Attkisson Establishes ION Journalism Awards with Cash Prizes

This page has information and links regarding Sharyl Attkisson-funded cash prizes for Investigative and Original News (ION) reporting.

https://sharylattkisson.com/?s=ION+Awards


Announcing winners of the 2023 ION Awards for Professional Journalists.

https://sharylattkisson.com/2023/10/announcing-winners-of-the-inaugural-ion-awards/


Update July 5, 2022: Announcing winners of the inaugural ION Awards for Professional Journalists.

https://sharylattkisson.com/2022/07/announcing-winners-of-the-inaugural-ion-awards/


Update: 2022 Call for Entries for Inaugural ION Awards for Professional Journalists. $3,000 cash prize.

https://sharylattkisson.com/2022/04/call-for-entries-the-sharyl-attkisson-ion-awards-for-investigative-original-or-off-narrative-news/


The inaugural student ION Award winners were announced May 2, 2022 at the University of Florida.

Read more about the winners here:

https://sharylattkisson.com/2022/05/winners-announced-for-first-sharyl-attkisson-awards-for-investigative-and-original-news-ion-student-reporting/


List of ION Award Winners

2023 Professional ION Award Winners

First Place ($2,000 cash prize): Alexandria Jacobson, Investigative Reporter, Raw Story for “Lawmakers, Law Breakers.”

ION Achievement Awards ($500 cash prize each): Dana Kennedy, Senior Reporter, The New York Post” for “CEI Scores”: Inside the Woke Scoring System Guiding American Companies and Breanna Morello, Senior Producer for The Absolute Truth with Emerald Robinson for “Being a Voice for the Voiceless J6 Defendants.”

Honorable Mentions: Rav Arora of the Illusion of Consensus Substack with Stanford Professor Jay Bhattacharya for “How Major Media Outlets Suppressed My Covid Journalism” and “The Dangerous Illusion of Scientific Consensus”; Tracy Beanz, Editor-in-Chief and Investigative Journalist at UncoverDC, “The Dark to Light podcast,” for “Missouri v. Biden In-depth Coverage”; and Brooke Conrad at The National Desk for “‘No other choice’: Some injured by Covid vaccines can’t get medical exemptions.”


2022 Professional ION Award Winners

First Place ($2,000 cash prize): Paul D. Thacker, Freelance Reporter, “Pfizer’s Problematic Vaccine.”

ION Achievement Awards ($500 cash prize each)Jaie Avila, Investigative Reporter for “Government and Activists Bail Out Criminals” and Todd Shepherd, Investigative Reporter for “Pennsylvania Election Grants from Zuckerberg via CTCL.”


2022 Student ION Awards at the University of Florida

First Place ($3,500 cash prize): Tristan Wood for his series on college professors at Florida State University found guilty of sexual misconduct with students. Part 1. Part 2.

Honorable Mention ($1,500 cash prize): Elise Elder for her report: “Former NYPD officers in Florida heralded by DeSantis include Surprises.” Read here.


The first ION award for investigative or original reporting was established in fall of 2021 at Sharyl Attkisson’s Alma Mater: The University of Florida (UF). The awards will be given in Spring 2022 semester.

Attkisson established a second cash prize in 2022 at Diablo Valley College in the San Francisco area in partnership with Project Censored and Mickey Huff.

Attkisson intends to establish a similar award for professional journalists in the near future to encourage and rewards off-narrative, independent and original news reporting.

The UF announcement is below:

Sharyl Attkisson Establishes Investigative Journalism Award for UF Students

Award-winning journalist and CJC alumna Sharyl Attkisson, B.S. Telecommunication 1982 and Hall of Fame 1999, has donated funds to establish the Sharyl Attkisson Investigative and Original News Prize, intended to encourage fresh, innovative and open-minded approaches to independent reporting on important public policy issues at the university, city, county, state or national levels.

A first-place prize of $3,500 and an honorable mention prize of $1,500 will be awarded for reporting that uncovers facts and illuminates issues not previously known or rarely discussed at the time of publication. The work must have been produced and published in either a student, university or professional publication during the 2021-22 academic year. The contest is open to all UF students enrolled during that year.

The contest entry period will begin in March 2022.

For 30 years, Attkisson was a correspondent and anchor at CBS News, PBS, CNN and in local news. She is a five-time Emmy Award winner, and recipient of the Edward R. Murrow Award for investigative reporting. Attkisson is a NYT bestselling author and is managing editor of the national Sunday TV show, “Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson.”

https://www.jou.ufl.edu/2021/09/28/sharyl-attkisson-establishes-investigative-journalim-award-for-uf-students/

Scroll to Top