BEST MEDIA COVERAGE  ­ – awarded to a media outlet and/or reporter for excellent reporting

Requirements and limitations

Nominations may be made only by a CGJA Chapter or Association for its county. Where there is no Chapter or Association, nominations may be made by a CGJA member who resides in the county.

A county may nominate only one grand jury report and one news media coverage topic per year. A single grand jury report may be the subject of both awards.

The nominated report must have been published within the preceding five years — thereby allowing sufficient time for responses and implementation.

Awards are announced at the CGJA Annual Conference in the fall.

Award criteria

Increased awareness of the county’s current or most recent civil grand jury
Reported on the responses to grand jury report(s)
Educated community about the civil grand jury system in general
Covered the important basis of the grand jury report(s)
In-depth reporting vs superficial account
Extensive reporting (e.g., one-time verses multiple accounts and/or audience reach)
Additional points for information on obtaining reports, applying for and submitting complaints to the grand jury.

2022 Best Media Coverage – to Genoa Barrow for her extensive, unbiased, and continuing coverage of the grand jury’s investigative report “Sacramento County Board of Supervisors Abandons Responsibility for Covid-19 CARES Act Spending.”

See listing of past recipients

Download the Best Media Coverage evaluation form (PDF)

NOTE: Please download and read Printer-friendly instructions for instructions] before submitting the NOMINATION (they tell you exactly what is needed).

Best Media Coverage Form

Send supporting files to basommer@ucdavis.edu. Provide electronic copies (PDFs, JPGs or such) of media articles. Links are no longer sufficient as sources have become inaccessible to nonsubscribers. Boxes with asterisks (*) are required information. If you have questions, please contact Barbara Sommer, Excellence in Reporting (EIR) Subcommittee Chair at basommer@ucdavis.edu or by phone at 530-574-8334. She will acknowledge receipt of the online nomination submission within a few days.
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Contact Name(Required)
Contact Mailing Address(Required)