piece shoves all the information about him making his millions by spreading right-wing conspiracy theories about the election and such into a few paragraphs at the end. Seems to lionize him more than provide an honest accounting of anything.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":1}},"4815":{"comments":"Interesting look at abortion and the lengths online presences such as Valenti are going to fight GOP efforts to ban it, but the article reads more like a thinkpiece on how to reach a new generation to motivate them to activism to protect abortion rights, and Valenti seems more incidental to the story rather than the focus of a profile piece.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"4832":{"comments":"Reads like a standard obit that's not an obit because the family requested that the Times not write a formal obit. Very generic for the first half; Could apply to any dead reporter. Second half is a list of interesting stories he broke (like the story behind Milli Vanilli) but again, it just feels like a sly way to get around the family not wanting an obit. Not a lot of art for a story about an arts and entertainment reporter.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"status":"submit"}},"single":{"ejgrode@syr.edu":{"3837":{"comments":"Covers a ton of ground and makes a real effort to differentiate between the fishbowl media viewpoint and that of the typical viewer. Plus it weaves in cautionary tales, concrete examples and just the right amount of speculation. I just wish the writing was a little more commanding.","scores":{"Framing of the issue: ":5,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":5,"Excellence of craft: ":4}},"3989":{"comments":"Snippets of (fairly drab) local color are basically used to enliven a package without much news or a new way of thinking about this general trend. It does its job and wraps up.","scores":{"Framing of the issue: ":5,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Excellence of craft: ":3}},"4025":{"comments":"As someone who (like many, I suspect) is a total newbie to this general topic, I learned a lot about the Polish media landscape while also taking away what I believe are the intended corollaries to the situation closer to home.  Johnson works hard to make a fractured, fairly complicated set of circumstances legible -- and mostly succeeds.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":5,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4063":{"comments":"Poorly written, with very little of news value. Reads more like a testimony that one would read aloud at a commemorative Chamber of Commerce dinner. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":2}},"4551":{"comments":"Note: This currently has a paywall, but I had read (and taught!) this article previously. TONS of granular detail that gives a strong sense of the WaPo culture both pre- and post-Bezos. It maybe strays a bit too far into the weeds now and then, but it also gives an evenhanded account of the boss's good and bad qualities. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":5,"Framing of the issue: ":5}},"4618":{"comments":"I enjoyed the writing throughout, but once you get past the idea of \"podcast as campaign audiobook stretched out,\" this is more a trio of short reviews than any sort of compelling overarching commentary on the phenomenon. Still, Shepard is a juicy wordsmith.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":5,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4622":{"comments":"There's something a bit repetitive about the \"And so they plan to vote for _____!\" construction. But the author packs a lot of distinctive portraiture in each mini-capsule along with the breakdown of media consumption, and the piece does a nice job covering a wide swath of opinions. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":5}},"4626":{"comments":"Wow! If one of the goals of these awards is to artfully shine a light on aspects of the media landscape that would otherwise go unnoticed, I can't think of a better example than this. Terrific opener that then gives way to a fascinating history lesson and explainer of this deceptively anodyne industry. Very, very strong. (Though it obviously would be better if EMF had commented.)","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":5,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":5,"Framing of the issue: ":5}},"4631":{"comments":"This is on the verge of being a lot stronger, but it only sporadically (mostly early on) makes the case for why\/how GP resonates through right-wing media the way it does. It then shifts into a well-researched but somewhat plodding company history, then kind of lurches into the Michigan case study. The ingredients are better than the final recipe. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":5,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4673":{"comments":"It's ... fine. It says stuff a lot of people have already said, with maybe 15% additional sourcing. And the Coca-Cola intro feels like a bait and switch, like he talks about it juuuuuust enough to justify the topical entry point. But there's not a ton that's new here.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"4702":{"comments":"The writing may feel a bit rushed here and there, but this touches upon a lot of important issues from a wide array of angles in limited space. I appreciate how the author and her sources made sure not to demonize the mainstream media, regarding them as victims in their own way, while still pointing out their real gaps in understanding and nuance. This piece made a strong impression on me.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":5,"Framing of the issue: ":5}},"4736":{"comments":"Interesting enough, but a write through would have been a lot more compelling and a lot less choppy. Especially with these three examples having so much overlap,  the structure felt repetitive and a bit lazy.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"4754":{"comments":"Well, you can't accuse them of not doing their homework. Phenomenally deep sourcing and LOTS of juicy anecdotes ... but it ultimately amounts to a story of two suits skirmishing over leaks and snubs and the like. It's always a welcome surprise when the actual goings-on of the company flare up. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":5,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"4760":{"comments":"I mean ... why is this a Mirrors entry? I get that headlines and social media posts pop up throughout with a reductive sense of him, but that feels extremely secondary. Including this is very puzzling to me.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"status":"submit"},"bplogiurato@gmail.com":{"3922":{"comments":"Feels a bit too commentary-y\/advice-y for a Mirror submission.","scores":{"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":2,"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"3972":{"comments":"OK entry -- feels very localized.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":2,"Framing of the issue: ":2}},"4571":{"comments":"Very well-written and reported. I feel like this is among the best pieces I've read on various issues around TikTok -- looking back, I feel like it got to the heart of the issue early in the game. The reporting process above is impressive, and it shines through in some of the anecdotes used in the story. Very strong entry -- I think it deserves high consideration to move forward.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":5,"Framing of the issue: ":5}},"4592":{"comments":"Very strong entry. I think in many ways, it has already turned out to be quite prescient given some of the early moves by the Trump administration, for instance the move to take action against The Associated Press. This obviously gets to a much worse theoretical scenario in the end, but it feels easier to imagine now. It is well-reported and well-written. I dinged the \"excellence\" score slightly because I thought the actual reporting Kyle did was strong, and he should've used it even more broadly \u2014 instead of, for instance, a theoretical lede.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":5}},"4618":{"comments":"A fine effort, but doesn't feel like it has at all held up given that podcasting by all accounts played a major role in the 2024 election.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":2,"Framing of the issue: ":2}},"4633":{"comments":"Solid entry, though feels at most times more like commentary\/analysis. Would have liked to have seen a bit more reportage to get to the scope of the issue.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4659":{"comments":"It's a good story and obviously important topic, but quite honestly I thought the writing and takeaways ended up being quite basic.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"4738":{"comments":"Decent story, but fairly thin and localized problem \u2014 doesn't really portend to a larger take on the state of the media.","scores":{"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":3,"Excellence of craft: ":3}},"4744":{"comments":"(duplicate entry)","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":5,"Framing of the issue: ":5}},"4758":{"comments":"I realize this was written in a different world, but it just feels beyond the point in Trump 2.0. But it is a good story.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"4773":{"comments":"This is obviously an extremely important project, though I honestly don't know whether its format meets the tone and feel of a typical Mirror submission \u2014 i.e., it feels like less of a comprehensive story on journalism's role in the Gaza conflict.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4793":{"comments":"Solid entry on a unique problem! Great detail and good reporting throughout. Feels a bit local but that's perhaps to be expected given the audience, and there are obvious potential reverberations elsewhere.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4825":{"comments":"Very good entry. A little niche but does a good job explaining the context and importance of the issue \u2014 wild stats to start about how many people work at the Times and the huge percentage of overall newspaper employees it represents. In light of all that, it does feel \u2014 and it is explained well \u2014 problematic that so many heavily educated people are nominally in charge of setting such a large agenda. Also a unique way to go about the reporting. Self-aware enough that it's coming from a Harvard entity. :) ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":5}},"status":"submit"},"ken.kneeland@abc.com":{"3845":{"comments":"There was little in this piece to keep the reader interested unless he or she was already deeply interested in the topic from the get-go.\nInstead of drawing in the reader with more detail about the chair-throwing incident during negotiations, or the conflict with the sports reporters who make the newspaper the most money, we first got grafs and grafs of granular detail about the ins and outs of a newspaper staff\u2019s labor struggles. You need to be from Pittsburgh and you need to care very much about your local newspaper to get through this article. Structurally, it was boring and overwhelmed by detail that was not needed to understand the conflict and gravity of the situation.\nAlso, the piece could have delved into wider issues in the journalism industry and how other newspapers have overcome challenges. \nRecent years have also seen an uptick in labor union protests and successes at the national level - I feel this piece could have provided more context by drawing on the wider movement.\nThe reporting was good. But could we make it a little more interesting\/relevant to the reader?","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":2,"Framing of the issue: ":2}},"3875":{"comments":"This piece starts out providing insight into Evan\u2019s career motives - and provides details about his personal life that allow the reader to relate to him. I like how the piece starts by giving us family information - background that we can all relate to: the love for family and heritage driving a young man\u2019s ambitions. \nBut the middle of the piece feels only like a straight-forward accounting of the \u201cwhat, where, when, and how.\u201d\nI would have liked more details about how the family was coping - more personal details to turn the rather bland middle of the piece into a more gripping read\u2026or more set-up info on Evan\u2019s life in Moscow beyond the quick bullet points. It stopped short of a complete profile when it turned into a blow-by-blow description of developments - and my presumption based on the beginning of the piece was that it was going to be more of a profile. \nStructure was good.  Just looking for tastier nuggets. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"3972":{"comments":"Bravo! It\u2019s great to see a local newspaper reporting on local media. That doesn\u2019t happen much anymore. But Pittsburgh is a great media market. \nThis piece highlights the challenges for all linear TV with a nuanced look at the added complexity of being publicly funded with a rich legacy like the PBS station that brought us Mr. Rogers. \nObviously this piece has a niche audience. Few people outside of media consumers in Pittsburgh would be interested. This piece doesn\u2019t attempt to look at other PBS legacy stations such as WGBH in Boston - nor does it have to. This piece services its Pittsburgh audience diligently and without opinion or bias, which is refreshing. The same cannot be said about the headline - presumably written by someone else. The question it asks seems designed to steer the reader to a conclusion, and that\u2019s unfortunate. \nThe reader is left with uncertainty - uncertainty over the station\u2019s strategy and its future as a whole. That is realism, and that is reporting: it leaves the reader to think about the potential solutions without presuming to know or tell the reader what to think. \nThat said, perhaps the reader would be enriched to know how other PBS stations are strategizing, and how lessons learned elsewhere could perhaps be applied to Pittsburgh.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"4025":{"comments":"This piece shines light on a very narrow subject matter - Polish media - and then opens up the aperture to explain why we as Americans need to care about this.\nBut it\u2019s a big leap for the reader - can the lessons of Poland really be applied to the U.S. as a warning in this Trump era?\nThat\u2019s a question left for the reader, who could have used more comparisons and voices within the piece to help analyze the differences in perspectives. \nThe piece is tailored to its journalistic audience - and its importance to the audience and the breadth of the subject matter is unquestionable.\nIt\u2019s the takeaway that is troublesome: is this piece saying partisan media will always get more viewers because it\u2019s less \u201cboring\u201d? Is this piece saying we need fewer government rules limiting media, or more? \nThe piece tells a story - a narrative with media figures we don\u2019t know and presumably don\u2019t care that much about except that one is brave enough to sleep in uncomfortable places. So it\u2019s a tough jump to relevancy for an American audience. But I applaud the effort - and the importance of telling stories like this from an increasingly threatened Eastern Europe. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4631":{"comments":"This piece does a good job of dropping kernels of popcorn on a trail that leads readers to its conclusion - that certain websites\/blogs\/influencers spread misinformation for their own self interests, not the public\u2019s. In the end, this entity has much more influence (followers) even though it has spread misinformation that arguably endangers American democracy. \nThe reader, however, is forced to sift through, I believe, too much of a data dump on the Michigan election fraud claims. That section was too long and detailed, testing my attention span.\nThe reader is also left to assume other entities surely follow this example, but it never makes that claim - perhaps that would have given this piece more impact: widen out to see if others have had the same motive in spreading the seeds of misinformation, OAN and NewsMax aside - because they are simply followers in the information (or misinformation) game. \n\n","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":5}},"4633":{"comments":"This story has not aged well - written one year ago, its major fault is: it was wrong. \nMSNBC and CNN are in free-fall, hemorrhaging viewers. FOX News is doing well but that can\u2019t bolster the premise of this piece: that cable news may be in decline but its decline isn\u2019t as steep as other channels. \nI take issue with citing Andrew Morse as the main expert in the piece when he publishes a newspaper. This piece needs more voices. \nIt also poses questionable arguments - such as how cable news is like broadcast nightly news - dying but not dying as fast as pundits predicted. But, are cable news and broadcast evening news mutually exclusive - or do they fall under the same premise?\nThis piece never proves its point - instead it seems to offer only a possibility: \u201cEveryone thinks cable news is dying, but maybe it isn\u2019t.\u201d  \nIt also strikes out on a tangent telling us how influential cable news viewers are. But the viewers\u2019 influence means nothing when it comes to whether cable news remains financially viable. Just because the viewers vote and the White House uses cable news to try out new ideas, doesn\u2019t make cable news profitable. Only profits will keep cable news alive. The piece never makes the connection between viewers\u2019 influence and profits. \nAnd yes, these companies are embracing new technology, but whether that embrace is coming fast enough is never explored in the piece - and that may be the most important issue of all to discuss - a fatal flaw of this writer. For example, the piece never tells the tale of CNN\u2019s disastrous launch of its short-lived subscriber-based streaming channel. This piece needed more depth - and, perhaps due to a lack of it, we now see one year later how ill-informed it was.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"4673":{"comments":"This piece is exemplary for how it tells you right away the subject matter and what it hopes to accomplish in the story - and then, accomplishes it. No flowery descriptives or fanciful adjectives. \nIt takes a subject matter - an AI project gone wrong - explains why it went wrong, how it could\u2019ve been done better, and how local TV managers - the presumptive audience for this piece - can learn from it. \nThis is what journalism should be: present an issue or dilemma. Explain it. Explain why we care. And leave you with the \u201cwhat\u2019s next?\u201d \nIt was the most readable piece of the entries I\u2019ve read so far. In this day where we all face an information fire hose, such readable pieces are especially a joy. When an issue that\u2019s hard to explain - AI - can be made so readable, that\u2019s a talent of writing.\nWider impact? Certainly - because AI is such an important topic. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":5}},"4700":{"comments":"The first question I ask myself after evaluating such a piece is: did I learn something?\nHere, I did. \nI learned about different voices from social media and elsewhere influencing today\u2019s politics. \nThe story was well-reported and, for the most part, balanced. I did not appreciate ending on the line that summarized the professor\u2019s view on scare tactics. Leaving the reader at the end with the professor\u2019s opinion - however justified - deposits a certain taste in the reader\u2019s mouth about how he or she should be left to think about the issue. \n The story spotlights an important subset of influencers and the impact they are having on our politics: a worthy subject with enormous impact. But let\u2019s leave the reader to make up his or her own mind at the end about who\u2019s right and who\u2019s wrong. Because maybe it\u2019s more nuanced - maybe both sides are right and wrong at the same time. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4736":{"comments":"This piece like the two prior on our list, is well tailored to its audience of people interested in the journalism industry. It does well sampling various media organizations - from big to bigger - and how they hope to reach new audiences with a certain style of video. The detail about each organization\u2019s decision-making process and customization is interesting and well-reported. But as I said about other Nieman Journalism Lab entries, it is niche and its overall impact seems far less than the other pieces in this group under consideration. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4738":{"comments":"This article brings up concerns close to a journalist\u2019s heart - the decline of the  mainstream industry - and it does so by tapping into a subject matter we can all relate to: annoying fundraising drives. \nThe spotlight this piece shines on these issues is admirable, but I don\u2019t find anything remarkable about the way the piece was structured. I did like the quick hit of email blasts at the top showing how readers were badgered for money. It got me interested - especially after it was revealed that those emails actually worked! The piece, I suppose, explores human psychology a bit - and gives insight to decision-making at a fledgling operation. Otherwise, I found it rather too narrowly focused to have wider impact. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4746":{"comments":"I was struck by how different this entry was compared to the prior two I\u2019ve read. \nThis seems to be a quick \u201chere\u2019s what\u2019s interesting\u201d piece about a new concept developed by a major newspaper - a concept that is groundbreaking and interesting (The Guardian\u2019s newsletter). But I don\u2019t see how this piece about the newsletter is remarkable. It\u2019s simply a telling of the thinking behind this innovative newsletter, and how and why The Guardian\u2019s idea struck a chord with its readers. A good and interesting piece of journalism but not remarkable.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"4754":{"comments":"This exceedingly lengthy piece does not reward the reader with anything but extreme detail about an issue about which the reader must already have a keen interest. \n It also seems to lay out a foregone conclusion from the start: that Chapek was treated unfairly by Iger. There\u2019s no doubting what viewpoint the writers share. It seems we have to wait until nearly the final graf to get the statement that Chapek \u201ccertainly contributed to his own demise.\u201d Before then, lines such as \u201cMr. Iger\u2019s whisper campaign\u201d attach a leash around the reader\u2019s neck to drag us to another point of view about Iger\u2019s alleged depth of manipulation. Another long graf of analysis is punctuated with the line \u201cseems inexplicable.\u201d Is this reporting or opinion?\n On the positive side, the depth of detail is admirable, if not bogged down by minutiae. \n The bigger concern is: does this conflict at Disney portray a larger trend or mirror a societal change that can say something wider and more important about the corporate culture of today? The piece makes no attempt to answer that. It simply focuses on one corporation - one workspace soap opera - with limited appeal to a wider audience. It\u2019s a niche piece for a niche audience that seems to have been written to support one point of view - and never strays from it. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":2}},"4760":{"comments":"I found the writing in this piece to be supported by a series of what I call tent poles - just as one might be tiring of the narrative, there are phrases or descriptions that anchor one back to the story almost with whiplash - lines that describe his \u201cmanufactured identity\u201d and how he \u201cdoesn\u2019t have the language\u201d to speak to his mother about prison life, and how prison \u201cgave him the seeds of a life he wanted to live for.\u201d Powerful, short, easy-to-understand lines that grip the reader and move the story forward.\nSome of the descriptions of scenes and settings plotted along too slowly - this piece could have been more concise.  But the partitions of text and the staccato sentences were a welcome shot of adrenaline for the reader. \n The impact of the story is undeniable and indelible. A boy who once targeted others because he was different, becomes targeted himself once he is satisfied with his identity. And then, he overcomes.  He\u2019s a modern hero in a sea of doom. And, dare I say it - this piece attempts a happy ending without fanfare or cliche. \nThe visuals are timed perfectly within the piece to add color, context and texture. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":5,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":5}},"status":"submit"},"mprussel@syr.edu":{"4610":{"comments":"An excellent piece. Could additional sources be used? I think so. Article gives insights into the both  long-time and contemporary issue of the sometime conflict between owners and editors, but waits until the very end to describe it fully.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":5,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4626":{"comments":"For me, this article hit all three Mirror criteria. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":5,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":5,"Framing of the issue: ":5}},"4659":{"comments":"Happy to see this attempt by Glamour Magazine to attempt this topic for an important audience (primarily women 18-49) but if I were in that demographic, I would find this piece too general, not very helpful, and perhaps confusing,  to folks not used to reading the news at all.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Framing of the issue: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3}},"4675":{"comments":"This is a podcast, with one interviewer and two interviewees, so in a way it's unfair to give a low score on sourcing.  Interesting discussion that takes place two weeks after the November 2024 election. First half of 32 minutes is fairly basic, focusing on the polls issue, what media did right, did wrong; second half more interesting with projections of what might happen to the media in a second Trump administration. In any case, not a Mirror winner, in my opinion.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"4682":{"comments":"Not much new or revealing here. More sources needed. Suggested solutions to issue seem overly simplistic. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"4702":{"comments":"As the author says, this is a big national topic, but I don't feel that she herself went far enough with tracking down sources (i.e., at the 3 local news organizations that did not respond officially); she did not fully provide adequate answers to her own questions on why the national news media did not follow up more extensively.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":2}},"4726":{"comments":"I find this to be a very important Mirror Awards type story, focusing on another potential danger  of misleading or misinformation in AI. It was written in June 2024; I tried to see if Deck has updated his story to see how\/if ChatGBT is fixing the problem he identified; in one case, an article on \"X\" led to a broken link!  AI claims that the problem has been \"fixed\" but I would be interested to know if ChatGBT's news partners agree.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":5,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":5,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4738":{"comments":"Important topic, generally well done; would appreciate a fuller discussion of the media's overall relatively new approach to see itself as a non-for-profit organization .  As one SM posting said, the Intercept is using the Democrat's playbook. Would like to know its financial standing today and if future campaigns are in the works.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"4740":{"comments":"While this is a very interesting piece of original academic research, I find it too preliminary right now to do more than just suggest continued research. It is appropriate for an academic audience, but it falls short, I think, as effective in providing a broader perspective on the media. But keep going!","scores":{"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"4744":{"comments":"","scores":[]},"4754":{"comments":"Should this be a _book_?  Amazing access to a long list of sources; extraordinary detail and direct quotes, which evidently were confirmed. Despite a major piece of reporting, I am not sure that I come away with a broader perspective on the media itself, or just a  cringe-worthy \"dog-eat-dog\"  corporate drama played out that probably scares off the feint-of-heart MBA student.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":5,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":5,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"4758":{"comments":"Well done, necessary,  but depressing look at this journalistic enterprise.  Given the nation's current low regard for the \"enemies of the state\", The Courier's original stated purpose could have benefited the \"news deserts\" instead of becoming its own grift. A few more interviews with media experts beyond Brian Stelter (which is perfectly fine) might given additional background and clarity to why this practice is so debilitating to both journalism and democracy. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4760":{"comments":"Authors certainly invested tremendous amounts of time and avenues when sourcing this portrait. Well done for the most part, though perhaps goes on a bit too long, potentially losing busy readers,  and then the story seems to run out of space and attention just when it gets to the big picture about the right-wing bloggers' misinformation campaign. More needed here?  Authors claim to tell how Jaysen\/Tisha fought back, but more needed here to give the broader perspective.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":1}},"4825":{"comments":"Interesting, fresh look at who gathers, writes, edits the New York Times these days, especially given the low regard nationally for journalism and journalists. \nGood use of basic, easily obtainable data, easily readable graphs and charts and lists. The big underlying issue of course is how a diversified newsroom can improve the quality of the news and be more representative of the people and topics covered. Surprised to see the article ends after the grad school info, with no concluding statements. (Glad to see that Syracuse at least 3 alums at NYT!)","scores":{"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":3,"Excellence of craft: ":3}},"status":"submit"},"mgscotto@gmail.com":{"3845":{"comments":"I like that this is a story focuses on a news outlet outside the nation's largest markets. It is well reported, though it did focus a little too heavily on the work of other journalists. The blow by blow of what led to the strike and why it continues speaks to larger issues in the news business. However, I do wish it has explored more heavily the impact the strike has had on local news coverage in Pittsburgh. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"3989":{"comments":"This is nicely told story, well-reported and beautifully shot story. While I rate it high, I was left wondering whether it leaned too much into nostalgia? Does the disappearance of these stations really spell the end of community or are people finding it online and on different platforms?","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4551":{"comments":"","scores":[]},"4571":{"comments":"The article is long and fairly well written but lacks new information aside from quotes from her sources and references to other outlets' reporting on TikTok. Given how much the company has been written about, the article lacks the substance to rise to the top.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"4610":{"comments":"Well-reported article but I think it could have been tightened up to get the reader to the heart of the story a bit earlier.  By the time the reporter wrote about the  issues of interference, I had lost interest. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"4622":{"comments":"This is a nicely laid out article that shines a spotlight on how dissatisfaction with mainstream media sources. That being said, I didn't find it particularly illuminating in that exposed a sentiment felt among man demographic groups.","scores":{"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":3,"Excellence of craft: ":3}},"4626":{"comments":"This is an excellent, well-reported article on a topic I had not known much about. It's well-written and full of context. The author does have a POV -- which she somewhat disclosed -- but the reporting clearly lays out why these stations and sprung up and the impact they have had on the stations thev've replaced and broadcast alongside.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":5,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4631":{"comments":"Excellent article on the spread of lies. It does exactly what a Mirror Awards article should do. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4700":{"comments":"It's a solid article but it doesn't move the needle on the rise of influencers or deeply explore the disinformation some of them spread. The one standout section is the exchange between the influencer and a migrant talking about the Darian Gap -- which seemed to expose the performative and fear-mongering nature of some of these videos. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":2}},"4702":{"comments":"Important story but doesn't go into the depth required to rise to the top. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":1,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4715":{"comments":"This is essentially a repurposed press release. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":1,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":1,"Framing of the issue: ":1}},"4726":{"comments":"An interesting article about the issues journalists face with the expansion of Chat GPT and other LLMs. While I appreciated that the article focused on the links of news organizations that had entered into partnerships with ChatGPT, I found it to be too long and somewhat unsatisfying. It didn't expose a new problem -- as the article admits -- but only highlighted an ongoing one that needs to be fixed. I think a more satisfying investigation will come when the reporter is able to do a full, more comprehensive audit of ghost links spit out by ChatGPT ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4740":{"comments":"This is a fine article but doesn't ride to the top because it's essentially reporting on a story other people conducted. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"4834":{"comments":"Good but not among the best of the bunch.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"status":"submit"},"molly.simms@gmail.com":{"3837":{"comments":"Illuminates a very interesting phenomenon (and love a Sade Baderinwa shout-out) but doesn't have the intensity or urgency of some of the other pieces \u2014 and doesn't focus on the media's role in society \u2014\u00a0so would not move it forward to the next level. ","scores":{"Framing of the issue: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Excellence of craft: ":3}},"3922":{"comments":"This is an issue I've thought about and discussed extensively over the years, so I was glad to read this perspective. I don't think it rises above some of the stronger pieces we're reviewing here, but I appreciated lots of the ideas presented","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"3966":{"comments":"Did not love the writing or flow of this one, would not move it forward. (Though some of the stats were shocking in their bleakness, at least for someone not intimately familiar with the details)","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"3989":{"comments":"This one hit me in the feels but did get mawkish at times. Perfect tonally for the \"gentle\" feel of CBS Sat\/Sun Morning but felt more like a hazy \"those were the days\" recollection than one that incisively addressed the biggest challenges for the industry right now. Felt toothless","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":5,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4571":{"comments":"Drills down on the issue but doesn't hit our third metric as specifically as I would like (the broader perspective on media\/role in society)","scores":{"Framing of the issue: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Excellence of craft: ":3}},"4592":{"comments":"Now *this* is a Mirrors level piece (I said \"DAMN\" out loud to myself after finishing it.) Broad in its scope, extensive in sourcing, provides historical context, engaging and well-written. Definitely the strongest I've read thus far. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":5,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":5,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4682":{"comments":"It's a competent piece but doesn't have the scope or expertise to bring it to the next round","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"4715":{"comments":"An important story and a rare spot of good news in journalism, but not told in a way that would make it ascend to the next round of judging.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":2}},"4726":{"comments":"This is an important investigation and clearly has plenty of relevance to behind-the-scenes AI conversations happening at most media brands, but it's told in such a way that I found it nearly impossible to engage with it, or be invested in the issues at hand.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"4758":{"comments":"Juicy and toothy and full of great details, a real pleasure to read. It gripped me right from the start and had great turns of phrase and some pretty excellent quotes. (Lots of anonymous sources, but what can you expect in the age of NDAs)","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4773":{"comments":"Comprehensive reporting that I'm sure was a complex and harrowing process. I think given the intensity of the subject matter, the piece could have been written in a more gripping way, with higher emotional \"stakes\" that would have drawn in the reader. Still, an important, relevant piece.","scores":{"Framing of the issue: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Excellence of craft: ":4}},"4793":{"comments":"Feels like it skates over some of the issues at hand and could have more \"teeth\" and wit","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Framing of the issue: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3}},"4812":{"comments":"Not the absolute most engaging piece but it's an extremely relevant story in terms of the pressures the media is facing today. That's my main quibble with it: I think there could\/should have been an opportunity to pull back and provide the \"broader perspective on the media and its role in society\" that the category demands.","scores":{"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":3,"Excellence of craft: ":3}},"status":"submit"},"omneya.ashanab@nbcuni.com":{"3922":{"comments":"This is an excellent piece and a topic that should be discussed more. It is written in a way that is engaging and easy to understand. The background is informative and gives good insight. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4551":{"comments":"This article was a close runner up for me but I felt that there was a stronger piece that was more well rounded. This was a great read nonetheless and the writer did a great job breaking this story down for readers while not losing important background info. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":5,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":5}},"4592":{"comments":"This article was easy to understand, it gave great background detail and it is extremely relevant still. I think this was one of the pieces with the best structure and storyline. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":5,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":5,"Framing of the issue: ":5}},"4610":{"comments":"This was a captivating story and it is the reality for a lot of the industry post Covid. The writing was easy to read and understand and the sourcing is strong coming directly from the interviews. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4633":{"comments":"I think this piece has been the strongest in framing the issue so far. Typically you read about how Cable News is dying and how people are chord cutting but this perspective of how it has changed politics forever is really interesting. The research and background info throughout the piece are strong and contribute directly to the framing of the issue. This was a great read. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":5}},"4637":{"comments":"This piece was interesting but it was a bit long. Although it did really provide a lot of background in detail about Hollywood so I understand the length. I just worry that it would lose some folks towards the end. I think this is a great example of framing the issue, specifically when the conglomerates are addressed in the article. It was also really smart to address pre and post recession. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":2,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"4673":{"comments":"This was a great piece and it had really strong framing of the issue. AI is not going anywhere and this article did a great job at taking something large scale and bringing it back to the local level. The writing and sourcing was clear and concise. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4675":{"comments":"This podcast episode was a thoughtful conversation and it was definitely suited for a podcast. I think if this was a written piece a lot of the info and discussion around polls would have been lost. The guests were selected thoughtfully and they had a good lens towards what the media could have done differently. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4682":{"comments":"This piece was well written and easy to read. While I think there are great points made in this article that relate to the overall election, I do think that at the time the story was that \"The \u201cgarbage\u201d joke was essentially framed as the last straw.\" This never took away from the fact that a lot of Latino voters still supported Trump. I think it frames the issue well, because yes there was a large focus on people who were upset rather than people who were still voting for Trump, but that was the story of the moment. I appreciated the offered solution at the end of the article and thought that was a great way to end the piece. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"4700":{"comments":"This piece was really strong because it highlights that in this day and age anyone with a camera can self-describe themselves as a journalist or influencer. Eventually if you have enough followers and people give you a platform then it becomes real. This is how media is going to continue to look in the future, especially as politics stays at the forefront of our industry. In this case it's being used to spread a dangerous rhetoric. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":5}},"4736":{"comments":"I think this piece did a really good job framing the issue. The breakdown of the media organizations and the analysis of their content really made sense to me. It's no secret that vertical video is taking over and just fits the user experience more, so I enjoyed that this article highlighted media organizations that are adapting to this outside of social media. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4746":{"comments":"This was a good article and the writing was well done but I'm not sure it provides a broader perspective on media and society. Media is directly tied to screen time of course but I felt the article was missing the full circle at the end of how media contributes to this screen time issue. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":2}},"4812":{"comments":"This was a good piece, it questions authority in the best way and includes great storytelling. Especially in an age where controlling public discourse is becoming more popular. It was interesting to read this on the scale of an area like Richmond, CA. I wish there was more framing to tie the piece back to a national or global level. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":2}},"status":"submit"},"aegallag@syr.edu":{"3845":{"comments":"Silence from the Post-Gazette on this story says a lot. Thorough reporting without being in the bag for strikers. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"3875":{"comments":"Strong general interest story on Evan Gershkovich's case in a way that would make people outside of journalism care about it. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"3966":{"comments":"Lots of data, not enough story. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4025":{"comments":"This story is \"important\" and well reported. I was just more excited by other pieces. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":5,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4063":{"comments":"Not much meat to this story. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"4551":{"comments":"This story gets truer every day!  This is Stelter's bread-and-butter. Gossipy while also being deeply reported. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":5,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4618":{"comments":"More criticism than reporting. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"4637":{"comments":"Well-written and compelling piece that delivers on its title. If I were teaching TV business, I would assign it. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":5,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":5}},"4675":{"comments":"Not much more than a recap \/ round table. ","scores":{"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Excellence of craft: ":2,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"4715":{"comments":"Mostly aggregated. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":1,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":1}},"4746":{"comments":"Fun read but slight. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":5,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4773":{"comments":"This article does the impossible: explains in clear, analytical language and data the scale of this unprecedented threat against journalists and puts faces to the data with empathy and care. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":5,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":5,"Framing of the issue: ":5}},"4834":{"comments":"Excellent overview of the history of this challenging relationship. Writing is a little heavy on the Harry Potter gimmicks. ","scores":{"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":3,"Excellence of craft: ":4}},"status":"submit"},"chandran@gigafact.org":{"3837":{"comments":"Picking up on the new cooperation and consolidation of reporting across former rivals. More trends of a shrinking industry. \n","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"3875":{"comments":"Hard to see the broader implications for the industry in this otherwise absorbing article ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":2}},"3966":{"comments":"Yet more reporting on news industry woes with no new analysis or insight; seems rather behind the curve in 2025 to be pointing out that news is transitioning from print to digital \n","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":1}},"3972":{"comments":"Reporting on a local TV station woes - no real attempt to draw out broader context or implications. ","scores":{"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":2,"Framing of the issue: ":1,"Excellence of craft: ":2}},"4063":{"comments":"Local history piece with limited implications for broader media conversation - other than a model for local radio to survive by focusing on a community, and being a community center. \n","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":1,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":2}},"4622":{"comments":"New and interesting. Great set of vignettes telling the story of Arab immigrants in the context of the election and the Israel-Gaza mess. Important implications for media in these specific communities and understanding the importance of social media influencers in the daily diet of displaced communities like the ones in this piece. Could have used more synthesis or analysis and so whats. \n\n\n","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4637":{"comments":"Informative on lots of dimensions of the Hollywood media economics; but ultimately was too much of an advocacy piece for writers - and took sides very strongly in the reporting and analysis. The issue of the interest of creatives vs business is well framed.\n","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4659":{"comments":"Self improvement tips piece - with the author as the \u2018expert\u2019 and talking to a couple of other experts. It didn't feel well sourced and adding value to common knowledge. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":1,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":1}},"4740":{"comments":"This is just a a summary of an article that came out in Science; Interesting insight about AI helping conspiracy theorists but it wasn't original work. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":2}},"4793":{"comments":"Good sourcing of interviews and internal financials - but ultimately a microcosm of a well understood broad industry trend - nothing new here. \n","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":2}},"4812":{"comments":"good investigative reporting - the connections to S America and Permian Basin in TX, the SF PR agency were all super interesting. \nmakes a great point about corporate ownership of local news - especially in \u201ccompany towns\u201d like Richmond - as an active PR strategy \n\n","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":5,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":5,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4825":{"comments":"great data sourcing; The framing and analysis is average - the author says the data shows that the NYT is not dominated as much by the Ivies as was thought, but the article struggles to make the opposite point\n","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"4834":{"comments":"\nInteresting to understand the power the stars exert on programming and seeing how the business interests cared very differently about J K Rolling\u2019s troubles. Also a glimpse into economics in this segment of the industry. \n","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":5,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"status":"submit"}},"commentary":{"contessabrewer@aol.com":{"4067":{"comments":"Not Mirror-worthy- lacking the follow-through on commetary about how media perserverence might pay off or how its the job of journalists to craft the kinds of stories that keep important news front and center.  ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":1,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":1}},"4071":{"comments":"Antonoff takes us on a fun ride through history, slips past a discussion of \"free tv\"  and collects a bunch of gripes into one column.  Some of it's informative.  Some of it's fun.  But the point of the commentary gets lost or buried in each. ","scores":{"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":1,"Excellence of craft: ":2}},"4647":{"comments":"Interesting backstory but not meaningful or impactful. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":1,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":2}},"4686":{"comments":"Prince has collected commentary and anecdotes to illustrate the problem of press freedom internationally, but without a cohesive narrative, it's hard to follow.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4688":{"comments":"Prince summarizes a roundtable conversation with journalists to provide the sourcing for his commentary.   I thought it was interesting and thought-provoking, though not superior in its ability to take a reader on a journey from premise to a shift in perspective.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":5,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4692":{"comments":"Kang has a clear point-of-view and approaches these pieces with more as an opiner than a reporter.  His writing is pithy, and his observations are thought-provoking.  But in each of his columns, I thought his arguments were like the surf waves he writes about; they look promising from afar but just peter out.  ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":5,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":5,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"4696":{"comments":"Malone is mighty.  She effectively uses data,  anecdotes and observations to build strong and persuasive arguments.  Further,  readers aren't handed proposals for tidy solutions. We come away from the commentary with nagging questions about the way we do business, about how make journalism work in the world the way it -IS- not the way we wish it were.   \n\n\"The Meme-ification of American Politics\" accurately captures what moves sentiment and motivates action - and it is no longer the word of the editorial board at the New York Times.  \n\nIn her extinction-threat piece and Hunterbrook - Malone exposes both the existential problems for journalism and potential solutions, albeit with questions about the integrity of the new models. \n\nIn the submitted collection, Malone is expertly weaving a narrative thread that American journalists who have worked in the industry for any length of time have seen or experienced  with job loss and budget cuts - and the resulting impact on the quality of the work.  Extinction happens when species can't or don't adapt.  Adapt or die.  That is the option.\n\n","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":5,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":5,"Framing of the issue: ":5}},"4732":{"comments":"I loved everything about this commentary. Dhanesha employs original reporting about the use of AI \"reporters\" for Hoodline, explaining the nagging questions that prompted the inquiries.  And the author clearly lays out why it's troubling for the news business in general, local news in particular and problematic when it comes to ensuring diversity in news publications.  Dhanesha probably should earn bonus points for the use of \"ouroboros.\"","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":5,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":5,"Framing of the issue: ":5}},"4765":{"comments":"These columns are chaotic, disorganized and confusing.  The author presents a collection of observations and ill-constructed sentences to hop and skip from thought to thought but neglects to bring the reader along for the journey.  I've missed entirely any form of narrative arc that might bring me to the logical conclusion of a persuasive argument or what I would expect from commentary.  Further, Karem includes quotations without any attribution. \n\n\"Full of sound and fury signifying nothing,\"  (which is at the point -I- would add:) \"as William Shakespeare's Macbeth might say.\"\n\nAlso - where's the editor in all this?  ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":1,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":1,"Framing of the issue: ":1}},"4779":{"comments":"Accarino has accurately outlined the changes coming for Open-AI but his point on its impact on local media was buried and convoluted. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"status":"submit"},"ale.foresto@gmail.com":{"4563":{"comments":"I appreciate the creative way of tying this commentary on the NYTimes with a cultural reference in order to translate this commentary to the audience of this newsletter and adhere to its humorous voice and tone. But the rest of the commentary is not particularly original given the author points to another writer who did a much more in depth newsletter on the WashPo piece hitting the same point.\nThe lack of a link to the WashPo piece that commentary is based on is a glaring oversight (even if you don't want to give the piece clicks, it's important to point the reader to it). ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":2,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"4567":{"comments":"It's clear that the author of these pieces is well-versed and passionate about the complicated ethics of humanitarian journalism and that expertise shines through in the writing. \nWe can see that the author spends a lot of time pondering and questioning the ethics of media and these three pieces share a snippet of his knowledge with other journalists in a clear way. This column is doing important work and successfully bringing up questions each reader should themselves answer about what kind of reporter they want to be and what kind of reporting they want to consume. That, to me, is exactly what a good commentary piece on media should do!\nThe writing and sourcing is clear and the pieces each present a full picture, offering the right amount of context. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4596":{"comments":"Feels like a better fit for Best Single Article\/Story \u2014\u00a0lacks commentary and is a pretty straightforward reported story in my view.\n","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4616":{"comments":"Is audio eligible for the awards? \nInformative podcast segments with an engaging host, good editing and insightful sound clips\/guests\/quotes. \nThe first two segments did a better job at providing a look into the responsibility of media in society than the third one, which while commentary on media, felt misaligned with the other two submissions.\nOverall not an entry that blew me away, but nonetheless strong work.","scores":{"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":3,"Excellence of craft: ":2}},"4635":{"comments":"The three pieces present strong and authoritative commentary about media that uses the extensive expertise of the author to bring in personal experience and add color and leverage to the stories. \nWhile these pieces cover some of the most important (and therefore covered) topics surrounding media in the past year, they offer a nice balance between outlining basic facts while still assuming the reader is a media-adjacent one. But the meat of the story in each of these is clearly the opinions and insights from the writer's own experience, and those insights offer a unique and distinctive perspective. \nThe sourcing (including providing a full interview exchange as a footnote in one of the pieces, extensively linking to other related pieces both by the author and other publishers, and clearly outlining who was interviewed and how they are quoted in each piece) is extensive and clear. \nThe writing is clear and engaging, so much that these three examples influenced me to subscribe to this newsletter \u2014\u00a0which ultimately is the point of these pieces of work so they clearly did an incredible job at offering this reader engaging content she wants to engage with!\n","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4641":{"comments":"Ineligible. I find this to be a personal narrative piece and not commentary on media. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4644":{"comments":"This is an impactful opinion piece that clearly outlines the effects of this topic on the media's future and democracy.  It gives the reader the context they need to hear the piece's warning on why this behavior presents a danger to impartial newspapers.\nThe writing is strong and snappy, clearly conveying the disappointment from the writer and bringing the reader along in their anger. It uses clever language and comparisons to make its point (democracy died in broad daylight, the billionaires will not save us, etc.) and put into context for the reader why this is a pivotal moment in media history.\nIt offers the right context and links to stories that expand on this piece and offer more background and information. \nI wish it would report more on the Los Angeles Times versus casually mentioning the newspaper and its owner a couple of times and focusing on Bezos in order to give reader more context around this being a wider-set issue across outlets.\nDefinitely agree with the person who nominated this piece that this quote is the most impactful: \"They know of profits \u2014 often engineered on the backs of underpaid and under-protected labor. They know of influence \u2014 in the form of turning platforms like the social network formerly known as Twitter into megaphones for racists and unfettered hate. But they know not of ethics, specifically the belief in a 'separation of church and state' between their newsrooms and the moneyed ownership.\"","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4676":{"comments":"I find these pieces to be less engaging and clear in their commentary than other entries in this category. Considering just the first entry on the Boston Globe, the commentary seems to only scratch the surface and misses on giving more detail on journalistic integrity and its importance in the existence of media. The same happens with the second entry, where the author only superficially touches on the premise promised on the headline (the drama of journalists' distrust of leadership at NBC News). \nWhile the pieces are well sourced and reported, in my opinion, they fall flat in framing the issue and explaining how each of these cases affect media as a whole.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":2}},"4779":{"comments":"Ineligible \u2014\u00a0lacks commentary and is a straightforward reported piece.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4798":{"comments":"These pieces offer an interesting behind-the-scenes look at the making of a publication, and do an excellent job at both explaining its decisions as well as offering larger context on why and how those decisions were made, even if they mean criticizing their very own choices.\nThe pieces give the reader a better sense of how newspapers craft a story\u2014from finding a source and reporting on the ground to choosing what to cover and how to cover it. They do exactly what the Mirror Awards celebrate: \"hold a mirror to their own industry for the public\u2019s benefit.\"\nThe author's voice make these usually inside-baseball topics more approachable to readers. The writing is engaging, direct and honest. \n","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"status":"submit"},"jnglass@syr.edu":{"4567":{"comments":"Strong series explaining the distinctions of humanitarian journalism and the foreign correspondent model that media has traditionally followed. Two of the columns fit well with Mirrors, however, the third -- \"The crisis is always past\" -- seemed less connected.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":5,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4647":{"comments":"Unfortunate situation for this former Gannett editor (and thankfully she's landed other opportunities) but relatively straightforward take as far as the article itself.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":5,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"4686":{"comments":"Another recap article that was disjointed in its organization making it hard to discern the point.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":2}},"4688":{"comments":"This read more like a collection of others' opinions and didn't elevate the issue.  ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"4692":{"comments":"Excellent series of columns that help make sense of the media's role in American politics and raise relevant points around perception vs. reality when it comes to the media. This should be a strong contender for the Mirrors.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":5,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":5,"Framing of the issue: ":5}},"4764":{"comments":"Excellent episode the delves into the media's role into the high-profile campus protests into protest paradigm, the myth of outside agitators  and the coverage by the Israel media. The expert  and journalist interviews provided effective and detail criticisms of the media.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":5,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":5,"Framing of the issue: ":5}},"4779":{"comments":"This is a fine explainer on what OpenAI's move to a for-profit company will mean, however, it lacks a depth that other entries have.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":5,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"4819":{"comments":"Excellent commentary across the board taking a well-reported deeper dive into timely topics and presenting them in a clear and readable way. ","scores":{"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":5,"Excellence of craft: ":5,"Framing of the issue: ":5}},"4827":{"comments":"Good way to incorporate data -- including the self-generated kind with the 2024 endorsement tallies -- into the article but the article doesn't go much beyond that and simple explanations each publication for not endorsing a candidate this election cycle.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":5,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"4829":{"comments":"Enjoyable read that digs into why The Messenger was bound to fail, however, it seems like a good portion of this was rehashing an earlier article when the publication launched. ","scores":{"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":5,"Framing of the issue: ":3,"Excellence of craft: ":5}},"status":"submit"},"rsgutter@syr.edu":{"4027":{"comments":"Ambitious effort.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":1,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":1,"Framing of the issue: ":1}},"4067":{"comments":"I met Terry Anderson. Not sure that's a lead for an obit.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":1,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":2,"Framing of the issue: ":1}},"4071":{"comments":"This is an interesting look at the media, almost from an insider's perspective.  Different.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":5,"Framing of the issue: ":5}},"4376":{"comments":"Excellent, as always from Marantz, a previous winner.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4651":{"comments":"Solid, almost procedural pieces.  The first two were things we read a lot about.  The third piece on Dokoupil and Baier was on a different topic from common entries.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"4665":{"comments":"There was \"public outcry\" about this?","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"4667":{"comments":"Strong single piece with an important message about archiving.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"4676":{"comments":"The Globe piece was the strongest all around.  The McDaniel piece lost me with his \"I\" lead.  There's got to be a better way to write. Overall, pretty strong entries.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4680":{"comments":"Maybe a better entry for Toner.  Nothing innovative.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":1,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":1,"Framing of the issue: ":2}},"4717":{"comments":"Pretty straight-forward.  Nothing particularly innovative.  Interesting source.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":1,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":2,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"4795":{"comments":"I think this could have been written by AI. Interesting small market publication.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":2,"Framing of the issue: ":2}},"status":"submit"},"denise@denisevalenti.com":{"3861":{"comments":"Not appropriate for this category or Mirrors submission.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"3882":{"comments":"Not particularly well written. Makes claims without evidence.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":2,"Framing of the issue: ":2}},"4050":{"comments":"This felt simultaneously self-reflective and self-indulgent, which might serve the format and the audience. ","scores":{"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4071":{"comments":"Entertaining and observant, born of the writer's long experience on the a\/v beat.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":5,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4598":{"comments":"Thoughtful, well-written and sourced. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":5,"Framing of the issue: ":5}},"4628":{"comments":"Interesting piece on anchors airing grievances while on air. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":5,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4635":{"comments":"Mostly thoughtful and thorough. Relies on unnamed sources in first piece. Not sure what benefit there is to beating up on the Knight Foundation for its funding schedule.","scores":{"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":3,"Excellence of craft: ":3}},"4651":{"comments":"The writer asks interesting questions about media, focusing primarily on the craft of journalism. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":5,"Framing of the issue: ":5}},"4684":{"comments":"Poorly organized. Focused more on a government issue than media.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":1,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":2,"Framing of the issue: ":1}},"4728":{"comments":"Not sure that this fits the category. Seems more like a reported piece that incorporates some elements of news analysis, unless we include that as commentary.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":2}},"status":"submit"},"csbrody@syr.edu":{"3882":{"comments":"One of the worst pieces I've ever read for the Mirrors.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":1,"Framing of the issue: ":1}},"4376":{"comments":"This felt like it belonged in the profile category. It was well done and included a lot of great detail\/reporting, but I don't think it really framed the issue for this category which is why I gave it the 2 in the framing category. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":2}},"4555":{"comments":"Certainly an interesting, timely and hotly debated topic, but I don't feel like he did such a deep dive into this. Would have preferred to see more examples that didn't feel like he was just quoting other articles. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"4567":{"comments":"Interesting perspective. Nicely discusses the differences between  foreign and local press. \n\n\"In many ways, the uproar against Amanpour was really a scepticism about the validity of an \u201cinternational\u201d journalism model that portrays itself as not local to anywhere. Why do we need a roving band that parachutes into humanitarian spaces as if the people there are incapable of telling their own story? Why wouldn\u2019t CNN or Sky News give their platforms to local journalists, whether in Sudan or the Democratic Republic of the Congo, rather than send non-locals who probably know much less?\"","scores":{"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"4598":{"comments":"Trump Assassination: Great examples and reporting throughout, well-written and interesting topic to cover. \n\"Still, the accusations of media complicity in the Trump shooting have perhaps come at a uniquely difficult moment for the mainstream American press, which has been dealing not only with years of media-bashing on the part of Trump and his allies (as well as occasional physical violence) but also, as I wrote recently, widespread financial decline and a palpable (and understandable) sense of disorientation in the face of this toxic political moment.\"\n\nSanewashing: I had never heard this term, and the writer does a nice job framing it. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4614":{"comments":"Nothing more to share other than my grades.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":2,"Framing of the issue: ":1}},"4644":{"comments":"Another interesting take, but missing other voices\/newsgathering. It felt like it needed more, and I would have read more, so I do think it was well-written. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4798":{"comments":"Social media story was interesting, but felt too casual.\nTrans athlete story also felt very casual, but I appreciated it in this piece. \"In the end, I was not comfortable naming her. Perhaps that was the mom in me, rather than the newspaper editor. I knew, of course, people could easily use Google to find the name. I can live with that.\"\nI enjoyed the framing of the obituary\/tribute piece as well. Overall for all three, I missed the reporting element--it was too focused on the writer's perspective and didn't bring in other voices. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"4819":{"comments":"The \"Sketch ladies\" piece was one of the best pieces I've read for the Mirrors. It was so well-written and reported. I wanted to read even more--could be a book. I also appreciated the E. Jean Carrol piece. The \"Weird\" one could have been left out, but also interesting to read--just didn't fit with the theme as. much.\n\n\"I first found myself seated behind the sketch ladies during the E. Jean Carroll sexual assault and defamation trials, and I was mesmerized by watching them work. Clad in dark-rimmed glasses and drapey scarves, their fingers stained in chalk, the women seemed at odds with the stiffness of the room; at times their scratching on paper was the only sound during moments so tense, I held my breath.\n\nThere was something intriguing about the fact that the public was watching the Carroll trial \u2014 a trial about sexual violence, misogyny and power \u2014 solely through the eyes of older women. Could they, I wondered, see themselves in her, in a way that imbued their sketches of Ms. Carroll with just a touch more resolve? Was it just me, or did that Trump sketch look a little sneery?\"","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":5,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":5,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4829":{"comments":"No real reporting--didn't feel strong like other entries. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":2}},"status":"submit"},"nmibrown@syr.edu":{"3861":{"comments":"No.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":0,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":0,"Framing of the issue: ":0}},"4565":{"comments":"This entry succeeds in holding up a mirror to the industry, but the examples feel somewhat random (and some very dated), making the argument less cohesive. The writing is fine but unremarkable, resulting in an overall average piece.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Framing of the issue: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3}},"4614":{"comments":"This piece highlights the importance of student media and aligns with the goals of the awards, but it lacks depth. With few examples and limited analysis, it feels too surface-level to make a lasting impact.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"4635":{"comments":"The pieces provide commentary on the media but honestly didn't hold my interest. They lack strong organization and rely on an overly casual, first-person tone that diminishes its impact. While the writing is decent, I'm not sure why I care on Tofel's takes--he doesn't build a very strong case. Overall, the commentary does not stand out.","scores":{"Framing of the issue: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Excellence of craft: ":2}},"4688":{"comments":"The author's point was relevant to the mirror awards, but the piece was poorly constructed. There was a lot of rich information gathered for this piece, but the author could have done more than stack quotes and recounting the roundtable.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":2,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"4696":{"comments":"Article 1: I thought this entry was very well-written and engaging, but doesn\u2019t quite serve as a true reflection on the media. While the writing is strong, it lacks the deeper analysis expected in this category. \n\nArticle 2 and 3 were excellent in all three respects. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":5,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":5,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4717":{"comments":"This was a skin deep look at a complex issue, and the author doesn't seem to have a really good sense of the landscape here. The writing was sub-par.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":2,"Framing of the issue: ":2}},"4732":{"comments":"Overall this was a solid piece. Didn't blow me away, either in terms of writing or substance.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4742":{"comments":"I liked this entry. It was well-written, engaging, and well-sourced.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":5}},"4785":{"comments":"Wemple tackles important media issues with solid analysis, but the execution is uneven. The MSNBC piece raises good points about coverage gaps but isn\u2019t his strongest\u2014some of the writing could be tighter. The NPR\/Berliner article is better but still feels a bit jumpy. Overall, the commentary is thoughtful, but the writing could be smoother. I like Wemple, but this doesn't read like his best work to me.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"status":"submit"},"fionalgibb@gmail.com":{"4565":{"comments":"Understand that it's a Substack, and therefore, much more conversational than some of the other pieces. I understand the point she wanted to make, but found the writing somewhat hard to follow.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":2}},"4628":{"comments":"It's an interesting trend, and made for an interesting read. I'm not sure the issue is as important (and deserving of commentary) as others. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"4680":{"comments":"Important topic, and the piece was well-organized, practical, and an enjoyable read. The ending seemed to lose a bit of steam. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":5,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4684":{"comments":"An important topic, for sure, but I found the framing and the writing a bit hard to follow.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":2}},"4686":{"comments":"Enjoyed the diverse perspectives and the eye-opening topic. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"4696":{"comments":"All of Malone's pieces are not only solid, thought-provoking commentary, but such fun, highly entertaining reads. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":5,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":5,"Framing of the issue: ":5}},"4717":{"comments":"Very enjoyable, thoughtfully organized, and clearly written commentary on a timely and crucial issue that impacts journalism.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4742":{"comments":"Found this commentary highly informative and an entertaining read.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"4764":{"comments":"Thought-provoking conversation and accompanying article.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"4765":{"comments":"I enjoyed Karem's colorful writing, but at times find his arguments hard to follow. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"status":"submit"},"nicholasjdesantis@gmail.com":{"4027":{"comments":"I appreciate the personal anecdote of covering a hurricane at your doorstep, but this article seemed a bit surface level, mediocre craft-wise, and ultimately not up to snuff as far as a Mirror Awards winner article would be.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"4050":{"comments":"Aside from the long time commitment of digesting these podcasts, I appreciated Jess Shane's tone of voice and ease of communication throughout these podcasts. Hearing the bias creep in, particularly through ego and individual expectations, was interesting to experience on a micro-level, especially when extrapolating that phenomenon across how media reporting happens in general. However, as is inherent with podcasts, and especially a series like this, editing to distill the fine points of the argument would make this more digestible overall. That might be the one aspect that keeps this from being a Mirror Awards winner, but otherwise this is a notable contender.","scores":{"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"4067":{"comments":"While the concept of the story - the big media attention in captivity preceded an unscrutinized post-capitivity life of struggle - was captivating, I don't feel that the writing, presentation, and execution of this article was Mirror Awards winner level.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"4565":{"comments":"I really appreciated how Kaufman took press corps coverage from various eras of politics to show the flawed methodology of how the media has covered presidential candidates. Providing video examples of those particular moments also helped bring me into the analysis, fleshing our her points being made. I took some craft points off because I think there may have been room here for some even deeper analysis as to why this bias in the media towards 'sanewashing' Trump, and republicans, continues unabated, something Allsop was able to do in his article so well. Overall a very good article.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4596":{"comments":"Hersh's article, albeit a bit of a depressing read in light of recent events, is very illuminating and well-reported. I'm of two minds: while I appreciate the intricate scene-setting and boots-on-the-ground coverage, I think the article would've benefitted from being a bit shorter. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4598":{"comments":"I really enjoyed reading Allsop's excellent analysis, particularly his 'sanewashing' article. In fact, if that article was put forward as the only piece in his submission, I think I would've given the submission a higher score overall. That piece seems more relevant than ever in these wild, turbulent first months of Trump's presidency, and it seems like it's right in the bullseye of Mirror Awards winner content. The other two pieces are compelling and rife with facts and pointed analysis, but 'sanewashing' is the centerpiece here.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":5,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":5,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4665":{"comments":"I appreciated the insight here, as well as the number of examples cited to buttress Graves' argument, but this article didn't feel elevated enough in tone and writing style to be a Mirror Awards winner.  I'm not above the use of \"um\" and other turns of phrase to set a tone (especially when tackling something as unserious as the Billboard charts), but those details made this piece miss the mark for me.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4728":{"comments":"While this content - How AI is changing the online journalism game - is a bullseye as far as Mirror Awards content goes, I feel like the general dryness of the prose here, combined with the density of information, made this a slog of a read. For those well-acquainted with the AI ecosystem and the legal side of online publishing, this may be a breezier read, but I found this to be a bit chewy.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":5}},"4819":{"comments":"Bennett's entries, particularly the Carroll and 'Caterpillar Eyebrows', were particularly interesting dissections of Trump through the female gaze. I appreciated the abundance of details across those articles, whether it be the rapid-fire \"weird\" quotes in the name-calling article or the deft use of courtroom sketches in 'Caterpillar Eyebrows'.  I dropped a point off of the 'framing of the issue' score here because I felt the \"weird\" article didn't measure up to Carroll and 'Caterpillar Eyebrows', seeming a bit more surface-level than the rich, deeper explorations of the other two. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"4829":{"comments":"Benton's snarl and sarcasm made this a juicy read, no doubt. As for the beginning of the article, I think that the juice wasn't worth the squeeze: the football hypothetical that began the article delayed the meat of the content without enhancing the read overall. I appreciated the level of research and detail given to The Messenger's downfall, it's a damning indictment for sure, but that football intro and certain points that feel like data dumps (the bullet point section) felt like they dinged the reading experience of an otherwise insightful analysis.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"status":"submit"},"kevin.w.sajdak@gmail.com":{"4616":{"comments":"I very much enjoyed the stories that examined the covering of campus protests and, respectively, AI. Both examined the status quo and simply dug deeper.  h","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":5}},"4628":{"comments":"Interesting examination of the power of well paid TV personalities. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"4647":{"comments":"I liked this piece, especially for its behind-the-curtain look at Gannett's business. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4651":{"comments":"These were very enjoyable pieces. The Trump and interview pieces bring lessons to both today and tomorrow's journalists. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4667":{"comments":"The article touches on an important point, and I'm glad someone brought these ideas into the discourse. My issue with it was that it lacked in detail. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"4676":{"comments":"I very much enjoyed each of these. The McDaniel piece brings up an important point in the Trump era: why news outlets provide platforms for known liars. The ethics at issue with the Globe piece, comparatively, seem quaint.  ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4680":{"comments":"This was an interesting piece so far as it goes. And while I agree with its premise, I'm not sure if it makes sense to only begin to educate voters about one's honesty  during a 90-minute debate.  ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"4769":{"comments":"See below. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":5}},"4785":{"comments":"NA","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":3,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"4827":{"comments":"This struck me, in some ways, as a dog-bites-man piece. I learned a lot and, thanks to the author's research,  the story put the WaPost and LA Times decisions into proper context. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":4,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"status":"submit"},"cdhedges@syr.edu":{"4050":{"comments":"Really interesting podcast that I thoroughly enjoyed. What was most compelling was this really introspective approach to these ethical concerns in documentary style. However, this felt like a self-reckoning ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"4596":{"comments":"This article provides a compelling look at political apathy and news fatigue, supported by strong writing, relevant data, and expert insights.  A more refined focus and deeper engagement with potential remedies for news fatigue would elevate its impact.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4614":{"comments":"They effectively connect student media's role to broader challenges in higher education financing. While the discussion is well-supported with institutional examples, a more comprehensive exploration of similar cases at other universities could have provided additional context. The argument remains focused but could benefit from a deeper engagement with potential counterarguments or alternative solutions. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":5,"Framing of the issue: ":1}},"4641":{"comments":"While the article is a well-written and compelling expos\u00e9, its impact could be deepened with a more rigorous examination of the author\u2019s own complicity, new revelations beyond previously reported facts, and a stronger structural analysis of the tabloid media industry\u2019s role in shaping political narratives. The piece is powerful as a personal reckoning, but it stops short of fully interrogating the deeper systemic forces that allowed such practices to thrive.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4692":{"comments":"I really enjoyed this series of articles for their thoughtful articulation of the issues that face us (Social Media, full coverage of Trump's speeches, media bias). These three articles, evaluated as a single submission, offer a compelling, well-researched, and timely examination of media influence and responsibility. Their collective strength lies in their clear writing, insightful framing, and relevance to contemporary media discourse. The submission stands out as a strong contender.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":5,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":5,"Framing of the issue: ":5}},"4742":{"comments":"Using sharp analysis and industry context, the author illustrates how The Messenger was doomed from the start, pointing to predictable missteps and misplaced nostalgia for a media landscape that no longer exists. The article is a scathing indictment of leadership mismanagement in digital journalism, highlighting the dangers of overambitious and poorly conceived media ventures. While highly critical, the article could offer more perspectives from industry experts or former employees to further substantiate its claims.","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":2}},"4764":{"comments":"This podcast provides a strong, well-researched critique of media coverage of campus protests, effectively challenging misleading narratives and offering alternative perspectives. However, it lacks a distinct authorial analysis that would enhance its impact. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":5,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":3}},"4765":{"comments":"This three-part submission is a compelling and impassioned critique of modern journalism, with moments of brilliance in its historical comparisons and sharp observations. However, its heavy reliance on hyperbole, lack of solutions, and sometimes one-sided arguments may hold it back for me. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":3,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":4,"Framing of the issue: ":4}},"4769":{"comments":"Exceptional commentary - my favorite of the bunch. It is rigorous, timely and well-researched. I thoroughly enjoyed the media critique and investigative journalism required to present a podcast that truly holds a mirror to the industry. It highlights specific instances where AI\u2019s capabilities were overstated or misrepresented and explores the ethical responsibility of journalists in covering emerging technologies.\n\n","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":5,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":5,"Framing of the issue: ":5}},"4795":{"comments":"In general, this article feels too black-and-white leaving no room for the reality of what we are facing in an era of AI. It feels a bit out of touch with what solutions there might be. ","scores":{"Excellence of craft: ":2,"Appropriateness for the intended audience:":5,"Framing of the issue: ":1}},"status":"submit"}}},"final_voting":{"profile_final":{"tbreton@cox.net":{"4603":{"comments":"This is the clear winner in my opinion. The reporter did a magnificent job of capturing Lorena Lopez's character, mission and drive, showing how she has made an big impact in the Latino community with La Prensa, using traditional reporting techniques to combat online misinformation. The story is well-organized, is filled with good anecdotes and narrative storytelling. It also contains crucial context material. The author does an excellent job creating a sense of place, allowing readers to get a good feel for the community in which Lopez works and the dire need for what she is serving up to the people who are her neighbors. The story also includes  crucial context material but that never interferes with the flow of the story.  ","scores":{"Overall Score":5}},"4649":{"comments":"This is a really interesting story with good context about the building and growth of nonprofit newsrooms.  The subject is a compelling character and I get a good sense of who she is and her passion for journalism and the dire need for hyper local reporting from reading this piece. The writing is not as strong as the entry from CJR. This story needed better editing and I felt like it ran on too long. \nI also was left with a nagging question: What exactly is the succession plan and how is it being executed so The Lens can continue to publish and grow its investigative reporting? The author doesn't explain in the body of the story where exactly the current funding is coming from and what the plans are for bringing in more money to run the paper.  \nThe ending is confusing as well. The author makes it sound like Karen Gadbois is getting ready to retire and just become a board member for The Lens but at the end of the story, there are quotes that are tacked on that give my the impression that she's really not ready to give up her editorial duties and let go of the reins. ","scores":{"Overall Score":4}},"4756":{"comments":" I thought I was going to love this story as I was reading the first few paragraphs, but I didn't. There are some great anecdotes, catchy lines and quotes in this profile but I don't feel like I get to know Patrick Ben-David  in more than a very superficial way. There is very little to show who he really is besides being very entrepreneurial and very rich.  How did his upbringing shape him? The author doesn't ask him to explain how his time in a German refuge camp and the US military shaped his current world view. Ben-David says he comes \"from the 'hood. My mother's side, they were all communists. My dad's side, they were imperialists.\" He says he \"grew up with gangstas\" and worked for awhile as a bodyguard for one of the biggest drug dealers in Los Angeles and there is no elaboration, corroboration  or proof for any of this. \nThe author depends way to much on pithy quotes to try to show you who his subject is, seems way too impressed with this guy's money and doesn't dig below the surface enough to peel back the layers of the onion.  \nWhy did Bet-David take \"a hard right shift into political commentary\"? Is it just to make money? Does he really believe what he says here? What exactly does he love about Trump and his policies? Why? \nI also am confused about his company PHP.  Is it a multilevel marketing agency or an insurance company and what exactly was the complaint about it being a pyramid scheme? ","scores":{"Overall Score":3}},"status":"submit"},"mchessher@mail.smu.edu":{"4603":{"comments":"What an unexpected and engaging story. Great reporting and powerful scenes do a notable job of showing this woman's impact on her community and telegraph the critical role good journalism can play in readers' lives. ","scores":{"Overall Score":5}},"4649":{"comments":"Well-reported exploration of this newsroom's origin story, its impact, and its future through the lens of its founder. Some nice scenes and a detail (although the weaving metaphor became a bit ham-handed for me). ","scores":{"Overall Score":3}},"4756":{"comments":"The unending cascade of telling details fuels this profile's power. Great sources, tangible quantification that makes a strong case for why we need to care, and engaging organization.  ","scores":{"Overall Score":4}},"status":"submit"},"jkkaplan@syr.edu":{"4603":{"comments":"Really like this story; don't particularly like the writing, particularly the lede","scores":{"Overall Score":3}},"4649":{"comments":"This is fine, but a bit too formulaic for my taste; there's nothing here that is incredibly new nor is the writing that crisp","scores":{"Overall Score":3}},"4756":{"comments":"I love this from soup to nuts. This is a guy, Bet-David, who I never heard about before I read this profile. It is well written, well-reported and well-sourced and takes an objective look at someone who has a great deal of influence in right-wing media","scores":{"Overall Score":5}},"status":"submit"},"andyabrahams86@gmail.com":{"4603":{"comments":"There was so much to learn in this excellent profile of Lorena Lopez. Who knew there would be an audience for a Spanish-language paper in predominantly white Iowa, sustainable with enough ad revenue to be able to hire reporters who were downsized and start up another publication? Herrera puts Lopez's work in the context of much of  America now: a news desert especially for Latinos who have no other sources of reliable information and depend on social media for information, where sources are dubious at best. \n\nHer journey from Nicaragua to Iowa as a single mother is fascinating and, not incidentally, inspiring. But her mission is even more admirable and her gumshoe reporter instincts have served her well. This is my winner in the category.","scores":{"Overall Score":5}},"4649":{"comments":"I wish the rest of this piece grabbed me as much as the first three grafs. The writing is not great, and neither is the structure. Gadbois's backstory is not that interesting and her weaving background wasn't integral to the point of the story. Of course, the mission of the Lens, especially in New Orleans, is more than commendable. But the  story is just not that well told.","scores":{"Overall Score":3}},"4756":{"comments":"I didn't know about Bet-David at all before I read this well-reported profile, and while there seems to be no shortage of provocative  right-wing, bombastic social media types these days, Bet-David has an interesting backstory. McLaughlin dug a little deeper to find out about Bet-David's dubious insurance company PHP, though I wanted to know a bit more about what the unnamed Memphis TV station (McLaughlin should have credited the station) found out exactly about PHP.\n\nA good piece that would be my second choice for winner in the category.","scores":{"Overall Score":4}},"status":"submit"},"dorian@teemingmedia.com":{"4603":{"comments":"A strong portrayal of a world many of us, or at least I, would not otherwise know. The initial details of Latinos and Hispanic media seemed a bit of a diversion and were not necessarily pertinent to this publication in its small community. It also lacked some of the pointed commentary about the subject from others that were in the Gadbois piece.\n","scores":{"Overall Score":4}},"4649":{"comments":"This piece is broad, deep, and rich with relevant details, both personal and professional, that evoke the subject and cast some light on her work as founder of this news organization. It also places her and her work in the context of the times and of other non-profits, as well as the community, all of which helps us understand the work in a more textured way.","scores":{"Overall Score":5}},"4756":{"comments":"A fine profile of a YouTube media mogul, with some good details of the person. Not as rich, detailed, or contextualized as others in the category.\n","scores":{"Overall Score":3}},"status":"submit"},"jmaxrobins@gmail.com":{"4603":{"comments":"Like the profile of the Lens founder, this profile has a great subject, however, once again there's a lot more telling than showing.  The writer needed to spend more time with the incredible woman he profiled.  ","scores":{"Overall Score":3}},"4649":{"comments":"I don't really think this story qualifies as a profile, as much as it is using the Lens and its founder to survey the non-profit local news landscape.  The profile  of the Lens founder, does to much telling and not enough showing.  This piece needed a much better edit  and packaging. ","scores":{"Overall Score":2}},"4756":{"comments":"By far the best crafted of a not particularly distinguished group.  McLaughlin paints a smart portrait of  a MAGA YouTube media star, with a questionable business background who few folks in the mainstream media know anything about, while he has amassed fame, fortune and influence on the right. ","scores":{"Overall Score":4}},"status":"submit"}},"commentary_final":{"tbreton@cox.net":{"4598":{"comments":" These columns are so dry and wordy. I would have stopped reading them if I hadn't been judging them for a contest. Allsop devotes much of  his columns to just regurgitating what other media have published. I really didn't learn anything new.  ","scores":{"Overall Score":2}},"4692":{"comments":"The writing here is much weaker than Malone's and there's less reporting and interviewing to support the columns. The subjects he chose to write about are important but there's just too much of him bloviating about these issues.  ","scores":{"Overall Score":3}},"4696":{"comments":"This entry is the clear winner, in my opinion.  The topics that Malone writes about are really important; the writing is strong and graceful.  There's a ton of good research\/reporting to support the columns and the Hunterbrook column was really thought-provoking and  filled with material based on original interviewing.  ","scores":{"Overall Score":5}},"4819":{"comments":"The first two columns were well-written, thought-provoking and filled with good descriptiove detail. They were based on original reporting from inside a courtroom.   I don't think the third column is a fit for this prize.  ","scores":{"Overall Score":4}},"status":"submit"},"mchessher@mail.smu.edu":{"4598":{"comments":" Solid reporting and some persuasive arguments, but the package of pieces weren\u2019t consistently as compelling and insightful as others in this group.","scores":{"Overall Score":3}},"4692":{"comments":"Powerful arguments delivered with detail, imagination, unexpected insights, and compelling examples. Memorable in every way.","scores":{"Overall Score":5}},"4696":{"comments":"Captivating scenes, strong narrative fueled by reporting and examples and scenes, and filled with unexpected reveals.","scores":{"Overall Score":4}},"4819":{"comments":" Solid reporting and some persuasive arguments, but the package of pieces weren\u2019t consistently as compelling and insightful as others in this group.Although interesting and engaging, these pieces lack the depth and the breadth delivered by all other entries.","scores":{"Overall Score":2}},"status":"submit"},"jkkaplan@syr.edu":{"4598":{"comments":"not impressed; these are much more aggregations than original writings about what is going on in the media","scores":{"Overall Score":2}},"4692":{"comments":"This is a new series of columns for the New Yorker--as the first story makes abundantly clear--and I think the author is still trying to get his sea legs. While the topics are interesting and the writing pretty good, not sure that it rises to being a winner.","scores":{"Overall Score":3}},"4696":{"comments":"These three articles are really good about important topics and well written, particularly the last two. I wish in her second one that she had listed the journalists who gave advice to the interns since it is that type of specificity that leads to enhanced credibility but all in all I liked the style and the message","scores":{"Overall Score":4}},"4819":{"comments":"Loved the first two columns; well-written and well reported and containing incredibly interesting details that I've not seen anywhere else; not sure why the third column was even entered since it's not really at all about the media and diminishes the other two entries","scores":{"Overall Score":4}},"status":"submit"},"andyabrahams86@gmail.com":{"4598":{"comments":"Allsop get higher marks for writing about the media  and the assassination attempt, though I wanted more about the  left's view (or maybe skeptics in general) of  Trump's assasination attempt as fake, which arguably made him a martyr in the heat of an election. The sanewashing piece raises some good points, particularly the notion that cleaning up Trump's speech is an example of the media's elite bias. But , through no fault of Allsop's, we seem so far beyond sane washing when Trump floods the zone with a firehose of misinformation, distortion or just plain lies. Who can keep up?","scores":{"Overall Score":3}},"4692":{"comments":"Caspian Kang's commentary is always insightful and thoughtful, though he can get very meta at times. The Arguing Ourselves to Death piece is very strong and should be used in J schools as a great primer about the fragmentation of the industry and how quantity, not quality, rules our online world. \n\nI would be fine if the consensus among us judges is that this is the winner. I just thought Malone eked out Caspian Kang as a more accessible voice.","scores":{"Overall Score":4}},"4696":{"comments":"\nThis is  my winner in the category. The Hunterbrook Media story was so revelatory (at least to me) that it could have been the sole entry. Hedge fund money behind journalism ventures isn't new but the ethical concerns of a fund shorting the stock of  a company based on reporting the fund finances is almost head spinning. Malone pulls together all the depressing but essential facts about the state of the industry in the extinction-level piece, but I thought she made excellent and possibly even hopeful points about up and coming reporters in particular who think of themselves as \"integral to the functioning of civic society, even if much of society doesn't particularly like us.\"\n\n","scores":{"Overall Score":5}},"4819":{"comments":"I would have given Bennett's pieces an average of a three, but her smart, insightful piece on E. Jean Carroll bumped up her overall score.  Bennett fleshes out who Carroll was before she won her case against Trump, and how she (like so many other sexual harassment or abuse plaintiffs) became a punching bag for both the defendant's legal team and those who want to smear her. She's also older, which Trump's lawyer used to undermine her credibility by insinuating that she is now enjoying a newfound celebrity in later life.\n\nBut the other two stories didn't have nearly as much punch as the Carroll piece. Courtroom artists are peripheral media figures and while Isabelle Brourman's story has impact, given her backstory as a sexual assault victim, I wasn't that invested in the story as a whole.","scores":{"Overall Score":4}},"status":"submit"},"dorian@teemingmedia.com":{"4598":{"comments":"Well-written, presented, and argued, but not as sophisticated, nuanced, or well-reported as others in the category this year. And the final piece is about others' opinions, not the author's.","scores":{"Overall Score":3}},"4692":{"comments":"I give Caspian Kang a high rating in the category because the well-written opinion pieces are deftly argued on imperatives for the media industry. My only hesitation is that the second and third pieces are making arguments about similar topics \u2014 fairness in covering Trump and Trumpworld.","scores":{"Overall Score":4}},"4696":{"comments":"Wide ranging. Any opinions given are founded on clear, fact-based reporting. There is a willingness to hit hard. The final piece on Hunterbrook is an outstanding piece of reporting. But it is not opinion. And while the second piece has hints of opinion and is analytical, it does not really take a stand.","scores":{"Overall Score":4}},"4819":{"comments":"Well-written and reported. However, the first two pieces are more profile than opinion and the third isn\u2019t really about the media. ","scores":{"Overall Score":3}},"status":"submit"},"jmaxrobins@gmail.com":{"4598":{"comments":"Allsop comments on  important subjects, however the his writing lacks the flare and surprise of Bennett, far and away the best in this category.","scores":{"Overall Score":3}},"4692":{"comments":"Clear writing and  clear thinking in all three of Kang's commentaries. ","scores":{"Overall Score":4}},"4696":{"comments":"I simply couldn't score this one.  Malone's pieces are well-reported articles, however they are not commentary pieces.  ","scores":{"Overall Score":0}},"4819":{"comments":"Bennett is a terrific stylist,  as well a first-rate reporter.  The  E. Jean Carroll commentary and the essay about the women courtroom artists are both brilliant.","scores":{"Overall Score":5}},"status":"submit"}},"single_final":{"maryromano556@gmail.com":{"4551":{"comments":"This story was fine. It gave insight into how hands-off Bezos was\/is. It's a good story on its own, but I consider it the weak one among the bunch here.","scores":{"Overall Score":3}},"4592":{"comments":"This was a strong story showing the efforts to stifle reporting by using a little known espionage act. I like the way the story delved into the history, and gave important context that it's not just the Trump administration; it's past ones as well, Democrats and Republicans alike.","scores":{"Overall Score":4}},"4626":{"comments":"I'm giving this one the 5 rating because I learned something new about an important issue in journalism.  The accompanying note: the little-known, billion-dollar 501(c)(3) largely responsible for the extreme number of Christian rock\/pop stations on the radio dial. No kidding. I didn't even know about this company.\n\nAnd it did a great job show the tactics the company uses to gain ownership of these stations and spread their conservative views--and how it's replacing local voices, local jobs and true political discussion. This story is a good example of ... follow the money--the author knew how to dig into public records to gain information and facts.","scores":{"Overall Score":5}},"4773":{"comments":"I like the way this story put human faces and names to those who were killed in the conflict, and it shared personal information that described their personalities and achievements. It also had scope in describing global violence (and threats of violence) against journalists, and how that is leading to a loss of journalism in communities that benefit the most from reporting. It gave context\/background of how journalists were protected in the past to a certain degree, but that is long gone. I gave it a 4 rating, so it's tied between with the espionage act story. Both illustrated the ways press freedom is being stifled. This issue is of great importance facing journalists -- their lives are at stake as they are attacked more frequently, and their freedom to report is being chipped away.","scores":{"Overall Score":4}},"status":"submit"},"dmrubin@syr.edu":{"4551":{"comments":"I learned a great deal about the problems at the WaPo from Stelter's long piece.  It is very well sourced and thorough.  While the writing is a bit disjointed in places, I was riveted.  While I read the WaPo daily and have done so for years, there was much in this piece I didn't know.  One thing missing is at least a short section on all the good reporting the paper has done in the last decade.  Stelter admits the paper has won many prizes, but he provides no details.  His focus is entirely on the business screw-ups, the absence of Bezos, and overall poor leadership.  That is OK, but somehow the newsroom did great work anyway.  He ought to have addressed that in some way.  However, this is certainly a piece worthy of a Mirror Award.  I enjoyed it.  The fate of the paper is very important to the health of the US, particularly now.  This matters, a lot.  (Giving him the award would also demonstrate our criticism of CNN for letting him go as its media critic, a truly foolish move.)","scores":{"Overall Score":5}},"4592":{"comments":"This is a very important piece in light of how the Trump administration is attacking universities, big law, and the federal bureaucracy.  While this was written before Trump took office for a second time, Paoletta is quite correct to presume that journalists will be under enormous pressure when trying to cover national security issues.  Look at what has already happened with Goldberg of The Atlantic (no doubt a Mirror entry for next year).  The Assange case is just the opening bell.  The Espionage Act will become an important tool for AG Bondi to try to control journalists and the news organizations for whom they work.  Paoletta provides a good summary of the law, along with some history of past cases, such as Judith Miller.  When he quotes James Risen telling the public to \"Wake up\" to this threat, he is right.  The writing is somewhat pedestrian, but the topic is important.  The piece provides a valuable service.","scores":{"Overall Score":5}},"4626":{"comments":"Since I rarely listen to AM or FM radio, and I would never listen to religious rock music (I prefer Mozart), I had no idea that yet another chain of radio stations has been created to propagandize the public.  Thornton does a fine job explaining how EMF used existing loopholes in FCC rules to amass this chain of stations.  She makes a good point that these stations help promote a male, white, straight power structure.  It's another front in our cultural wars, one that  was totally out of my blinkered vision.  The writing and organization are both solid.  I would like to have known if the FCC intends to address the loopholes, or if EMF will just continue to gobble up frequencies.  Given Trump's control of the FCC, I can guess the answer.  ","scores":{"Overall Score":4}},"4773":{"comments":"The authors have done a great service publicizing the names, photos, and some personal information about many of the journalists killed in Gaza trying to cover the war.  They are people, not just victims.  The authors make good points about how drone technology can identify journalists, and the special dangers for free-lancers trying to cover the war.  Journalism organizations have fewer resources these days to protect their employees.  They also make a good point that in our current era where facts are devalued, the role of journalists is diminished.    The larger point---that journalists die in war and that covering Gaza has been particularly dangerous---is not a surprising one, but it is valuable to be reminded of this.  Many media have told pieces of this story.  Nieman's effort is, however, serious, earnest, and valuable.  Of course, no solutions exist, and they offered none.","scores":{"Overall Score":4}},"status":"submit"},"rthompso@syr.edu":{"4551":{"comments":"A solid by-the-book Brian Stelter product. Of the four candidates, it seemed the most substantial.","scores":{"Overall Score":5}},"4592":{"comments":"There's a lot going on in this one:  a little speculative fiction, an encyclopedia entry on the Espionage Act: 1917 to the Present, some reporting...all of it interesting.","scores":{"Overall Score":4}},"4626":{"comments":"The author aptly asserts that EMF isn't known by many folks---a broadcasting behemoth,  kilosignal outfit that seems to operate mostly in camouflage. This piece does a clear and amusing job of introducing the operation that has likely, at one point or another, supplanted their favorite radio stations in the hometowns of ROLLING STONE  readers across the country.  The replacement of \"local voices,local jobs, genuine political discussion, and artistic exploration with unmanned transmitters\" is the result of a lot more than this purveyor of bad middlebrow Christian music, however, and this piece doesn't much explore that. It also never mentions the extensive and storied role played by \"Christian\" content from the very beginning of radio in the 1920s. ","scores":{"Overall Score":3}},"4773":{"comments":"The usual emotional photo\/profile montage of victims serves as a delivery system for the compressed, drive-by analyses of digital technology's lethal impact on the profession of journalism. Although there is nothing new here, this piece does a startling and very affecting job of reminding us how social media's annihilation of the old principles and practices have resulted in perilous side-effects. ","scores":{"Overall Score":4}},"status":"submit"},"edgecliffe@semafor.com":{"4551":{"comments":"I\u2019ve read a lot of Post-in-crisis pieces. What this did better than most was tell the story from both the commercial and editorial sides of the fence. Brian Stelter\u2019s comprehensive reporting shows clearly how Bezos disappeared when the Post needed him most, and the  leadership vacuum is its strongest theme. In another year, I might have given this a five, but, for me, it didn\u2019t quite have the originality of the Rolling Stone story. \n","scores":{"Overall Score":4}},"4592":{"comments":"Clear, convincingly argued, well reported (though short on input from the Trump team) and chilling. I favor the Rolling Stone piece but this is another strong contender.","scores":{"Overall Score":4}},"4626":{"comments":"I really liked the storytelling and punch in this account of how the tax-avoiding Educational Media Foundation became the second-largest station owner in the country \u2014 and a money-making machine. Thornton hones in on the problem: it\u2019s not just the narrow playlist; it\u2019s the squeezing out of stations with local meaning by one with none. It\u2019s an original subject, the musical analysis and history work well for Rolling Stone\u2019s audience, and the illustrations are great too.\n","scores":{"Overall Score":5}},"4773":{"comments":"I wanted to like this more, because I think I it\u2019s a deeply important subject, but this felt too thinly reported and similar to several other pieces I\u2019ve read on the subject. It might have had more impact if it had dug into one of these journalists\u2019 stories and reported out what had happened, and who was to blame for the impunity the reporters rightly highlight. ","scores":{"Overall Score":3}},"status":"submit"},"dorothy.bland@unt.edu":{"4551":{"comments":"This is a thorough, insightful read with rigorous reporting about clashes among the newsies, business management and the owner Jeff Bezos. ","scores":{"Overall Score":4}},"4592":{"comments":"This was a very interesting story with good historical context. However, the lead is too long and hypothetical \"she\". ","scores":{"Overall Score":3}},"4626":{"comments":"Kate Thornton is a wonderful storyteller! She provides great color, context and history about why and how the Educational Media Foundation became the country's fastest-growing radio chain over the last 40+ years. It is fascinating that  EMF, which is known for contemporary Christian radio, is the second largest radio station owner in the nation with assets of nearly $1 billion in 2022.  Prior to reading this story, I had no idea EMF's assets were much bigger than NPR.        \n\nThe description of metrics such as BPMS (beats per minute) and JPMs (Jesuses per minute) were wonderful.\n\nThe author is great at painting pictures with phrases such as \"the mood at WAAF was somewhere between hospice care and a rowdy Irish Catholic wake.\"  \n\nAs far as EMF's impact, the story states EMF \"broadcasts on more than 1,000 signals across all 50 states and some U.S. territories, reaching an estimated 18 million listeners.\"  ","scores":{"Overall Score":5}},"4773":{"comments":"Interesting profiles of 13 journalists, including one as young as 27, killed in the wars in Gaza and Ukraine. This certainly speaks to the dangers of war as well as covering crisis and trauma. However, this story doesn't rise to the quality of top writing based on other entries in this category. ","scores":{"Overall Score":1}},"status":"submit"},"hpolskin@gmail.com":{"4551":{"comments":"Stelter really covered the waterfront with this in-depth, deeply reported story.  It had loads of good insight and anecdotes about a legendary newsroom in a free fall.  But a lot of what he wrote about (but not all) I felt like I had read before.  After reading this long account, I held the same belief I had BEFORE I opened Stelter's piece: WaPo is in serious trouble.  ","scores":{"Overall Score":3}},"4592":{"comments":"Chilling.  Strong lead and kicker.  Lots to unpack in the story.  And lots to keep journalists up at night.  Perhaps every reporter covering the Trump White House should read it.  ","scores":{"Overall Score":4}},"4626":{"comments":"This article did a great job opening my eyes to an area of the media business that I had almost ignored: Christian rock radio.  It not only provided a good primer on the challenges facing terrestrial radio and its apparent demise, but it provided a comprehensive picture of the rise of Christian rock   (and why it's rocking).  I would have given it a 5 if it had big trimmed.  The lead was endless and wasn't as interesting as the writer thought it was.  And for all of the thousands of words about the subject, a graph on how much music is available through digital channels (even the Worcester radio station where DJ Mistress now toils so her Boston listeners can tune in), would have given the piece more perspective.  ","scores":{"Overall Score":4}},"4773":{"comments":"This was a powerful story illustrating the dangers of covering this violent conflict.  The author makes good points about the rise of social media and the diminished ability of news outlets to protect reporters covering conflicts like Gaza.  But I didn't feel like it rose to the level of award-winning.  And I was troubled that the article didn't spent more time diving deeper into the elephant in the room.  Some of the Palestinian reporters may have been affiliated with the terror organization Hamas.  For instance Jewish Insider (a news outlet with a particular POV) estimated that a third of the Palestinian reporters killed in Gaza may have been affiliated with Hamas.  That might have given this article more balance.  ","scores":{"Overall Score":2}},"status":"submit"},"carlson.margaret@gmail.com":{"4551":{"comments":"This was nothing like the \"real story\" the headline promised in the Brian Stetler. How could he miss? There's no group easier to get a colorful quote out of than reporters who are always seaching for such quotes themselves. What' s more, if you live here, it's hard to find a Washington Post reporter who doesn't want to talk about the Post. But the easiest group for Stetler to get the skinny from is down the hall from him at The Atlantic . The magazine hired five, maybe up to 10 by now, reporters from the Post. \n\nThe glaring hole in the piece was any insight into the fascinating central figure at the floundering Post, Will Lewis. who could be dead for all anyone on staff at the Post knows, in favor of rehashing old, unenlightening quotes from the Times and WashPost reporting.  The weird org chart featuring the absent Lewis,  the Brit Winnett,  who was going to be in charge of a vague The Third Way but never started, and Matt Murray, the respected former editor of the Wall Street Journal who's been running the newsroom  to great reviews since Lewis went into Witness Protection but hasn't been officially given the job that others were interviewed for. \"Who's editor of the Post\" could be a parlor game. \n I met Will at his welcome party given by Patty Stonesifer,  Lewis's last moment of glory. Stonesifer, Jeff Bezos' close friend and director on his board,  had headed up the search committee. Stetler had a few anodyne quotes from Stonesifer but no evidence he asked the glaring question:  \"Did the search committee know of Lewis's history with Murdoch and decide to hire him anyway, or did they not know something that all of Fleet Street, Prince Harry's staff, the Queen and anyone sentient crosss the pond knew? ","scores":{"Overall Score":1}},"4592":{"comments":"This piece just marched full speed ahead , despite the density of the subject and despite having to present a lot of information to people who haven't been paying enough attention to changes in the Espionage Act. Source and journalist should be very, very afraid. The article balanced the need for just-the-facts -maam reporting to inform the ill-informed like me with let's-scare-them-to-death paragraphs to protect themselves but without shrinking from the duty to inform. It's all exacerbated by the new coming of Trump, who doesn't need a law to jail people. The EA was made for him. \n\nCurrent whistleblowing lacks the drama that made  journalists the stars of stage and screen. There's no need to meet in a dark alley with Daniel Ellsberg or Deep Throat. The incriminating goods like the Pentagon Papers can be sent electronically in minutes and if exposed send both parties to prison for decades. It's bad all around but journalists not employed by a big publication are screwed. By the end of this piece, I promised myself I would  donate to journalists doing God's work without a Bezos to back them up. I could start with those pleas from Pro Publica. ","scores":{"Overall Score":5}},"4626":{"comments":"One of the up, and down, sides of the Mirror Awards is that you learn of horrible new things going you now have to worry about.  Add to the increased harm the Espionage Act can do to journalists and their sources, a Christian right billionaire who's taking over the airwaves, killing local radio stations, and making young, white, straight men Trumpers. On top of that not paying taxes because the music's Christian. \n\nThe Jim Baker like founder (without a Tammy) is an interesting character who slipped  the bounds of accountability with a very clever lawyer playing the questionable  501c card. But I wonder if readers seeing the small type over six pages sustained their interest in a full-blown profile of him. Rollng Stone has fallen into the New Yorker trap of believing readers have infinite patience for five and ten  thousand word pieces. Still Katie Thornton did a stand-up job, drawing an interesting picture of founder Anthony Fogel building his corporation out of  \"Left of the Dial \"stations I didn't know existed and which can be bought for a pittance. But I'm less worried about an audience listening to bland religious songs roboplayed on lucrative stations than what the government can do whistleblowers and those who write about them in the CJR piece. .  ","scores":{"Overall Score":3}},"4773":{"comments":"There are two things about this entry that make it competitive: writing about how much disinformation is being spread about journalists as the enemy, making journalists themselves targets of violence.  Second the photo gallery of some of the journalists killed, an average of 16 a month, since the attack at the concert on Oct. 7. So young, so intrepid, so vulnerable. \n\nSo much has changed there are no rules of engagement in Gaza, palestine and Israel. I don't know that writing about it makes any difference on the ground.  Rules that applied when non-combatat wore a UN, or Medic, or Press vest are no longer operative. A Press ID makes you a target. It's not going to keep a  sniper whose kids are dying in a tunnel in Gaza from retaliating against anyone in his sights.  It 's tragic that reports that war inow hellish for journalists too is now part of life and death there  with no end in sight. I'mnot sure it's news. I'm not sure this piece moves the needle.  ","scores":{"Overall Score":1}},"status":"submit"}},"higgins_final":{"maryromano556@gmail.com":{"4046":{"comments":"This seems like a localized story but the topic is much bigger.  With the rise of social media, journalism is changing--there are fewer guardrails on who is a journalist and what is written. It was easier when it was mainly the legacy media. Now, journalists are writing substacks, doing TikTok videos, and younger people are turning to these sources for news. But many, or most, lack editors, and standards. Legacy media may have its issues, but the melding of traditional journalism with citizen journalism will only create more distrust and confusion among readers. Plus, this profile illustrates again how first amendments rights are being stifled more than ever. Great job.","scores":{"Overall Score":5}},"4074":{"comments":"I liked this story because it resulted in direct action: the story was pulled in order to protect locals who helped the U.S. military in Afghanistan. The producers of the film are taking the brunt of the criticism, but I think there were failures all around -- the military, other documentary producers, etc. It also delves into the important issue of the responsibility of journalists to protect sources.","scores":{"Overall Score":4}},"4775":{"comments":"An important series examining how journalism's digital records are being lost or erased. In-depth explanations, written in easy way for anyone to understand. Great \"explainers\" with good context and background.","scores":{"Overall Score":4}},"status":"submit"},"dmrubin@syr.edu":{"4046":{"comments":"There is, I think, an important story buried in here.  But it is overlong and poorly organized.  Further, the discussion of the law involved is confusing.  Buch tries to pull in too many legal issues, instead of focusing narrowly on the issue of a government official providing information to a journalist, or member of the public, that violates current Texas law.  What gets lost in the telling is that Villarreal won her case against the police.  The judge agreed that she should not have been charged for asking for the information (and receiving it).  The law, he said, is unconstitutionally vague.  But instead of taking her win and going home, she then chose to file her own suit against the police.  To be honest, I am suspicious of her motives and whether she is really the best example of a \"citizen journalist,\" or if she is more a performance artist or social media star.  Buch isn't skeptical enough of her.  Part 3 of this entry for PBS is, at least, concise and clear.  In sum, there are some good things here, but I would not be comfortable giving this an award.  Given the many legal issues the media and journalists face now, this is of marginal importance.","scores":{"Overall Score":3}},"4074":{"comments":"This is an important piece about the ethics of documentary filmmakers.  I was not aware of this controversy that led to stripping the Murrow Award from National Geographic and the producers of the documentary.  It was entirely because of the Post's reporting.  The Post convinces me that the director and producer of the documentary knew full well that its Afghan subjects would be in great danger if their identities were revealed.  Yet, despite repeated warnings to the producer and director, warnings that were uncovered by the Post, they went ahead anyway, with tragic consequences.  The Post did a real service in discussing the ethics involved.  The pieces were also well written and well organized, unlike the entry from the Texas Observer.","scores":{"Overall Score":5}},"4775":{"comments":"The overall subject---saving journalism archives---is a different one from entries over the years, and of modest interest to me.  The three parts are of varying quality.  To truly understand how to save websites and web pages that are disappearing, one needs more knowledge than I have of digital technology.  Bullard's piece, therefore, was not of much use to me.  Ann Cooper's piece on saving AP's archives was better, but other than Curly's decision to do it, overlong and dull.  Best, I thought, was the effort to preserve what Putin and other oligarchs are trying to destroy.  I did not know about PEN's involvement or Bard College.  Leon Botstein, its President, has his hands in everything!  That entry on PEN was itself worthy of consideration, but it is dragged down by the other two.  ","scores":{"Overall Score":3}},"status":"submit"},"rthompso@syr.edu":{"4046":{"comments":"It was an enlightening exercise to see the classic repertoire of free speech and journalistic ethics rehearsed in a case concerning this different category of questioner.  The profile lite of Villarreal was also a nice challenge to elite professional sensibilities. ","scores":{"Overall Score":5}},"4074":{"comments":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nincluding","scores":{"Overall Score":4}},"4775":{"comments":"Although the writing is a little artless at times, the subject is urgent and underreported. That the scrapbook and shoe box are sometimes turning out to have been more reliable archiving systems than digital clouds is a state of affairs in need of the attention that these three pieces nicely invite. ","scores":{"Overall Score":4}},"status":"submit"},"carlson.margaret@gmail.com":{"4046":{"comments":"Theh piece started great, a profile of a New Kind of JournalistBlogger, colorful, providing a service to her town, the little guy against the powers that be. But then I felt  I was watching a horror movie yelling at the TV \"don't get in the car with that guy.\"   I'm yelling \"Don't support the appeal of this case with this plaintiff.\" Don't write about it as a good thing that journalists groups chose an iffy plantiff to support. \n\nThat's not being a snob. There's no journalist club keeping Villareal out because there's no bar exam, no club, except social ones that give dinners with skits and entertainment. Anyone can ask questions and write about the answers and she's found quite a following for doing so. Unlike doctors and  lawyers who have to become board certified and take oaths to uphold certain standards, journalists are on their own unless they work for an organization that has a code.  (The piece reported that she had some ethical violations without saying how many or providing details).  Hard cases make bad law, as does supporting plaintiff who are going to make law beyond the original jurisdiction and beyond the set of facts presented in a trial court. Groups backing an appeal , financial and otherwise,  are generally careful to evaluate a plaintiff and choose to back one who's purer than Caesar's wife to up the odds of previaling, especially when a case will make law for a whole class.  \"Journalism Lost\" is the lament but journalism brought it on itself by choosing the wrong horse to ride.  In Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi, thanks to the Fifth Circuit  ruling against Villareal, not just in Laredo but in three states it is okay for the police to arrest a journalists who asks a question out of turn. That's how I read it. It really isn't about brash journalists asking tough questions better than their staid counterparts who shouldn't be kept out of a club that doesn't exist.  ","scores":{"Overall Score":1}},"4074":{"comments":"The statement \"No animal was hurt in the making of this movie\" runs at the end of most movies. It's shocking that documentaries make no such claim about people. Thanks to Roig-Franzia's reporting a practice of not obscuring the face of someone who could be put in harm's way was exposed, a practice condoned and defended, was exposed. The documentary makers were warned by American soldiers that they were risking the life of the genius who risked his life disarming roadside bombs for American troops, an Afghan who was left behind like so many others in the chaotic exit from Baghram. All they had to do was obscure his face and any other identifying characteritics. What makes this piece a winner is that it is highly unlikely to happen again.  It's an awful outcome for the film--it should have been seen and applauded BUT FOR unnecessary carelessness. Because of Roig Franzia--violins playing-- out of tragedy comes positive change and that's why it deserves a five.  ","scores":{"Overall Score":5}},"4775":{"comments":"Kudos for shining a light on a problem I didn't know existed --saving my work, my  olleagues work, the first drafts of history and so on. It worked to describe the problem, what it will take to fix it, and the attention that must be paid to get it accomplished, the sooner the better. It manages to teach the unwashed on the subject and explain what has to happen to deal with it and the harm it's causing now when a reporter wants to hold a public officials feet to the fire but can't find the articles that will help. But it pales next to the piece on the brave Afghan killed in part because he was exposed to the Taliban by a documentarian who knew the risk and took it. ","scores":{"Overall Score":3}},"status":"submit"},"edgecliffe@semafor.com":{"4046":{"comments":"I found it quite to deciide on this category. The Texas Observer story that kicks off this package is a well-drawn profile, bringing out the complexities of its subject, who may be an imperfect standard bearer for the First Amendment. I felt it took too long to make its point about the wider threats to the First Amendment illustrated by La Gordiloca\u2019s case. The PBS piece in this submission was very good - clearly written with a compelling argument.","scores":{"Overall Score":4}},"4074":{"comments":"Did a NatGeo team endanger an Afghan man\u2019s life by featuring his face in their award-winning documentary? I was mostly convinced by the evidence Roig-Franzia collected that the filmmakers ignored several warnings in doing so. Either way, his extensive reporting had a clear impact, leading to the film being stripped of an award and pulled from streaming services. I would have liked more discussion of the journalism ethics questions this story posed, and of what could be done to prevent such risks from being taken with people\u2019s lives in future, but ultimately I made this my first pick because of its impact.","scores":{"Overall Score":5}},"4775":{"comments":"I thought it was a great idea to examine the risk of vital journalism being lost through these three lenses. They\u2019re very different stories, of varying power, but they add up to a compelling reminder that, carelessly or deliberately, there\u2019s nothing easier than killing the digital record. I nearly gave this a 5 but it's up against two submissions on more urgent subjects. If we don\u2019t vote it the winner we might consider an honorable mention for its originality.\n","scores":{"Overall Score":4}},"status":"submit"},"hpolskin@gmail.com":{"4046":{"comments":"A deep dive into the case of citizen journalist Villarreal.  I particularly like the imaginative way this story was covered across three different news brands.  But I felt the stories needed tighter and better editing.  (There's a cliche in the very first graph: \"traffic ground to a halt\")  It was easy to get lost in the weeds of the story.  I would have like more color about Villarreal.  The article alludes to a possible Starz movie about her life.  But what happened to that project?  That implies that she's quite a character but not a lot of that comes across in the piece.  The story also mentions that she's had \"run-ins with the law\" but goes not further.  It felt like there was a more interesting story wanting to come out.  ","scores":{"Overall Score":3}},"4074":{"comments":"WaPo really peels the covers back on a NatGeo documentary that probably resulted in the death of a man in Afghanistan.  The piece really shows the value of shoe-leather reporting in a gripping and emotional story that ultimately led to the documentary being pulled from Hulu and it award rescinded.  The story also demonstrates the impact that great journalism can have.  A subtext of the story is that despite the enormous challenges facing the Post, its journalists still produce first-rate journalism.  ","scores":{"Overall Score":5}},"4775":{"comments":"Fascinating look into efforts to save Russia's resistance media in digital form at Bard College.  Though well-intentioned and revealing, it never really rose to the level of prize winner.  ","scores":{"Overall Score":3}},"status":"submit"},"dorothy.bland@unt.edu":{"4046":{"comments":"This is an intriguing entry because it addresses the work of \"an unconventional citizen journalist\" who has a larger audience than traditional legacy media in the border city of Laredo, Texas. The article states Gordiloca reportedly \"has more than 200,000 followers\" on Facebook, and it is filled with excellent quotes from her and others such as the one that follows:  \"My news is raw. I'm not editing anything. No sugarcoating anything. I put it out there.\" \n\nThis entry is a fascinating read with implications for free speech, the legal system and policing. It's also a collaboration between the Texas Observer and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists Palabra. It's encouraging to see collaborations of this type. I look forward to the film based on La Gordiloca's life.   ","scores":{"Overall Score":3}},"4074":{"comments":"This is largely basic reporting on a controversial documentary, but not  very strong enterprise. ","scores":{"Overall Score":0}},"4775":{"comments":"This entry addresses a major issue impacting digital news sites from work published in Nieman Reports.  As the article states, \"Few publishers actively maintain archives of their digital-born news.\" While few news organizations have the capacity or resources of AP,  the Nieman Report sheds some light on how to get started. The story headlined, \"Unerased\" provides insights on how the Russian Independent Media Archive in collaboration with PEN America and Bard College have created a \"digitized open access, easily searchable collection of 129 Russian media outlets\" and more are expected to be added. This speaks to a solutions-journalism  approach to saving digital news on a global scale and that's why this package gets the highest rating.  ","scores":{"Overall Score":4}},"status":"submit"}}},"submission_instructions":"<!-- wp:heading {\"level\":4} -->\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Entries may be submitted in the following categories:&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/h4>\n<!-- \/wp:heading -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:list -->\n<ul><!-- wp:list-item -->\n<li>Best Single Article\/Story ($1,000 prize): A single carefully researched print, digital or broadcast piece of any length focused on the media industry. May include photos, videos, sidebars, audio and\/or interactive elements, and the written piece. One article\/story may be submitted per entry.<\/li>\n<!-- \/wp:list-item -->\n\n<!-- wp:list-item -->\n<li>Best Profile ($1,000 prize): A single carefully researched and sourced print, broadcast or digital piece covering a person or organization noteworthy in the media industry. One profile may be submitted per entry.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<!-- \/wp:list-item -->\n\n<!-- wp:list-item -->\n<li>Best Commentary ($1,000 prize): A print, broadcast or digital piece or series of up to three pieces of commentary on the media industry demonstrating the writer\u2019s overall knowledge of the issues, analytic skills and unique voice.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<!-- \/wp:list-item -->\n\n<!-- wp:list-item -->\n<li>John M. Higgins Award for Best In-Depth\/Enterprise Reporting ($5,000 prize): A single, in-depth investigative piece or a series of up to three pieces focused on the media industry. Print, broadcast or digital pieces may be entered, and entries may cross platforms (though not required). Entries will be judged on the quality of the reporting and the importance of the story covered.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<!-- \/wp:list-item --><\/ul>\n<!-- \/wp:list -->\n\n<!-- wp:heading {\"level\":4} -->\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Entry Guidelines<\/h4>\n<!-- \/wp:heading -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>All entries must be submitted between Dec. 15, 2024, and Feb. 15, 2025.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->","award_error_message":"","form_page_content":"<!-- wp:heading -->\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">2025 Mirror Awards<\/h2>\n<!-- \/wp:heading -->\n\n<!-- wp:heading {\"level\":3} -->\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Nomination Guidelines<\/h3>\n<!-- \/wp:heading -->\n\n<!-- wp:heading {\"level\":4} -->\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Overview<\/h4>\n<!-- \/wp:heading -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Now in their 19<sup>th<\/sup><sup>\u00a0<\/sup>year, the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/newhouse.syr.edu\/centers\/mirror-awards\/\">Mirror Awards<\/a>\u00a0recognize the best reporting, analysis and commentary covering the media industry and its role in our economy, culture and democracy. Established by\u00a0Syracuse University\u2019s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications in 2006, the awards honor the reporters, producers, editors and teams of writers who hold a mirror to their own industry for the public\u2019s benefit.\u00a0<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:heading {\"level\":4} -->\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Eligibility<\/h4>\n<!-- \/wp:heading -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>The Mirror Awards are open to anyone who conducts professional reporting, commentary or criticism of the media industry\u2014television, newspaper, magazine, radio, advertising, public relations, the internet and other forms of content-rich digital communications.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Works eligible for consideration are print, broadcast and online editorial content, including material&nbsp;published in consumer and trade magazines; local and national newspapers; local, national or syndicated&nbsp;radio and television features and programs; online local, national or syndicated radio and television features and programs; and online publications, blogs and websites. Works must have been published or&nbsp;broadcast between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31, 2024.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>The subject matter of entries should focus on the business, people, processes and regulations involved in&nbsp;the development or distribution of news and entertainment content. Television reviews, film reviews,&nbsp;fictional works and books are not eligible.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:heading {\"level\":4} -->\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Rules of Entry<\/h4>\n<!-- \/wp:heading -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Writers of any age or professional situation may enter or be nominated.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Individuals may submit up to three entries in total. If more than three entries are received, only the first three entries submitted will be accepted.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Written pieces must be submitted with a URL (where applicable) and in PDF format. Podcasts and audio or video stories must be entered with an accompanying URL.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Individuals may submit more than one entry per category. However, the same piece cannot be submitted to more than one category.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Each entry must be submitted separately.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Entries may be used in whole or in part at the awards ceremony or for event publicity. The judges\u2019 decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>No awards will be given in a category if no entries are deemed worthy of citation by the judges.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>The Newhouse School will present one award for each winning entry. Additional copies of the award may be purchased.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>No one person may win in a category more than three times within five years. Entries by any person who has won three times in the last five years will be excluded.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Judges reserve the right to move entries if incorrectly placed or deemed a more appropriate fit in another category.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:heading {\"level\":4} -->\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Judging<\/h4>\n<!-- \/wp:heading -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>All entries will be subject to a two-tiered judging process. The preliminary jury comprises media professionals and faculty from the Newhouse School. The top three to five entries will be forwarded to a distinguished panel of journalists and academic leaders for final judging. Care will be taken to avoid conflicts of interest.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:heading {\"level\":4} -->\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Evaluation Criteria<\/h4>\n<!-- \/wp:heading -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Entries will be evaluated based on three criteria:&nbsp;<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:list -->\n<ul><!-- wp:list-item -->\n<li>Excellence of craft: What is the overall quality of the writing and newsgathering that goes into each piece? This includes careful attention to sourcing.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<!-- \/wp:list-item -->\n\n<!-- wp:list-item -->\n<li>Framing of the issue: Does the author use the story to provide a broader perspective on the media and its role in society?&nbsp;<\/li>\n<!-- \/wp:list-item -->\n\n<!-- wp:list-item -->\n<li>Appropriateness for the intended audience: Does the author use language and examples that will make sense to their audience? It is expected, for example, that articles published for a&nbsp;trade audience will be somewhat more technical in tone than those for consumer magazines.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<!-- \/wp:list-item --><\/ul>\n<!-- \/wp:list -->\n\n<!-- wp:heading {\"level\":4} -->\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Announcement of Finalists and Winners&nbsp;<\/h4>\n<!-- \/wp:heading -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>A list of finalists in each category will be released in early spring. Winners will be announced in June.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->","submission_notification":"<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Thank you for submitting your work for consideration. 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