A mixture of legacy journalism and new media with emerging platforms were among the 16 winners of the 2018 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards honored for their work in broadcast, digital and documentary journalism.
The awards were announced by Columbia's Graduate School of Journalism on Thursday.
"At a challenging time for the news media," said Jury Chair Cheryl Gould. "We were gratified to see both new platforms strengthen their journalism muscles and traditional outlets maintain their vigorous reporting standards."
Audio and video journalists were recognized with offerings as broadcasts and podcasts. "This American Life" won for its coverage of the split within the Republican Party and Reveal for its human rights reporting in Russia. The New York Times podcast "The Daily" also was honored.
Awards went to media newcomer Netflix and filmmaker Ava Du Vernay for the feature-length documentary "13th" and to Hollywood filmmaker John Ridley's partnership with ABC News on the documentary "Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982-1992."
CBS News won two awards, one for its Syrian war coverage of veteran correspondent Elizabeth Palmer and the other for a two-part "60 Minutes" report from inside the U.S. nuclear arsenal.
PBS picked up wins for the "Frontline" documentary "Exodus," which traces the route of refugees into Europe, and for WORLD Channel's "America ReFramed: Class of '27," a look at the benefits of early education.
Cable outlets also were represented: "HBO Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel" for its investigation into the International Olympic Committee and National Geographic Documentary Films for "Hell on Earth: the Fall of Syria and the Rise of ISIS."
Five local television stations were honored for investigative reporting: ABC15 Arizona for exposing abuse of the American Disabilities Act; KARE 11 for three hard-hitting investigative stories; KHOU-TV for revealing Houston's wasteful police body camera program; KNTV for chronicling the misuse of school police officers to discipline students; and WITI-TV for challenging public opinion about laws intended to safeguard children but that may put them at greater risk.
The awards ceremony, co-hosted by "CBS This Morning" host Gayle King and CNN anchor Jake Tapper, will be at Columbia on Jan. 16.
California governor signs law to protect children from social media addiction
California will make it illegal for social media platforms to knowingly provide addictive feeds to children without parental consent beginning in 2027 under a new law Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Friday.
California follows New York state, which passed a law earlier this year allowing parents to block their kids from getting social media posts suggested by a platform's algorithm. Utah has passed laws in recent years aimed at limiting children's access to social media, but they have faced challenges in court.
The California law will take effect in a state home to some of the largest technology companies in the world. Similar proposals have failed to pass in recent years, but Newsom signed a first-in-the-nation law in 2022 barring online platforms from using users' personal information in ways that could harm children. It is part of a growing push in states across the country to try to address the impacts of social media on the well-being of children.
"Every parent knows the harm social media addiction can inflict on their children — isolation from human contact, stress and anxiety, and endless hours wasted late into the night," Newsom said in a statement. "With this bill, California is helping protect children and teenagers from purposely designed features that feed these destructive habits."
The law bans platforms from sending notifications without permission from parents to minors between 12 a.m. and 6 a.m., and between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. on weekdays from September through May, when children are typically in school. The legislation also makes platforms set children's accounts to private by default.
Opponents of the legislation say it could inadvertently prevent adults from accessing content if they cannot verify their... Read More