The Society of Professional Journalists got pulled into the #GamerGate debate earlier this year during the “Ethics Week” campaign where they were attempting to get journalists to talk about ethics in journalism. However, the hashtag on Twitter was hijacked to talk about ethics in games journalism (with a healthy dose of trolling by some groups). After organizing the AirPlay panel in August (of which I was a committee member) to discuss ethics in video game journalism, the SPJ will now hand out awards for excellence in journalism… to video game journalists.

Over on the SPJ Network blog, there’s a post from the region 3 director of the SPJ, Michael Koretzky, explaining that for one year only the Society of Professional Journalists will allow for the Kunkel Awards for Video Game Journalism to take place.

Koretzky writes…

“It took some persuading, but SPJ has warily authorized the Kunkel Awards for Video Game Journalism — only for one year, though. If the Kunkels recognize excellent and ethical reporting without too much gnashing of teeth and rending of garments, I suppose it’ll survive another year.”

For those of you unfamiliar, Bill Kunkel was heralded as the man who helped invent video game journalism, starting a column back in 1978 and being recognized by The New York Times for his contributions in his 2011 obituary, which is detailed over on the Kunkel page on the SPJ’s website.

Users can nominate and vote for who they feel deserve to be nominated for efforts in the field of video game journalism. Some of the categories include “Excellence in News Video/Streaming”, as well as “Excellence in Feature Writing”, and “Excellence in News Reporting”.

Nominations are currently open and will take into consideration articles and videos published within the 2015 calendar year. The nominees must have a published work that’s in English and they can be from big and small websites alike.

You can check out the details on the judging and the nomination process and categories by visiting the official Society of Professional Journalist website.