IRE Awards
The IRE Awards is the annual contest of Investigative Reporters and Editors Inc. recognizing the best in investigative reporting by print, broadcast and online media.
The 2011 IRE Awards will be presented at the 2012 IRE Conference in Boston.
After judging, all entries are placed in IRE's Resource Center story library so that IRE members may learn from others' triumphs and troubles. The contest helps identify techniques and resources used by the entrants.
The awards recognize outstanding investigative work in several categories. The top award given is the IRE Medal.
Message from Executive Director Mark Horvit:
We have rebuilt our IRE Awards categories to better reflect changes in our industry that have had great impact on the ways in which news is gathered and presented.
Over the past few years, technology has continually offered new ways to gather and present investigative work, while economic cutbacks have squeezed resources and helped encourage reporting partnerships that crossed platforms and media types. Contest judges and IRE members were finding it increasingly difficult to put many contest entries into our existing categories.
Read Mark's full message on the IRE News blog.
Click on a date to browse previous years through the archives:
2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 1999 1998 1997 1996 1995 1994
1993 1992 1991 1990 1989 1988 1987 1986 1985 1984 1983 1982 1981 1980 1979
Please note: Older awards pages are currently available on IRE's legacy website. This information will be transferred over to IRE's new website shortly.
The National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting, a joint program of IRE and the Missouri School of Journalism; the Knight Chair at Arizona State University's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication; and IRE are proud to have the Philip Meyer Journalism Award, a contest to recognize the best journalism done using social science research methods.
The awards are in honor of Philip Meyer, professor emeritus and former Knight Chair of Journalism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Meyer is the author of Precision Journalism, the seminal 1972 book (and subsequent editions) that focused growing numbers of journalists on the idea of using social science methods to do better journalism. He pioneered in using survey research as a reporter for Knight Ridder newspapers to explore the causes of race riots in the 1960s.
Three awards are given annually — a first, second and third place — to recognize the best work using techniques that are part of precision journalism, computer-assisted reporting and social science research. The awards are: $500 for first, $300 for second, and $200 for third.
The contest also helps identify the techniques and resources used to complete each story. Entries are placed in the IRE Resource Center, allowing members to learn from each other.
In an effort to avoid conflicts of interest, work that included any significant role by a member of the IRE Board of Directors or an IRE contest judge may not be entered in the contest. This often represents a significant sacrifice on the part of the individual — and sometimes an entire newsroom. The IRE membership appreciates this devotion to the values of the organization.
The Philip Meyer Journalism Award was established in 2005. Click to see past winners: