Peabody Awards Expand Scope To Include Gaming, Digital And Immersive Categories – Deadline
The Peabody Awards on Tuesday said it is expanding its list of categories to recognize achievements in storytelling across interactive, immersive and new-media formats.
The new categories will grow the awards’ scope to encompass gaming, interactive journalism, virtual reality, augmented reality, social video, interactive documentary, transmedia storytelling and more, according to organizers of the Peabodys, which are based at the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Georgia.
A separate Peabody Interactive Board has been created to adjudicate the new honors, which in Year 1 will be given to “legacy media projects that demonstrate the depth of these new formats, emphasizing the foundational standards for future award winners and highlighting stories that have helped define the digital and interactive genres,” organizers said.
Winners in the newly formed interactive categories will be announced in the fall and will have a different submission calendar and ceremony than the traditional awards.
“New storytelling techniques and advancements in technology are surpassing the confines of traditional media. Creators are pioneering new methods to tell powerful stories and reach new audiences, and the achievements are extraordinary. With the introduction of digital and interactive media as its own distinctive category, we’re thrilled to be recognizing groundbreaking and important narratives in these digital spaces.”
Currently, Peabody Awards are given annually the categories of entertainment, documentary, news, podcast/radio, arts, children’s and youth, public service, and multimedia programming. The Peabodys announced winners for the 2020 calendar year last week.
