This award goes to a piece of journalism on any platform that excels at examining misinformation or disinformation in the public discourse. The work can take on a specific instance of media manipulation, examining its perpetrators and its impact. It can explore possible solutions to the problem, or highlight individuals or groups active in either perpetrating or solving it. In short, the work should delve deeply into any aspect of the troubling phenomenon in any journalistic format.
The $5,000 prize is sponsored the A-Mark Foundation, a Santa Monica-based non-profit and non-partisan foundation dedicated to supporting and disseminating research and research-based solutions on critical social issues. Its founder, Steven Markoff, also created procon.org to enable students, journalists and others to learn all sides of hot-button issues. The winner takes home $4,000, 2nd and 3rd prize winners get $500 each.
A-Mark Prize 2024 Winners
First Place: Albert Serna Jr., TJ L’Heureux, Adrienne Washington, Anisa Shabir, Isaac Stone Simonelli, Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting, Howard Center for Investigative Journalism, “In the Sheriff We Trust” (Links: 1, 2, 3)
Judges’ comment: This package is a public service, using thoroughly reported stories and a strong video to expose a growing group of sheriffs nationwide - who are paid by taxpayers - interpreting and enforcing the law as it suits them. The reporting led to changes in taxpayer-funded sheriff training programs and spotlights a gross abuse of power and the spreading of misinformation by those the public trusts to uphold the law. This is excellent journalism. It’s not “traditional” mis/disinfo reporting. What makes it so good/important as reporting goes is that it exposes the methods and mechanisms used by people trying to give extremist views an air of legitimacy by sneaking it into government functions.
Comment on category as a whole: Judges were impressed by a variety of approaches that included insightful spot reporting and deep investigative work. Some top entries pushed the boundary of “traditional” misinformation and disinformation reporting, digging into related methods used to lend authority to false claims or suppress true narratives.”
Second Place: Greg Mitchell, Lyn Goldfarb and Michelle Merker, KCET, “Memorial Day Massacre: Workers Die, Film Buried”
Third Place: Alexandra Barinka, Bloomberg News, “TikTok Struggles to Take Down Deepfake Videos of Hamas’ Victims”
A-Mark Prize 2023 Winners
First Place: Miranda Green, David Folkenflik and Mario Ariza, Floodlight, NPR, “Power Play: How Utilities Paid a Consulting Group that Infiltrated Local News Media, Attacked Clean Energy Foes and Intimidated Public Officials” (Link)
Comment: A prime example of what makes the A-Mark Prize so important, this team of reporters painstakingly traced the financial connections, through documents and interviews, between a consulting firm and six news sites in Alabama and Florida to show how money influenced coverage to the detriment of Alabama electric utility customers. The smear campaign against critics of the Alabama utility was aimed at thwarting hearings into why consumers there are paying some of the highest rates in the nation. A bright shining light on misinformation leading to apparent corruption by those who are supposed to serve the public interest.
Second Place: James Rainey, Los Angeles Times, “His Website Skewers Stockton Politicians and Agencies. Then One Gave Him A Cushy Job”
Third Place: Sam Kestenbaum, Rolling Stone, “Who is Clay Clark? Inside the Misinformation Roadshow Barnstorming America”