Submission needed for Caribbean Media Awards

The Caribbean Tourism Industry cherishes its strong relationship with the Media and in appreciation for their constant positive coverage of the Region, recognizes media for influencing their readers to travel to the Caribbean. The Awards will be presented at the Caribbean Media Awards Luncheon at the Wyndham New Yorker Hotel on Thursday, June 4, 2015.

To honor the media’s exceptional work in promoting the Caribbean, we ask CTO government members and their public relations agencies and journalists to provide us with their top media placements on CTO member countries in 2014. The awards will celebrate the best in feature print, broadcast and online placements as well as photography from International, US and Caribbean-based media that have captured the essence of the Caribbean, in the following ten (10) categories:

-I Couldn’t Have Written It Better Myself

Best Feature Article in a Consumer Newspaper

-Been There, Wrote That

Best Feature Article in a Consumer Magazine

-Inner Circle King/Queen

Best Feature Article in a Trade Publication

-Oh Snap!

Best Photograph in Conjunction with a Feature Article

-Golden Mic

Best Feature Broadcast

-Virtual Visitor Award

Best Online Feature

-Not Lost in Translation

Best Feature by a US or Caribbean Journalist that appeared in Foreign Media

-From Infinity…And Abroad!

Best Feature by a foreign Journalist that appeared in US or Caribbean Media

-No Anansi Story!

Best Feature by a Caribbean Journalist

-They Like Me, They Really Like Me!

Best of Show

This award will be presented to the person deemed by the judges to have qualified for the top honor among all the awardees.

A Jury from the hospitality, literary and media fields will judge the submissions based on the criteria outlined below:

SELECTION CRITERIA
· Only entries submitted by CTO government members, their public relations agencies or qualified media shall be eligible.

· Submissions by foreign-based journalists who contribute to media in USA and Caribbean are eligible.

· Submissions by US and Caribbean based journalists who contribute to foreign-based media are eligible.

· Minimum circulation for a US or Caribbean based newspaper or magazine entries is 20,000.

All entries must have been published or broadcast in the 2014 calendar year.

· Only one entry per person per category will be entered.

· Entries must be submitted on or before April 17, 2015.

· Caribbean journalists are eligible to enter the US awards program.

· Submissions should showcase creativity and thoughtful knowledge of the Caribbean and have a provocative story angle.

· Award recipient agrees to allow his/her winning work to be published in part or in whole on www.onecaribbean.org, www.caribbeantravel.com and www.CaribbeanWeek.com.

· By submitting an entry, the participant grants the CTO an irrevocable, royalty free and perpetual license right to use without restriction and reproduce all submitted work, whether article or photo, including without limitation the copying, transmission, distribution and publication for display or promotion purposes. The participant will be credited every time the article or photo is used.

· By submitting an entry, the participant represents and warrants that he/she is the author of the article or photo entered for the award and shall defend and hold CTO harmless from any action, claim, loss, damage, liability and/or expense arising from or connected to the infringement of intellectual property rights or copyright with respect to the submitted work.

· The winner agrees to allow his/her photograph to be taken and utilized for publicity purposes.

· Awards will be presented on Thursday, June 4, 2015 at the Caribbean Media Awards Luncheon at the Wyndham New Yorker Hotel.

· Where the Selection Criteria herein stated have not been met, the entry shall be disqualified.

GUIDELINES FOR SUBMISSION
· Only entries submitted by CTO government members, their public relations agencies or qualified journalists shall be eligible.

· No fee is required to submit.

· The relevant category being entered must be clearly specified with each entry.

· Entries must be submitted in the following formats and emailed or sent via web transfer to Johnson Johnrose at [email protected]

o Print: A scanned copy from the publication(s) in pdf or jpeg and, where possible, a web link.
o Broadcast: A copy of the script (to include transcript of the SOTs and lead ins) and a digital link to the feature
o Photo: One jpg copy of the photograph and one electronic copy of the publication (to include the photo) in which the photograph appeared, in pdf.
o Online: A link to the feature.

· Print (newspaper and magazine) entries must clearly show the name of the publication, the date of publication, the title(s) and the name(s) of the journalist(s).

· Broadcast entries must include name of entity that broadcast the piece, the date and time of broadcast and the names of the producer(s) and presenter(s).

Eligible participants may enter as many categories as they wish but may not submit more than one (1) entry per category.
· For the Golden Mic (Best Broadcast Feature), where an entry is a series or serial, only one programme from the series or serial shall be submitted.

· Entries will not be accepted after the stated deadline.

JUDGING PROCESS
· The CTO’s communications department shall scrutinize all entries upon receipt and tabulate for the judging process those entries which meet the Selection Criteria and adhere to the Submission Procedures.

· The CTO shall appoint a panel of judges and shall designate from among them a Chief Judge.

· The size of the judging panel and its modus operandi shall be determined solely by the CTO.

· Criteria for the judging of entries shall be:

o Content – Relevance, accuracy, cohesiveness of material and adherence to journalistic standards.
o Structure & Form – Relevance of topic, clarity, pace, structure (introduction, development and conclusion), presentation of information & ideas.
o Title – Relevance of title, concision & clarity.
o Quality of Language – Use of language, quality of syntax, quality of sentence structure.
o Originality – Originality of ideas, ability to spark audience’s curiosity, boldness, creativity.

· Depending on their assessment of the standard of entries, the judges may withhold awards in any category as they see fit. They may also ascribe “Special Mention” (without award) to an entry where warranted.

· Decisions of the judges shall be final.