The A-Mark Prize for Reporting on Misinformation and Disinformation, administered by the Los Angeles Press Club, honors and encourages outstanding journalism addressing one of the critical problems of our time.
A-Mark Foundation has funded the Los Angeles Press Club’s A-Mark Prize for Reporting on Misinformation and Disinformation since 2023.
Entries might take on a specific instance of media manipulation, for example, examining its perpetrators and its impact. Entries can also explore possible solutions to the disinformation problem, or individuals or groups active in either perpetrating or solving it. In short, the work should delve deeply into any aspect of the troubling phenomenon in any journalistic format.
In 2023 and 2024, the first place winner received $4,000 and second and third place winners received $500 each. Starting in 2025, first place will receive $5,000 for the reporter(s) and $2,500 for the publishing outlet, second place will receive $3,000 for the reporter(s) and $1,500 for the outlet, and third place will receive $2,000 for the reporter(s) and $1,000 for the outlet. Eligible entries must have been published, broadcast, or transmitted in California, or had California as the focus.
Prize Recipients
2024
First place went to Albert Serna Jr., TJ L’Heureux, Adrienne Washington, Anisa Shabir and Isaac Stone Simonelli from the Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting and Howard Center for Investigative Journalism for their series, “In the Sheriff We Trust.”
The judges wrote, “This package is a public service, using thoroughly reported stories and a strong video to expose a growing group of sheriffs nationwide – who are paid by taxpayers – interpreting and enforcing the law as it suits them. The reporting led to changes in taxpayer-funded sheriff training programs and spotlights a gross abuse of power and the spreading of misinformation by those the public trusts to uphold the law. This is excellent journalism… What makes it so good/important as reporting goes is that it exposes the methods and mechanisms used by people trying to give extremist views an air of legitimacy by sneaking it into government functions.”
Second prize went to Greg Mitchell, Lyn Goldfarb and Michelle Merker from KCET for the film, “Memorial Day Massacre: Workers Die, Film Buried.” Alexandra Barinka of Bloomberg News received third prize for the article, “TikTok Struggles to Take Down Deepfake Videos of Hamas’ Victims.”
Overall, the judges were impressed by a variety of approaches reflected in this year’s entries that included insightful spot reporting and deep investigative work. Some top entries pushed the boundary of “traditional” misinformation and disinformation reporting by “digging into methods used to lend authority to false claims or suppress true narratives.”
2023 – Inaugural Prize
An investigative news story that revealed how power utilities in Alabama and Florida manipulated local news media won the first A-Mark Prize for Reporting on Misinformation and Disinformation.
The $4,000 first prize went to Miranda Green and Mario Ariza of Floodlight and David Folkenflik of National Public Radio for, “In the Southeast, power company money flows to news sites that attack their critics.”
“This team of reporters painstakingly traced the financial connections, through documents and interviews, between a consulting firm and six news sites in Alabama and Florida to show how money influenced coverage to the detriment of Alabama electric utility customers,” wrote the judges, citing the audio report as, “a prime example of what makes the A-Mark Prize so important.”
The prize was announced at the Los Angeles Press Club’s Southern California Journalism Awards annual gala on June 25, 2023, at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles, Calif.
Second prize went to James Rainey of the Los Angeles Times for, “His website skewers Stockton politicians and agencies. Then one gave him a cushy job.” Sam Kestenbaum received third prize for his Rolling Stone article, “‘I Think All the Christians Get Slaughtered’: Inside the MAGA Road Show Barnstorming America.” Second and third place winners received $500 each.
To produce the winning entry, NPR joined with Floodlight, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates the powerful interests stalling climate action.
The judges wrote that their work provided, “A bright shining light on misinformation leading to apparent corruption by those who are supposed to serve the public interest.”