Awards & Conferences

The Nieman Foundation presents annual journalism awards to news organizations and journalists who have produced exceptional work in several categories. In honoring journalistic excellence, the foundation helps draw attention to innovative research, reporting and storytelling and share the lessons learned from groundbreaking reporting projects in print, on air and online.

Recent honorees include Rukhshana Media, an online news agency that covers the women of Afghanistan, winner of the 2022 Louis M. Lyons Award for Conscience and Integrity in Journalism. The Nieman class of 2022 selected the Rukhshana team, led by founder Zahra Joya, in recognition of their courageous and difficult work under the Taliban.

Recipients of the 2023 Lukas Prize Project Awards include Linda Villarosa, winner of the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize for “Under the Skin: The Hidden Toll of Racism on American Lives and on the Health of Our Nation,” Deborah Cohen, winner of the Mark Lynton History Prize for “Last Call at the Hotel Imperial: The Reporters Who Took on a World at War,” and the two J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Award winners Jesselyn Cook for “The Quiet Damage: QAnon and the Destruction of the American Family” and Mike Hixenbaugh for “Uncivil: One Town’s Fight over Race and Identity, and the New Battle for America’s Schools.” Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa are the Lukas Book Prize finalists for their book “His Name Is George Floyd: One Man’s Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice” and Kelly Lytle Hernández is the Lynton History Prize finalist is for “Bad Mexicans: Race, Empire & Revolution in the Borderlands.”

The Madison County Record is winner of the 2021 Taylor Family Award for Fairness in Journalism for its investigation by Ellen Kreth and Shannon Hah into attempts by the Huntsville, Arkansas, school board to cover up sexual assault allegations by junior high school basketball players as well as their decision to reduce or dismiss punishments. Finalists are The Washington Post for “FEMA’s disasters” an in-depth look by national enterprise reporter Hannah Dreier at how the Federal Emergency Management Agency is struggling to help disaster survivors in the age of climate change and inequality in America, and the Miami Herald and ProPublica for their joint “Birth and Betrayal” investigation, reported by Carol Marbin Miller and Daniel Chang, which revealed that a Florida program created to protect OB-GYNs from large malpractice bills deprives families of their right to sue when births go wrong and repeatedly denied critical medical expenses for injured children.

The Tampa Bay Times won the 2021 Worth Bingham Prize for Investigative Journalism for “Poisoned,” an in-depth investigation by reporters Corey G. Johnson, Rebecca Woolington and Eli Murray that exposed dangerous working conditions inside the Gopher Resource lead smelting plant in Tampa, Florida. The series revealed that hundreds of employees, many of whom were Black and immigrants, regularly worked in clouds of poisonous lead dust and other toxic chemicals with respirators that did not adequately protect them from fumes and a faulty ventilation system. The reporting has led to important reforms to protect the health of workers and residents in the area.

Chicago-based author and journalist Jamie Kalven, founder of the Invisible Institute, won the 2022 I.F. Stone Medal for Journalistic Independence. Through his investigations and projects, he has documented police abuse and impunity, fought for access to vital public records and told the stories of many of the underserved and underrepresented residents in society.

In addition to presenting annual journalism awards, the Nieman Foundation regularly organizes conferences for journalists based around a central theme. In November 2019, the Nieman Foundation and the Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (Harvard C-CHANGE) co-hosted “Covering Climate Change,” an intensive training workshop for journalists on covering climate change and related issues.

Together with University of Chicago Institute of Politics, Nieman made co-hosted the 2020 Campaign Journalism Conference for journalists covering the 2020 U.S. presidential election. The training took place in April 2019 in Chicago. In March 2018, Nieman hosted “Covering Nuclear Issues: A Workshop for Journalists,” a three-day conference that brought a diverse group of reporters, academics, researchers and practitioners together to help journalists deepen their reporting skills and expand their thinking around nuclear issues. And in March 2017, the Nieman Foundation presented another workshop for journalists, “Covering Housing.”

Nieman additionally organized and hosted “Power: Accountability and Abuse,” a two-day celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Pulitzer Prizes in September 2016 that featured Pulitzer-winning performances and discussions centered on excellence in journalism and the arts.

The Nieman Foundation also hosts the Christopher J. Georges Conference on College Journalism for student journalists each spring.