May 23, 2017
by Jere W. Morehead, President
The University of Georgia was proud to host the 76th Annual Peabody Awards in New York City last weekend, where UGA’s commitment to excellence was once again on display. As the home of these prestigious awards, as well as the extensive Peabody Awards Collection, UGA plays a meaningful role in promoting and preserving stories that matter to our nation and world.
Since 1941, the George Foster Peabody Awards have recognized excellence in storytelling, first in radio and now across all forms of electronic media. As content platforms have expanded and genres have evolved, the need for stories that enrich our lives and connect us to one another has remained constant. The Peabody Awards, one of media’s most coveted honors, celebrate these stories and their importance to our society.
The Peabody Awards Collection, housed in UGA’s renowned Special Collections Libraries, provides access to the more than 90,000 works submitted for the awards program over the past eight decades. Some of the works are the only surviving copies, adding to the significance of the archive. This trove of cultural heritage allows scholars to further shed light on the value of these works to our local, national, and international history.
In an exciting development for 2017, a television special of the awards ceremony will be telecast on both national broadcast and cable television for the first time. I invite the University of Georgia community to join others around the country in watching the 2017 Peabody Awards special on Friday, June 2 at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT on UGA’s broadcast partners PBS and Fusion.