Nominations for the 2009 Izzy Award are officially open

ITHACA, NY — Nominations for the 2009 Izzy Award are officially open. The annual award for special achievement in independent media — named after legendary muckraker I. F. “Izzy” Stone — is a project of the Park Center for Independent Media (PCIM) at Ithaca College. Last year’s inaugural award was shared by blogger Glenn Greenwald and “Democracy Now!” host/executive producer Amy Goodman.

“The award honors journalists who follow in the independent footsteps of Izzy Stone,” said Jeff Cohen, PCIM’s founding director. “Our 2008 Izzy winners, Glenn Greenwald and Amy Goodman, personify the growing clout of independent media today in exposing government and corporate misconduct, media bias and human rights violations.”

For more information on the award, visit http://www.ithaca.edu/indy/izzy.

In 1953, during the depths of the anti-communist witch hunts, Stone launched “I. F. Stone’s Weekly,” through which he challenged official deception, McCarthyism and racial bigotry. In 1999, a poll of prominent journalists ranked the publication as number 16 among the “Top 100 Works of Journalism in the United States in the 20th Century.” Stone died in 1989.

I. F. Stone’s son, Jeremy, participated in last year’s award ceremony in Ithaca. Days later, Greenwald and Goodman discussed the award and the importance of independent media on the PBS television program “Bill Moyers Journal.”

Award winners are chosen by a panel of judges who have expertise in independent media. As with last year, joining Cohen on the panel are communications professor and author Robert W. McChesney, and Linda Jue, director and executive editor at the G. W. Williams Center for Independent Journalism. The winner will be announced and the award bestowed in February or March.

This year’s Izzy Award will be given for work published, broadcast or posted in 2009 by an independent media outlet, journalist or producer. The award may relate to a single piece or a body of work. Journalists, academics and the public at large — as well as the judges — may submit nominations by the January 12, 2010, deadline.

Nominations should be submitted via a brief e-mail that includes supporting Web links and/or attached materials to Brandy Hawley at bhawley@ithaca.edu. Only if e-mail is not possible, nominations can be mailed to Brandy Hawley, Ithaca College, Park Center for Independent Media, 953 Danby Road, Ithaca, NY 14850.

Launched in 2008, the Park Center for Independent Media is a national center for the study of media outlets that create and distribute content outside traditional corporate systems and news organizations. Located within Ithaca College’s Roy H. Park School of Communications, the PCIM examines the impact of independent media institutions on journalism, democracy and a participatory culture.