Jeopardising the prestige of the National Journalism Awards

Thursday, December 08, 2011

Last Friday, the Press Association of Jamaica (PAJ) presented the National Journalism Awards to deserving members of the media who did outstanding work over the past year. Frankly, we are very worried about how the awards are being treated by individual media houses.

We, of course, don't join in the customary post-award presentation criticisms of how the judges made their decisions. While constructive criticisms are useful, we take the position that awards are not sought but are given in recognition of outstanding work as determined by the judges who, at the best of times, will be subjective.

Indeed, if we see areas where we can make a useful suggestion to improve the final product, then we do so without hesitation. For example, we don't believe that the award for Journalist of the Year should be done on the basis of entries by individual journalists. This one should be decided by a panel of journalists -- retired or inactive -- or a broad-based panel that includes representatives of all the media groups such as the Media Association, the Advertising Association, the Public Relations Society and the PAJ, naturally.

Fortunately, this year, a most deserving journalist was chosen in the person of Miss Nadine McLeod, a reporter/anchor at Television Jamaica (TVJ). We heartily congratulate Miss McLeod and wish her superlative success as she pursues this noble craft.

What we are not quite so happy about is the way the awards are reported by the media houses. Except for one or two exceptions, most media entities report on the awards won by its own staff and ignore the others.

This abysmally parochial and small-minded approach takes away from the prestige of the awards and cheapens them in the eyes of the public. Even enlightened self-interest should cause us to understand this and to do everything to ensure that they get the national respect that would ensure that prestige.

Awards are nothing and hold no real value if they do not symbolise the achievement of the best we have to offer in the various areas of endeavour. We can't give recognition to them when we receive them but ignore them when we don't. Let us learn from how the entertainment world treats the Oscars and the Grammys, for example.

We will never completely agree with the selection of the judges. What we hope for is that we select qualified judges who don't exhibit partiality to one or the other of the media houses. Then we must all agree to abide by their decisions, whether we like it or not.

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Jeopardising the prestige of the National Journalism Awards