June 05, 2018
by Jere W. Morehead, President
The University of Georgia proudly hosted the 77th Annual Peabody Awards in New York City a few weeks ago. Established as the equivalent to the Pulitzer Prize for radio in 1941, the George Foster Peabody Award recognizes the most compelling and empowering stories released in electronic media.
The 2017 winners were selected from approximately 1,200 entries from television, radio/podcasts, and the web. The highlight of this year’s event was the awarding of the Peabody Career Achievement Award to legendary comedian Carol Burnett. This year’s Peabody Awards also were meaningful to the UGA community because one of the winners, the documentary film Chasing Coral, featured Professor Emeritus James Porter of the Odum School of Ecology as a scientific advisor.
Serving as the home of this prestigious international award, UGA oversees the selection of winners each year by a distinguished Board of Jurors; produces the annual awards ceremony that brings together journalists, filmmakers, and others from around the world; and houses the Peabody Awards Collection, a repository of profound cultural artifacts for academic research. The Peabody Awards are a powerful reminder of the many ways in which the University of Georgia is leading the way as a top public research university in our nation.