2011 Awards

The 2011 Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting has been awarded to Marshall Allen and Alex Richards of the Las Vegas Sun by the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy for their investigative report “Do No Harm: Hospital Care in Las Vegas.” After a two-year investigation, including the review of 2.9 million records, the Sun‘s five-part multi-platform series identified the preventable infections and injuries taking place in Las Vegas hospitals. Allen and Richards set out to impose transparency on Las Vegas hospitals so they would be held accountable. The multimedia presentation of their findings resulted in consumers having access to quality-of-care data that will help them make more-informed decisions. “This extraordinary piece of work demonstrates the power of teaming high quality investigative journalism with imaginative and elegant multimedia representation. It is the future of news,” said Alex S. Jones, Director of the Shorenstein Center.

The Goldsmith Book Prize is awarded to the best academic and best trade books that seek to improve the quality of government or politics through an examination of press and politics in the formation of public policy. The Goldsmith Book Prize for best academic book was awarded to: Tim Groeling for When Politicians Attack: Party Cohesion in the Media and Patrick J. Sellers for Cycles of Spin: Strategic Communication in the U. S. Congress. The Goldsmith Book Prize for best trade book went to: Jack Fuller for What Is Happening to News: The Information Explosion and the Crisis in Journalism.

The Goldsmith Career Award for Excellence in Journalism was given to Frank Rich, former op-ed columnist of The New York Times.

Watch a recording of the ceremony here.