THE MISSION OF THE PEABODY AWARDSThe intent of the Peabody Awards is to recognize the most outstanding achievements in electronic media, including radio, television and cable. The competition is also open to entries produced for alternative means of electronic distribution, including corporate video, educational media, home-video release, World Wide Web and CD–ROM. Programs produced and intended for wide theatrical motion picture release are not eligible for a Peabody Award. The Award is determined by one criterion – "Excellence." Because submissions are accepted from a wide variety of sources and styles, deliberations seek "Excellence On Its Own Terms." Each entry is evaluated on the achievement of standards it establishes within its own contexts. Entries are self-selected by those making submissions and as a result the quality of competing works is extraordinarily high. The Peabody Awards are then presented only to "the best of the best." FROM THE DIRECTORIn July of 2001 I began my work as Director of the Peabody Awards program. Previously, from 1989 to 1995, I had served as a member of the Peabody Board, the group of citizens who annually select Peabody recipients from more than a thousand submissions. In those years it was an honor to work under the direction of Dr. Worth McDougald and later, Dr. Barry Sherman. Now, after more than thirty years of studying, teaching and writing about mass media in the academy, in newspapers and magazines, and in the creative community, I can think of no better place to be. But it is not merely because of professional experience or future projects that I am pleased to be working with the Peabody program. It is also because mass media changed my life. Growing up in Mississippi in the '40s and '50s, in a closed society, my world was opened as radio strengthened my imagination and television expanded my intellect and altered my actions. Live TV brought wonderful, complicated drama. Matt Dillon and Joe Friday instructed me to beware the use of violence. Buzz and Tod suggested I get out of town whenever possible, preferably on Route 66. "The Defenders" taught me about social justice with ideas and perspectives far broader than those around me. Documentaries and news reports focused on the Civil Rights Movement offered a direction I might otherwise never have known – and challenged me to go that way. For me, then, the Peabody represents one fact more than any other. This award truly respects the role of mass media in contemporary society. This does not mean that we who administer, select and present the awards celebrate all, or even most, of what is produced. On the contrary, the very small number of Peabodys presented each year recognizes only the very best of the best. Our deliberations are complex and thorough. Sometimes our debates are fierce and our judgment severe. The goals we set are extremely difficult to achieve. But we do recognize that individuals who produce the works we survey must often struggle in industries unfairly dismissed as trivial. And it is distressing that all too often those who work there share that attitude. It can be easy to accept mediocrity with familiar phrases - "Oh, it's just entertainment" or "If they keep cutting the news budget, why should we make the extra effort." The Peabody Award refuses such rationalizations. Every year for more than six decades this program has reaffirmed that the work done in media industries is a fundamental aspect of contemporary experiences – intellectual, emotional, political, spiritual. These awards exist because people working in the media industries are capable of excellence, because they achieve excellence, and because they should be recognized for that effort. Their work – and the Peabody Award – stand as model and measures for their peers and for those who will follow them. For these reasons we will continue to hold these individuals and these industries to the high standards of the Peabody Award, standards representing the highest mark of excellence in electronic media. -- Horace Newcomb |
