Journalism awards guidance

Procedures and guidance for entrants

The Mind journalism awards promote and reward excellence in reporting on mental health, challenging discrimination, and contributing to public understanding of mental distress.

All shortlisted entrants are invited to and encouraged to attend the Mind Awards in London, where the awards are presented. The 2008 Awards will take place on Thursday 15 May.

Journalists may nominate themselves, or any reader may send an article they would like to be considered for entry to the awards. See the end of this page for details of where to send entries.

Entry

1.1 Any article (news or feature) published in national, local or consumer press in England and Wales between 14 April 2007 and 11 April 2008 may be entered.

Any article published in a student-run publication in England and Wales between 14 April 2007 and 11 April 2008 may be entered to the Student Journalist of the Year award.

1.2 Journalists are encouraged to submit a number of articles which they feel reflect their work on mental health.

1.3 Please ensure that your name, contact details, publication, publication dates, and headlines are all clearly visible with your entry. Please also note how many articles you are submitting.

1.4 Journalists are strongly encouraged to submit articles as PDFs of the pages, by email. We cannot accept text-only files without a copy of the published article. Please ensure that your submissions will be as easy to duplicate as possible.

1.5 The deadline for entries is 5pm, Friday 11 April 2008.

Judging

2.1 All appropriate entries will be forwarded to the shortlisting panel, who will meet to determine a shortlist to forward to the judging panel.

Appropriate Student Journalist of the Year entries will be forwarded to the Student Journalist of the Year judging panel.

2.2 The shortlisting panel will comprise senior Mind staff from our policy, media, service user involvement, and information teams.

2.3 The criteria for shortlisting and judging are:

• responsible reporting that is factual, informative and non-stereotyping
• original material or a new angle on a mental health issue
• persistently good reporting or an outstanding contribution to awareness of mental health issues
• presenting positive images of people with mental health problems
• high quality of writing.

2.4 The judging panel for the Journalist of the Year award comprises the Journalist of the Year winners for the previous three years and the chief executive of Mind. Between them they will determine the winner.

The judging panel for the Student Journalist of the Year award will comprise senior Mind staff from our policy, media, service user involvement, and information teams.

2.5 All entries will be considered to be in confidence, and Mind will not comment on entries or entrants, with the exception of the shortlist and the winner.

2.6 Entrants may request brief feedback on their entry.

Other considerations

3.1 Entrants agree to have their name and other appropriate details used in connection with the award if they are shortlisted.

3.2 As the Journalist of the Year award covers only print media, we encourage broadcasters to approach the Mental Health Media Awards if they feel they have radio or television pieces with positive mental health messages. 

www.mhmedia.com 

www.mhmawards.org

How to enter

Please email or post your submissions to:

Journalist of the Year
Press Office
Mind
15 - 19 Broadway
London E15 4BQ

press@mind.org.uk

Please call 020 8522 1743 or email press@mind.org.uk with any queries.

Only shortlisted entrants will be contacted.