Peabody Awards Welcome Three New Board Members

ATHENS, Ga., Sept. 12, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The University of Georgia has approved three new members of the George Foster Peabody Awards Board. Joining other distinguished experts who select electronic media's most coveted prize are John Huey of Charleston, South Carolina, Henry Jenkins of Los Angeles, and Eric Deggans of Tampa, Florida.  

"These are interesting times in the shifting landscape of electronic media," said Dr. Jeffrey P. Jones, Director of the Peabody Awards. "These three individuals bring us extensive knowledge and expertise that can help navigate that landscape as we determine just what constitutes 'excellence' in a convergent media era. We are grateful for their commitment of time and effort."

In March, Huey, Jenkins and Deggans will join Jones, 2013-14 board chair Thomas Mattia and 11 veteran board members in Athens to choose the recipients of the 73rd annual Peabody Awards from an international field of more than 1,000 entries from broadcast and cable television, radio and the Internet. The 2013 recipients are scheduled to be announced in early April.

John Huey is former editor-in-chief of Time, Inc. (2005-12), where he was responsible for all digital, print, and video content. A Georgia native and University of Georgia alumnus (1970), his journalism career extends from the Dekalb (County) New Era to Wall Street Journal and FORTUNE magazine. He is winner of the Gerald Loeb Lifetime Achievement Award for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism (2013), awarded by the UCLA Anderson School of Management. He is also co-author, with Sam Walton, of Sam Walton, Made in America (Bantam, 1992), an autobiography of the Wal-Mart founder; a Shorenstein Fellow at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government; and co-creator of  Riptide, a multimedia, archival website that examines the epic collision between journalism and digital technology. It was launched jointly by Shorenstein and Harvard's Nieman Labs in September 2013.

Henry Jenkins is the Provost's Professor of Communication, Journalism, Cinematic Arts and Education at the University of Southern California. A Georgia native and a graduate of Georgia State University, he was the founder and co-Director of the Comparative Media Studies Masters Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a research program dedicated to exploring new media literacies, civic media and games-based learning. Jenkins, who also holds an MA from the University of Iowa and a PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has published more than 15 books on various aspects of new media, popular culture and public life. His most recent include Reading in a Participatory Culture: Remixing Moby-Dick in the Literature Classroom (Teacher College Press, 2013). In addition to his academic publishing, he blogs regularly at henryjenkins.org, has had regular columns in Technology Review and Computer Games magazine, and has published in Harpers, Salon, The New York Times and  The Chronicle of Higher Education, among many others.

Eric Deggans will become National Public Radio's first full-time TV critic in October. A journalist for more than 20 years, he was most recently TV/Media critic at the Tampa Bay Times.  He has won reporting and writing awards from the Society for Features Journalism, American Association of Sunday and Feature Editors, the Society of Professional Journalists, the National Association of Black Journalists, the Florida Press Club and the Florida Society of News Editors. He is the author of Race-Baiter: How the Media Wields Dangerous Words to Divide a Nation (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012) and a regular guest and occasional guest host on CNN's media analysis show, Reliable Sources. He also has been a guest commentator on such programs as PBS's The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, Fox News Channel's  Hannity and Colmes, BET's The Tavis Smiley Show and NPR's Morning Edition, Talk of the Nation and All Things Considered.

Full biographies all 15 Peabody board members are available upon request.

The Peabody Awards, established in 1940 and administered by UGA's Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, are the oldest honor in electronic media. Today the Peabody recognizes distinguished achievement and meritorious public service by stations, networks, producing organizations and individuals. For more information, visit www.peabodyawards.com.

Established in 1915, the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication offers undergraduate majors in journalism, advertising, public relations, digital and broadcast journalism, and mass media arts. The college offers two graduate degrees, and is home to the Knight Chair in Health and Medical Journalism and the Peabody Awards, internationally recognized as one of the most prestigious prizes for excellence in electronic media. For more information, see www.grady.uga.edu or follow @UGAGrady on Twitter.

SOURCE Peabody Awards