The strength of podcasting by Australian journalists has been reflected in an extremely broad and outstanding field of entrants in the Audio Long category of the 68th Walkley Awards. As a result, the Walkley Foundation has today announced a longlist of six projects vying to be finalists in this category of this year’s awards.
This category was renamed and refined in the recent five-yearly review of Walkley Awards categories by the Walkley Judging Board to reflect the rise of podcasting as a medium for longform journalism, alongside radio documentaries. Audio Long is open to audio entries, over 20 minutes, that are based on a single story and demonstrate in-depth investigation and excellent storytelling.
Walkley CEO Shona Martyn said: “Judging in longform categories, including documentaries and books, is by necessity, spread across more than one panel of specialists. Given the quality of the entries in Audio Long, the Walkley Foundation has decided to announce this year’s longlist in recognition of the quality of entries from across Australia. My congratulations to all the longlisted entries. My thanks to the judges for their many hours of concerted listening.”
The following entries are longlisted for the Audio Long Walkley Award:
- Dying Rose Team, The Advertiser, ‘Dying Rose’
- Brooke Fryer, Kirstie Wellauer, Brigid Anderson and the Indigenous Affairs Team, ABC, Background Briefing, ‘The Outland or the Cage’
- Angela Lavoipierre, Elsa Silberstein and Grant Wolter, ABC, ‘Schmeitgeist – The ADHD diagnosis wave: cashing in on a crisis’
- LiSTNR Factual Team, LiSTNR, ‘The Children in the Pictures podcast’
- Kirsti Melville, ABC RN, ‘Remember Balgo’
- Daniel Schulz and Megan Williams, 2DRY FM, ‘Water Watch Radio Fish Kill series’
Three of the entries will be announced as finalists for the 2023 Audio Long Award, alongside all the category finalists for the 68th Walkley Awards, on Thursday, October 12 (except the Walkley Book Award shortlist, announced November 2). Subscribe to the Walkley email newsletter for news.
The winners of the 68th Walkley Awards will be announced at a Gala Dinner on Thursday November 23, 2023.
You can find information about the Walkley Awards judging process here and the Terms and Conditions of the Awards here. The Walkley Foundation has a mechanism for dealing with any conflict of interest, actual or perceived, that may arise during the judging process. The guidelines are based on the principle that all actual conflicts of interest are to be avoided and that even a perceived conflict may be damaging to all parties. You can read more about the conflict guidelines here.
For media enquiries contact James Gorman on james.gorman@walkleys.com or 0414 990 480.
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