Roche Prize for Health Journalism 2024

Deadline: 10 June 2024

The Gabo Foundation is pleased to announce the Roche Prize for Health Journalism.

The Roche Prize for Health Journalism is an initiative of the Gabo Foundation, with the support of Roche Latin America and Genentech, which seeks to recognize excellence and stimulate quality journalistic coverage on health and science issues in Latin America, integrating views from health, economic, political, social, among other areas of research in journalism.

Award Categories

The Roche Prize competition categories in its 2024 edition are:
- Sound journalism: will reward the best journalistic work with sound language produced and transmitted in radio programs by radio frequency of stations, legally constituted chains or on digital platforms such as Internet sites, applications or social networks of any country in Latin America, Spain or the United States.
- Digital journalism: will recognize the best work produced and published in digital media and environments of all types and from any country in Latin America, Spain and the United States.
- Coverage: the work that stands out for its comprehensive and in-depth coverage of a current topic in health and science will be chosen, developed in any journalistic format (written, audiovisual, digital or sound) or through a combination of several of these.

Topics

To participate in any of the contest categories, works must be focused on some of the following 6 topics:
- Challenges facing health care: given the existing inequalities in Latin American countries, with millions of people without access to comprehensive health services and care models that do not fully respond to the needs of patients, this topic arises under which Journalistic works focused on gaps in timely health coverage, the lack of adequate infrastructure for care, the scarcity of opportunities for training health personnel, the good or bad use of physical and financial resources will be received and evaluated. , as well as the challenges to be overcome in a territory around these problems and the goals or solutions achieved.
- Prevention, diagnosis and primary care: Currently, early and accurate detection of diseases is crucial to improve the quality of life of the population and optimize the resources of the health system. Thus, this theme seeks to recognize journalistic works that thoroughly explore the advances, challenges and opportunities in the field of medical diagnosis. Journalistic pieces that address innovations in techniques, challenges and opportunities of diagnosis, as well as the importance of prevention and early detection, may participate.
- Innovations for health care: the contest establishes this theme for works focused on advances in technology at the service of health, medicine and science, its effect on patient care and its eventual contribution to the sustainability of health systems. In this way, journalistic pieces on significant advances in scientific and health innovation as well as works on digital health, digital solutions in health care, health technologies, interoperability may be nominated for the contest – with this as one of the themes to be developed., among other related ones. In addition, the repercussions of new government investment policies will be explored, highlighting their influence on the implementation of these innovations and their impact on the improvement of health services.
- Political reforms to improve health care: under the premise that the conversation about health issues in the media must involve other aspects (economic, social, gender, politics), this theme of the contest is strengthened to receive journalistic works on regulations, reforms , bills and public health policies, new or not, their implications and effects on the population, the corresponding patient community, the health system and its professionals, as well as monitoring their compliance or possible non-compliance.
- Women and health: the dynamism of the journalistic profession generates constant modifications in the approaches from which stories and reports should be guided. This theme seeks to highlight works that address medical care for women, the diseases that most afflict them, their cultural role in caring for the health of the family group, as well as the external situations that make them vulnerable compared to men. The lack of documentation, research and information on women, gender and health increases the importance of this topic and the application of works that also expose the solutions, initiatives and policies on the needs of this population, as well as the potential social impact of these.
- Community actions for health: this theme seeks to become a platform for journalistic works that expose actions with different actors (health professionals, patient associations, government officials, private companies), born from the community, to generate access to better health conditions. Also, stories that encourage community participation in decision-making, the empowerment of the population in favor of the management of health problems and their care, through innovations or strategic alliances.

Requirements

For authors
- The author or the majority of the members of the journalistic team must have been born or have been nationalized in any of the countries of Latin America, Spain or the United States.
- Third parties may recommend works to compete, providing the reference of the work and the contact information of the medium or authors, through the email, so that the Gabo Foundation invites them to apply for their work.
- Only works that are fully registered through the Roche Prize registration platform will be valid.
For jobs in the different categories
- Digital journalism: unitary works or series produced specifically for internet pages, social networks or other digital platforms such as mobile applications may be applied for, which demonstrate the use of multimedia languages such as infographics, photo galleries, videos, audios, interaction with users, data visualization, among others. A series is considered to be those works that have been issued in several deliveries (maximum 10 for the application for the Award), with a start and end date. If the work exceeds this number of parts, the author must select the 10 installments that he considers appropriate, as a representative sample of the journalistic piece. Fixed or permanent sections of the medium or website on the Internet are not considered series. To attach the work to the application platform, the direct link (URL) to the nominated publication will be accepted.
- Sound journalism: unitary works and series produced live or previously recorded using language for radio frequency radio programs from stations, legally constituted chains and digital platforms such as internet sites, applications or social networks from any country in Latin America, Spain may be applied for. and the United States. A series is considered to be those works that have been issued in several deliveries (maximum 10 for the application for the Award), with a start and end date. If the work exceeds this number of parts, the author must select the 10 installments that he considers appropriate, as a representative sample of the journalistic piece. Fixed or permanent sections of the program, platform, medium or internet site are not considered series. Complete programs by themselves will not be valid, except if their complete broadcast constitutes a single piece with thematic unity. To attach the work to the application platform, you must upload the audio file or provide the direct link (URL) to the nominated publication.
- Coverage: Comprehensive and in-depth coverage of a current topic in health and science may be applied for, developed in any journalistic format (written, audiovisual, digital or sound) or by combining several of these, with a maximum of 10 installments. If the work exceeds this number of parts, the author must select the 10 installments that he considers appropriate, as a representative sample of the journalistic piece. Works registered with a single delivery will be discarded. When attaching this series of works to the application platform, it must be taken into account that if it was issued on the Internet, regardless of the format, it is necessary to include the link where the publication. If the work has been broadcast on radio or television, upload the file to an online platform that provides a link to guarantee access. And if it was published in a printed medium, attach the file in PDF, Word or JPG format. In any of these cases, the links to the series must be organized chronologically in a PDF file, also to be attached to the application.