Knight Public Service Award

The Online Journalism Awards includes a $5,000 prize recognizing digital journalism that makes a difference to people where they live.

The Knight Award for Public Service honors the use of journalistic resources, digital techniques and public information that produces compelling coverage of a vital issue and engage a geographic community.

The award is funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The OJAs are administered by the Online News Association and the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California.

While the online world allows people to form virtual societies divorced from geographical limitations, this prize acknowledges the power of digital news media to move citizens to improve the physical communities that still define their democracy and their day-to-day lives.

"The Knight Award for Public Service recognizes that great journalism touches people where they live and can be a greater force for good in their lives," said Gary Kebbel, Knight Journalism Initiatives program officer.

This award complements the rest of the OJA categories, fits the association's mission and offers an excellent opportunity to its members, said Ruth Gersh, chair of the ONA's awards committee.

"As more Americans receive their news and information online, it remains critical that online journalism be held to the highest standards of the profession. We are delighted that Knight Foundation continues to support outstanding journalism and look forward to using this award to spotlight the best online journalism that serves its readers and the public at large," Michael Parks, director of the School of Journalism at USC Annenberg, said.

"The Online News Association is pleased to join with two such important forces in American journalism in continuing to define excellence in digital news," said Michael Silberman, President of the Online News Association. "The support of the Knight Foundation and USC Annenberg for the Online Journalism Awards is a great recognition of the significance of this medium and the work of journalists who have embraced it as a means to tell important stories that impact people's lives."

You can enter via the Online News Associations home page at
www.journalists.org <http://www.journalists.org>

You can find rules, entry requirements and categories at
http://www.journalists.org/awards/.