The talented Rutgers School of Communication and Information (SC&I) community is no stranger to awards. SC&I alumni, faculty, staff, and students frequently earn high honors and recognition for their accomplishments.
This year, for example, behind The Today Show’s win of its 2012 Emmy Award for outstanding morning program is SC&I graduate Natalie Morales. When The Dr. Oz Show won its 2012 Emmy for best informative talk show, it was also a win for SC&I graduate Timothy Sullivan. With such a distinguished network recognized nationally and internationally for excellence and innovation, it should come as no surprise that, in addition to being award recipients, SC&I community members often judge some of their industry’s most prestigious awards.
Dr. John Pavlik, SC&I faculty member and Director of the Journalism Research Institute, has served as an Emmy Award judge for the news and documentary category since 1989. Although he has never judged a category comprised of SC&I alumni, Dr. knows what it takes to help decide who the deserving winners are. Dr. Pavlik provides the SC&I community with a behind the scenes look at what goes into selecting Emmy Award winners.
Fit To Be A Judge
To be a judge for the Emmy’s, significant professional experience in national news and/or documentary reporting or production is needed. Dr. Pavlik’s experience as a contributor to CNN.com and a producer for Fathom, where he oversaw the production of educational documentaries, provides him with the accolades and experience to serve as an esteemed judge.
Score Sheet
Although opinions still often differ, there is no longer any bickering among judges for the Emmy’s. Twenty years ago judging was held at the National Academy headquarters in Manhattan on multiple days with judges viewing the entries together. Now, judges go online individually to view all the entries in their assigned category and rate entries on three criteria: Content, Creativity and Execution. Finally, judges score and formally vote for each entry on an official ballot.
SC&I’s Grand Prize
Judging the Emmy’s helps Dr. Pavlik see the best of new approaches to Current News. Dr. Pavlik says, “Although the judging must remain strictly confidential, there is much that I can bring back to the classroom in terms of new examples of excellence in innovative approaches to digital journalism.” He hopes that he also provides a service to television journalism through his judging by raising the bar for excellence and pushing the field father in terms of innovation and quality in news.
Dean Jorge Reina Schement sees great value in faculty like Dr. Pavlik judging prestigious awards. “Having Dr. Pavlik as an Emmy’s judge makes the Emmy’s better. We here at SC&I have a strong connection with new media so it's a very appropriate fit for our highly accomplished faculty to judge these kinds of awards. On the other hand, having the Emmy's connected to SC&I through Dr. Pavlik also helps bring SC&I closer to some of the really exciting things happening in international media."
