Al Jazeera wins 9 Shorty Awards in Digital category

The Al Jazeera Media Network has emerged victorious in the 15th annual Shorty Awards, winning a total of nine awards in the English and Arabic digital content categories. The awards, which recognize excellence in online media, were announced on May 24 in New York City. Al Jazeera’s Digital Division scooped up two top prizes in the news and media category for the AJ English Twitter team and the podcast news and politics category for The Take. The news and current affairs programme Start Here also won a silver Shorty in the news and media category, while AJ+ Arabic, French, Spanish and English won a bronze news and media award for their combined coverage of the killing of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh by Israeli forces. The I-Unit, Al Jazeera’s investigations unit, also won a bronze award in the podcast news and politics category for The Truth Illusion. Other Arabic language strands and units at Al Jazeera Digital also won prizes, with the Arabic Net cartoon series Mansy scooping up both a bronze award and an audience honour in the interaction and digital storytelling category. Digital Newsroom (DNR) won two audience honours for its Arabic language Instagram and YouTube channels. The Shorty Awards are an annual benchmark for evaluating the performance of websites and personal accounts with the most impact and engagement on social media. Over 148 categories, media organizations and international production companies have competed for these awards since 2008. A ceremony will be held to honour the winners on November 23.