Record-Breaking 21 Wins for PBS SoCal and KCET at 65th Annual Southern California Journalism Awards Presented by Los Angeles Press Club; More Than Any Other L.A.-Based Broadcast News Organization
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Los Angeles, Calif. – June 26, 2023 – PBS SoCal and KCET, Southern California’s flagship PBS stations, announced today an historic awards tally at the 65th Annual Southern California Journalism Awards presented by the Los Angeles Press Club on Sunday. The stations’ 59 nominations and 21 first-place awards were spread across 40 different categories, earning more top honors than any other regional-based broadcast news organization. The wins honored a variety of locally produced series/productions from KCET and PBS SoCal representing content broadcast on-air and published online during the 2022 calendar year. Environmental series EARTH FOCUS and arts & culture series ARTBOUND tied for taking home the most number of awards for the organization with six first-place honors each. Winners were announced in all categories presented during a sold-out gala dinner ceremony attended by hundreds on Sunday, June 25th at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles.
The locally-produced environmental series EARTH FOCUS in partnership with the Thomson Reuters Foundation examines the social and environmental determinants of health affecting a wide range of populations living in the United States, including the locally-produced episodes “Fighting for Air” and “For the Love of the Land” which each took two honors. The episode “We Are Where We Live” exposes the socio-environmental determinants of health in the city of South Gate, CA through the stories of the patients and doctors of AltaMed and took the award for “Best Feature Documentary.” The award-winning series also took top honors in the “Activism Journalism,” “Investigative,” “Videographer” and “Environmental Reporting” categories.
Tying for top honors was content from ARTBOUND, which in its 13th season featured an installment that looked at the influence of Asian American pop culture magazine Giant Robot which was recognized in both the “Human Interest Feature” and “Animation/Moving Graphic” categories. Additional digital content in the entertainment, news and photo areas was also honored by the LA Press Club and can be found at kcet.org/artbound. ARTBOUND is supported in part by the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture, California Humanities, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Frieda Berlinski Foundation and other generous institutional funders.
Season two of the Emmy and James Beard Award®-winning series BROKEN BREAD (produced in partnership with modern media company Tastemade) garnered five first-place awards including “Best Documentary Short” and “Best Anchor/Host” for Executive Producer Chef Roy Choi. The season explored the future of the restaurant industry, highlighting complex social justice issues through the lens of food and featured notable interviews between Choi and Chef Wolfgang Puck, Restauratrice & Food Activist Alice Waters, Artist & Activist Chuck D. and more.
Additional honors went to the documentaries “Can We All Get Along? The Segregation of John Muir High School” in the categories of “Race and Society” and “Educational Reporting” as well as to "Hollywood Priest: The Story of Father ‘Bud’ Kieser” for “Faith and Spiritual Reporting.”
A full list of the LA Press Club’s winners including PBS SoCal and KCET’s over two dozen second- and third place winners can be found here. The full list of first-place honors for KCET and PBS SoCal are listed below with links (if not included above):
FEATURE DOCUMENTARY, over 25 minutes
- “Earth Focus: We Are Where We Live”
ACTIVISM JOURNALISM
- "Earth Focus: Fighting for Air"
ENVIRONMENTAL REPORTING
- "Earth Focus: For the Love of the Land"
INVESTIGATIVE
- "Earth Focus: Fighting for Air”NEWS FEATURE, over 5 minutes
- "Earth Focus: The Social Determinants of Health”
VIDEOGRAPHER
- Derek Ellis, “Earth Focus; For the Love of the Land”
DOCUMENTARY SHORT, under 25 minutes
- "Broken Bread: Owning the Block”
ANCHOR/HOST
- Roy Choi, “Broken Bread”
IMMIGRATION REPORTING
- "Broken Bread: Tijuana"
GENDER AND SOCIETY
- "Broken Bread: El Place, A Safe Space for Queer POC"
CONSUMER NEWS or FEATURE
- "Broken Bread: The Future of Restaurants"
HUMAN INTEREST FEATURE, under 5 minutes
ENTERTAINMENT NEWS or FEATURE, over 5 minutes
NEWS FEATURE, Music/Culture/Performing
- Carren Jao, Artbound: “Beautiful Strength: Sobrevivir…”
ANIMATION/MOVING GRAPHIC
- Dennis Nishi, "Artbound: Giant Robot – Asian Pop Culture and Beyond"
PHOTO ESSAY (single topic) Culture/Entertainment
FEATURE PHOTO
- Osceola Refetoff, "Artbound: Mt. Whitney - Infrared Exposure – Alabama Hills, California"
EDUCATIONAL REPORTING
- Pablo Miralles, Clark Harris, Michelle Merker, "Can We All Get Along? The Segregation of John Muir High School”
RACE AND SOCIETY
- Pablo Miralles, Clark Harris, Michelle Merker, "Can We All Get Along? The Segregation of John Muir High School”
FAITH/SPIRITUAL REPORTING
- Tom Gibbons, Maria-Elena Poblacion Pineda "Hollywood Priest: The Story of Fr. ‘Bud’ Kieser”
ENTERTAINMENT NEWS or FEATURE, under 5 minutes
All of the honorees’ work can be seen on kcet.org, pbssocal.org and on the free PBS video App.
Also recognized at the event were esteemed journalists/public figures including ABC7’s David Ono, Spectrum News 1’s Giselle Fernandez (presented by Sharon Stone), Bernard-Henry Levy (presented by Judea Pearl), John Leguizamo, Gary Sinise (presented by Joe Mantegna) and Alene Tchekmedyian (presented by Adam Rose). The Los Angeles Press Club presents two awards shows during the year. The other, the National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards, will next take place at the Biltmore on Dec. 3, 2023.
About PBS SoCal and KCET
PBS SoCal and KCET are both part of the donor-supported community institution, the Public Media Group of Southern California, which was formed by the merger of PBS SoCal and KCETLink Media Group. PBS SoCal is the flagship PBS station for diverse people across California and delivers content and experiences that inspire, inform and educate. PBS SoCal offers the full slate of beloved PBS programs including MASTERPIECE, NOVA, PBS NewsHour, FRONTLINE, and a broad library of documentary films including works from Ken Burns; as well as educational content including PBS KIDS programs including DANIEL TIGER’S NEIGHBORHOOD and CURIOUS GEORGE. KCET is on-air, online and in the community, and plays a vital role in the cultural enrichment of Southern California. KCET offers a wide range of award-winning local programming as well as the finest public television programs from around the world. Throughout its history, KCET has won hundreds of major awards for its local and regional news and public affairs programming, its national drama and documentary productions and its website, kcet.org. For additional information about both KCET and PBS SoCal productions, web-exclusive content, programming schedules and community events, please visit kcet.org and pbssocal.org KCET Originals and PBS programming are available to stream on the FREE PBS App on iOS and Android devices, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Android TV, Samsung Smart TV, and Chromecast. KCET is also available to watch live on YouTube TV, Amazon and Roku platforms. For more information please visit kcet.org/apps.