According to Professor Guy Berger, convenor of the judging panel, the additions arose out of feedback by editors attending the awards ceremony. The head of Rhodes University's School of Journalism and Media Studies said the new categories would cater to particular strengths in the press and would stimulate new entries, which could surpass the record number of 600 submissions received in January this year.
The Journalism Twenty-Ten category marks the importance of the FIFA World Cup football tournament being staged in South Africa next year. "This is a first for South African journalism awards, and we expect it will encourage many press people to achieve even greater excellence in reporting this wide-ranging story," explained Berger.
The award is for a journalist who is able to “own” the story through first-rate coverage of its many angles. Coverage may range from relevant matters around the games and players themselves, through to access issues, infrastructure and development, politics, environment, tourism, culture, sponsorship, money and intellectual property, among other aspects.
The category will cover journalism during 2009, and be repeated again for work in 2010.
The Graphical Journalism category has been changed to exclude Editorial Cartoons, allowing for the latter to be a category on its own.
Editorial Cartoons will be assessed for graphic imagery, originality, cleverness and political or social punch. Simplicity, topicality and humour will be considered. Entrants would need to motivate why their work scores on these criteria.
For the Graphic Journalism category, info-graphics and illustrations will be eligible. Such graphics should add value to a story, conveying meaning in a way that photos or text alone do not. Creativity and originality in concept, and the quality of execution will be considered. Clarity, vividness and communicative power are also factors. A maximum of five entries may be submitted.
Ahmed Haffejee, CEO of Mondi Shanduka Newsprint, reiterated the group's support of the newspaper journalism awards, saying: "Mondi Shanduka Newsprint has, for the past eight years, supported the recognition of excellence in the various disciplines of South African newspaper journalism. And while the coming year will be no different, we are encouraged that the competition is adapting to the needs of the industry that we serve."
All newspaper journalists and photographers are eligible, irrespective of whether they serve a national or community-based newspaper. Entries for the next round of the Mondi Shanduka Newspaper Awards must consist of material originated and published in a SA daily or weekly newspaper during the period 1 January 2009 to 1 January 2010.
"We urge journalists to begin collecting and preparing their prize work for the next competition, which will call for entries in October/November," added Berger.
