Judging of the RTDNA Canada Awards has begun. Thank you to those who have volunteered to judge! CLICK HERE to log-in to your account, view your assignment, and begin scoring.
If you have any questions, please contact us at awards@rtdnacanada.com
Members of RTDNA Canada appreciate the valuable contribution you make to improve audio, digital and video journalism by helping to judge these prestigious awards. Thank you!
Awards Committee, RTDNA Canada
Mary Nersessian – Chair
Espe Currie
Michael Goldberg
Sarah Mills
Janice Neil
Colleen Schmidt
Note: The information below, Judging Criteria and Rules (PDF), Judging Dates and Deadlines, Judging Criteria and Rules – Quick Reference, Judging Conflict of Interest and Confidentiality, and Awards Categories and Submissions (PDFs): Award Submissions Rules and summary of Regional and National Awards, will help answer questions that may arise while you are engaged in the judging process.
Click the button below to download / print the PDF version of the Judging Criteria and Rules.
IMPORTANT DATES:
When assigning panels, the Awards Committee tries to accommodate the judges’ preferred category and date. You will be able to screen and score all entries at your own pace within the judging period assigned to you.
Friday, March 15, 2024: Regional and National Judges (Round 1) panel assignments will be ready
Scoring opens: Monday March 18 @ 8:00am (ET)
Scoring closes: Monday April 1 @ 8:00pm (ET) (tie break, if required, April 2-3)
*This gives you fifteen (15) days to complete your assignment. It will take between 6-10 hours to complete your assignment. Please set aside the time to score so you will meet the firm deadline.
Friday, April 5, 2024: Best Canadian Local News (Round 2) panel assignments will be ready
Scoring opens: Monday April 8 @ 8:00am (ET),
Scoring closes: Monday April 22 @ 8:00pm (ET) (tie break, if required, April 23-24)
*This gives you fifteen (15) days to complete your assignment. It will take between 6-10 hours to complete your assignment. Please set aside the time to score so you will meet the firm deadline.
RTDNA Canada’s judges come from a wide variety of backgrounds and affiliations – ranging from people working at small, private, news organizations to large networks, to faculty of journalism programs. As many Canadian journalists work for a handful of large employers, many of our judges come from large news organizations in this country’s very concentrated media landscape.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST
We have taken certain measures to minimize conflict of interest. For example, individuals are assigned to judge entries that originate in other regions of the country. Similarly, journalists who work at the National level are asked to judge Regional entries and vice versa.
From time to time, a judge will flag us about a potential conflict of interest, and we will rule whether to assign them elsewhere or leave them as assigned. We trust in the professionalism of judges to vote for excellence even if an entry was submitted by the “competition.” Looking at our former judges and their track record, we would say that our trust is well placed.
CONFIDENTIALITY
We do not release the names of our judges.
To ensure the confidentiality of members’ submissions and maintain the integrity of the awards, we ask you to keep the information assigned to you private.
Specifically, you undertake to:
1. Respect the confidential nature of all submissions and not disclose information in submissions, in any way whatsoever, to third parties;
2. Use such information as is disclosed to you only for the express purpose of scoring submissions assigned to you, and for no other purpose.
If you have any questions or concerns or would like to flag a potential conflict of interest, please contact us at awards@rtdnacanada.com.
We are also sensitive to Canada’s employment climate and that some of the country’s premier journalists have found their job status has changed – sometimes of their own choice, sometimes not. Consequently, some of our judges are self-employed and others have taken a break from their retirement to judge for us. Their employment status has not diminished their ability to judge journalistic excellence.
We are beholden to all our judges – regional, national, faculty, freelance and retired – for the time and expertise that they donate to us annually!
There would be no RTDNA Canada Awards without you.
Please click the links to view the Awards Submissions Rules and Entry Guidelines as well as the Regional and National Award categories.