Media Professionals' Award
Awarded to journalists other media professionals for excellence in the presentation of philosophy or philosophical issues in the media in the previous calendar year.
Sponsored by Taylor and Francis.
Prize submission for 2024 is now OPEN
More information about this prize, judging criteria & how to enter
2023 Winner
Diana Reid
Seeing Other People Ultimo Press, October 2022 ISBN 9781761150128
ultimopress.com.au/seeingotherpeople
Diana Reid is the author of Seeing Other People, a novel which explores important philosophical questions concerning the ethics of duty, love and care. In addition to being a novelist, Reid is a regular contributor to print media both nationally and internationally. Reid receives the media professional's award for her sustained contributions to philosophy in the media, as well as her exploration of philosophical themes in her literary work.
2021 Winner
Joe Gelonesi
In 2012, the AAP awarded its first Media Professional’s Award to Alan Saunders for his pioneering work as presenter of the ABC Radio National program The Philosopher's Zone. That year, Alan passed away, and the AAP set up the annual Alan Saunders Lecture, in partnership with the ABC to celebrate Alan’s life and to continue his work promoting philosophy to a wider public audience.
Joe Gelonesi, Alan’s long time editor and friend, took over as presenter of The Philosopher's Zone in 2013. He was intrinsic to establishing the Alan Saunders Lecture Series and has supported the series by generously agreeing to interview the guest speaker after the lecture was delivered, and broadcasting the lecture on ABC Radio National. Joe’s work at the ABC extends well beyond his role as presenter of The Philosopher’s Zone. Joe is Manager of Arts, Religion and Ethics at the ABC. He has been an executive member of ABC’s Radio National editorial team for over sixteen years and during this time has guided the work of some of the ABC's most influential specialist broadcasters and journalists, in the sciences, humanities and the arts. In this role he has overseen both The Philosopher’s Zone and The Minefield on Radio National, and the ABC Religion and Ethics website. These outlets have been pivotal for bringing philosophy into the public sphere in Australia, and for giving space to somewhat longer-form public philosophy. Joe’s contribution to philosophy and philosophers extends to mentoring emerging humanities researchers through the TOP 5 Humanities media residency program, as well as to all the philosophers who have been guests on The Philosopher’s Zone over the last decade.
Joe has been a close friend of many of us in the AAP. His willingness to support and advise the AAP in matters relating to public outreach and media strategy has been greatly appreciated.
2019 Winner
Elizabeth Matthews
3CR.org.au
Radical Philosophy - 3cr.org.au/radicalphilosophy
3cr.org.au/radicalphilosophy/episode-201911301330/prof-barbara-gold-taylor-kindness
Beth Matthews produces and hosts “Radical Philosophy” on Melbourne’s community-run 3CR FM (broadcast Saturday afternoons and also available as a podcast). The program approaches a wide variety of philosophical topics, and offers high-quality philosophical discussion. In particular the program has consistently highlighted the work of women philosophers, a crucial task in improving the representation of women in the discipline and in bringing the work of women philosophers to a wider audience. A lively, engaging and diverse program now of many years standing, “Radical Philosophy” brings philosophy to a broad and appreciative listenership.
2018 Winner
Brigid Hains
Brigid Hains is both a co-founder and the editorial director of online magazine Aeon. Since its inception in 2012, Melbourne-based Aeon has established itself as a major outlet for connecting academic writers with the reading public. Aeon has global reach, with offices in Melbourne, London and New York, and large readerships in the USA (50%), UK, Canada, Australia and India. In 2017 Aeon had over 1 million unique visitors per month. The site has brought provocative work by leading international philosophers including Martha Nussbaum, Massimo Pigliucci, David Benatar, and Galen Strawson, as well as Australian philosophers such as Huw Price, Claire Colebrook, Graham Priest, and Philip Pettit, to audiences of hundreds of thousands of readers per article. A particular strength of Aeon is its somewhat longer word lengths than comparable outlets, allowing for challenging ideas to be explored in-depth without compromising their capacity to engage and excite the public.
2017 Winner
Zan Boag
Zan Boag is awarded the 2017 AAP Media Professionals’ Award for his work as founder and editor of New Philosopher Magazine. The panel notes both the high quality and outstanding international commercial success of the magazine. New Philosopher was launched in 2013 and has become the most widely distributed philosophy magazine in the world, distributed into 12,000 stores in 16 countries, and can be found on board Air France flights, in Qantas Lounges, Barnes and Noble Stores and US airports. In addition to his role as editor, Zan also contributes content – most notably regular feature interviews with significant philosophers such as Peter Singer, Daniel Dennett, Jane Roland Martin and Luciano Floridi. The incredible success of the magazine attests to Zan’s ability and commitment to engaging the interest of the wider public in philosophy.
2017 Winner
Kyla Slaven
Kyla Slaven is awarded the 2017 AAP Media Professionals’ Award for producing the ABC Radio Podcast series, Short and Curly. Each episode of this ethics program for children aged 7-12 focuses on a moral question, such as “should we ban lollies?” The show is masterfully produced, with philosophical concepts such as autonomy explained in a manner that is age-appropriate yet surprisingly sophisticated: this content is interwoven with age-appropriate popular cultural references and also incorporates the voices and perspectives of children themselves. Members of the panel were delighted by the quality of the program and noted its success in reaching its target audience in both Australia and overseas, with 80 000 downloads from iTunes, and evidence of use in classrooms. It has reached number 1 on iTunes in the families and children podcast category, and is regularly in the top 20 of all iTunes podcasts.
2016 Winners
Scott Stephens and Waleed Aly
The Minefield radio show
Scott Stephens and Waleed Aly win the AAP Media Professionals Award for their highly engaging radio show The Minefield which was new to Radio National in 2015. The show focuses on moral problems associated with modern life. Often the topic for the show has a current affairs hook, for example following the popular vote on same-sex marriage in Ireland and the US Supreme Court ruling on same sex marriage, The Minefield ran an episode on marriage equality. Stephens and Aly begin each episode with a nuanced discussion of the moral problems associated with the topic, generally drawing out important moral issues that are hidden or ill-defined in news and current affairs coverage. Each program also features a well-produced interview with a high calibre guest, often a philosopher, who is able to provide a deeper commentary on the topic. For example the show on marriage equality featured an interview with Professor Martha Nussbaum (University of Chicago). The judging panel particularly commends the diversity of perspectives included on the show, high production values, high calibre guests, and seamless presentation by Stephens and Aly, all of which are geared towards a general audience. The program has a wide reach, being available Australia-wide on the radio and internationally online.
2015 Winner
Tim Dean
Tim Dean is a science and technology section editor for The Conversation. He also has a background in philosophy, having recently completed his PhD at the University of New South Wales. Tim receives the 2015 media professionals' award for his philosophy-inspired contributions to a wide range of print and online media, including Acuity Magazine, Cosmos, ABC's The Drum and Channel 10's The Project. The judging panel were particularly impressed by Tim's commitment to reaching a wide audience, and success in pitching philosophical pieces to outlets such as Acuity - the magazine of the chartered Accountants of Australia and New Zealand. In one piece for this audience he argued "you're already doing philosophy [...] you might as well do it well" illustrating with examples of the sorts of conceptual and moral questions that business people are likely to encounter on a regular basis. This magazine has a circulation of 100 000 and reaches an audience who might not otherwise be engaging with philosophy.
2015 Commendation
Beth Matthews
The panel would also like to draw attention to another excellent nomination for the 2015 Media Professionals' Award - Beth Matthews, host and presenter of 'Radical Philosophy' on 3CR community radio. Beth runs a weekly half-hour radio program in which she interviews women philosophers on their areas of expertise. Beth adopts a layperson perspective in her interviewing, eliciting detailed accounts of the key questions and ideas in the areas of philosophy in which her interviewees work. As the interviews progress they move from more general descriptions of the topics in question, to the unique views and contributions of the interviewee. They thus provide a forum for interested members of the public to learn in some detail about current topics of concern within academic philosophy, and also the opportunity for the women being interviewed to share their contributions to the discipline with a wider audience. The focus on women philosophers is also significant in light of recent concerns both within the profession and in the wider media about the climate of academic philosophy and women's under-representation in the discipline.
2014
Antonia Case
In the seven years since its inception, the AAP Media Professionals Award has only been awarded on two occasions – Alan Saunders received the inaugural prize in 2007 for his work on The Philosophers Zone, and Natasha Mitchell received an award the following year for an episode of All in the Mind.
The long drought reflects the limited space available in the Australasian media for philosophical content, and the vanishingly small amount of work in this area by professional journalists (as opposed to professional philosophers who also write for the mainstream press).
In this context, the arrival in 2013 of an Australasian magazine dedicated to philosophy – New Philosopher – represents a significant development. Many of the articles in New Philosopher are penned by professional philosophers, but the magazine would not be what it is without the work of literary editor and journalist Antonia Case, who has helped shape the magazine and has contributed several feature articles to each issue.
A former Fairfax journalist, now a journalist and editor of Womankind Magazine, as well as literary editor and journalist at New Philosopher, Case’s academic background is in economics rather than philosophy. Yet her articles in New Philosopher span a wide range of philosophical topics, and showcase how philosophical thought can be woven into the discussion of other topics and, indeed, the pursuit of other activities such as photography or adventuring.
Describing the first issue of the magazine to Kate Mayor from University of Sydney Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Case says “Sure, we have interviews with professional philosophers […] but at the same time we also have an interview with an American who runs a philosophy group in Paris, an Australian adventurer, and unknown artist, a young designer and a famous portrait photographer – weaving philosophy into their life and work.
”Some of her most interesting articles for the magazine focus on these non-philosophers who weave philosophy into their life and work, and Case does a good job incorporating philosophical ideas into the discussion of the work of these individuals. In “The Dizziness of Freedom” (Issue 1), for example, Case tells the story of Australian-born adventurer Tim Cope’s journey from Mongolia to Hungary by horse, linking a discussion of Hobbes and Rousseau’s competing views of human nature to some of Cope’s anecdotes about interactions with Nomads on the Eurasian Steppe during his journey.
The main criterion for the AAP Media Professional’s Award is the ability of the piece or pieces of writing to interest the general public in philosophy or some philosophical issue. The judging panel note that Case’s work in New Philosopher exemplifies how philosophy can be brought to life in connection with stories that are inherently interesting to a wide audience, like the story of Cope’s adventure across the Eurasian Steppe.
2013
Natasha Mitchell
Host and producer of ABC Radio National Program, All in the Mind, for the program 'The Mind-Body Problem Downunder'. The program, broadcast originally on 23 September 2006, as part ABC's Radio National's The Big 56 Celebrations, was on the "Australian materialism" movement inaugurated by Ullin Place and Jack Smart in 1956.
2012
Alan Saunders
For his ABC Radio National program The Philosopher's Zone. Since the program's inception in 2005, Alan has interviewed many Australasian philosophers on a wide variety of topics.
The Australasian Association of Philosophy (AAP) offers an occasional monetary prize to journalists and other media professionals for excellence in the presentation of philosophy or philosophical issues in the media in the previous calendar year.
The main criterion for the award of the prize is the ability of the piece to engage the interest of the general public in philosophy or some philosophical issue. Consideration is also given to the quality of the philosophical discussion and to the size of the audience reached.
The prize will be awarded at the annual Alan Saunders Lecture which takes place as part of the annual AAP conference in July.
Judging Criteria
1. The primary criterion is the ability of the activity, episode or piece to engage the interest of the general public in philosophy or some philosophical issue.
2. In addition, the philosophy should be of acceptable quality, sufficient to justify the implicit AAP endorsement of quality conveyed by the prize.
3. Consideration should also be given to the size of the audience reached.
Eligibility
The award is open to media professionals including journalists, presenters, producers, editors and others. It is restricted to individuals based in Australasia
Media includes print and online publications, as well as radio broadcasts, television broadcasts and film. Entries are expected to have gone to air, been published, or occurred in the year (calendar) previous to the prize award, as appropriate for the format of the entry. The prize would not normally be awarded to the same person more than once.
Submission deadline: March 27 2024 at 8pm AEDT
Submit your entry HERE
Full details on Policy & Procedure can be found HERE (Requires Member Login)
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All enquiries to: admin@aap.org.au