Streamers make a big splash at duPont Columbia Awards
Three different streaming channels – Max, Netflix and Paramount+ – were among the top winners at the duPont-Columbia Awards, some of the highest honors given each year to audio and video reporting in the public interest, while some of the usual news organizations named each not for a year.
CNN, CBS News, NBC News and ABC News were not among the top 16 winners of this year’s awards, which were announced Wednesday. The awards have been presented by Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism since 1968.
Max, Little Room Films & The Boston Globe took home silverware for “Murder in Boston,” a docuseries and podcast that explored how a high-profile murder in Boston led to a racist rush to judgment. MTV Documentary Films and Paramount+ won for ‘Birthing A Nation: The Resistance of Mary Gaffney’, a short documentary that examined the practice of forced reproduction in the antebellum South. Netflix & Lucernam Films won for ‘You Are Not Alone: Fighting the Wolfpack’, a documentary that deconstructs a gang rape that took place during the 2016 San Fermín Festival.
In 2023 or 2024, PBS, ABC News and CNN were among the news companies with multiple wins.
The results could cast doubt on the plight of many of the mainstream TV news organizations, many of which have been cutting costs, laying off employees and shrinking resources as their corporate parents grapple with the challenges of the streaming age. More traditional TV viewers are migrating to broadband services, where they can watch shows at times of their choosing, a dynamic that has wreaked havoc on the media economy. Many television news organization owners, including Paramount Global, Warner Bros. Discovery and Comcast, have orchestrated organizational restructurings or are considering mergers and acquisitions.
During remarks at a ceremony, “60 Minutes” correspondent Bill Whitaker nodded to some of the challenges gripping the industry. “This is a charged time for journalism. With wars in Europe, the Middle East and host countries around the world, the Committee to Protect Journalists calls this one of the deadliest periods for journalists in recent history. Here at home, powerful politicians call us “enemies of the people” and more and more news consumers doubt our reliability. Television news audiences and budgets have shrunk,” Whitaker said. “So journalists, as we said back in the 1970s: ‘Keep going.’ Like the reporters, these public servants whose excellence we honor tonight, we must keep digging, keep looking beneath the rocks, keep shining light into the shadows, keep giving voice to the voiceless and keep giving hope to the hopeless. Continue reporting honestly, with integrity and with facts. Our democracy needs that.”
Several DuPont winners focused on racing. Five silver batons will be awarded to journalists who have re-examined the subject at different points in American history – from the antebellum South to contemporary examples of America’s racial divide. In addition to the above projects, other DuPont winners included The Center for Public Integrity, Mother Jones, Reveal & PRX “40 Acres and a Lie”; National Geographic Documentary Films, The Kennedy/Marshall Company, Alegria Films & Cortés Filmworks “The Space Race”; and KFOR, Oklahoma City & Ali Meyer for “The Wrong Man.”
Three additional duPont Batons honored the audio report. NPR won for its coverage of the war in Gaza; ProPublica & On the Media WNYC Studios’ podcast series “We Don’t Talk About Leonard” won an award; and “We Regret to Inform You,” co-produced with Reveal, and The Investigative Reporting Project at UC Berkeley, was a winner.
Initial honors included the nonprofit journalism organization The Outlaw Ocean Project for its investigative series “China: The Superpower of Seafood,” and Scripps News for its ongoing investigation “Maine Shootings: Missed Warnings.”
Vice News won a duPont for their online film ‘Battleground Texas’ and Songbird Studios & Imaginary Lane were honored for ‘Porcelain War’ about the war in Ukraine.
Founded in 1942, the duPont-Columbia Awards maintain the highest standards in journalism by annually honoring winners, informing the public about those journalists’ contributions and supporting journalism education and innovation. A jury of industry veterans selected 30 finalists and 16 winners. The pool of entries includes traditional national and local news channels from across the country, as well as streaming and entertainment channels.
