Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications today announced the winners in the 2021 Mirror Awards competition for excellence in media industry reporting.
Chosen from by a group of journalists and journalism educators, the winners are:
Best Profile
Lauren Markham
Columbia Journalism Review
Best Commentary
Issac J. Bailey
“George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and One Journalist’s Painfully Honest Self-Examination on Racism”
“Is Biden’s Stutter Being Mistaken for ‘Cognitive Decline’?”
“Will This Racial Reckoning Finally Force Newsrooms to Listen to Every Staffer’s Voice?”
Nieman Reports
Best Single Article/Story
Charles Bethea
“What Happens When the News Is Gone?”
The New Yorker
John M. Higgins Award for In Depth/Enterprise Reporting
Micah Loewinger and Hampton Stall with Brooke Gladstone and Katya Rogers
“How Zello Became A Recruitment & Organizing Tool for the Far Right”
On the Media Produced by WNYC Studios
Best Story on Media Coverage of the COVID-19 Pandemic
Lynsey Chutel, Lauren Harris, Linda Kinstler, Tony Lin, Zainab Sultan and Stephania Taladrid
Columbia Journalism Review
Best Story on Media Coverage of the 2020 Presidential Election
Casey Quackenbush
“Without a Campaign to Cover, Reporters Shift to Covering the Voting Process Itself”
Nieman Reports
In addition to the juried journalism awards, the Newhouse School presented the Fred Dressler Leadership Award to Jorge Ramos of Univision Noticias, and the inaugural Lorraine Branham IDEA Award to Brown Girls Doc Mafia, accepted by co-founder Iyabo Boyd.
Newhouse dean Mark J. Lodato presided over the virtual ceremony, and Newhouse alumna Michelle Marsh ’05 of ABC7 in Washington, D.C. served as master of ceremonies.
The Mirror Awards are the most important awards for recognizing excellence in media industry reporting. Established by the Newhouse School in 2006, the awards honor the reporters, editors and teams of writers who hold a mirror to their own industry for the public’s benefit. For information about the awards, visit newhouse.syr.edu/mirrorawards or email mirrorawards@syr.edu.