The locally produced Diane Rehm Show (WAMU, 88.5FM) won a Shorty Award in the News category last night.
The Shor
ty Awards were created last year to honor those who best use Twitter to communicate, educate or entertain in 140 characters or less.
Willam Bonner of Globo.com in Brazil and Rachel Maddow of MSNBC tied in the journalism category.
A Special Humanitarian Award was given to Haitian television presenter 
Carel Pedre (@carelpedre) for tweets that shed light on the devastating earthquake in his country
The Knight Foundation is a major sponsor of the Shorties. Gary Kebbel, the foundation’s journalism program director said:
"Twitter is part of the new frontier of communication. This year’s Shorty Award winners share the ability to spread news and information, and to engage people individually and globally, in innovative ways. They’re doing the kind of creative communicating that Knight Foundation seeks to support and advance."
Founder of the Shorties, Gregory Galant, the CEO of Sawhorse Media, added, "The Shorty Award winners show that you can make a big impact with few characters."
Click here to see a complete list of the nominees and winners.
The Twitter addresses for the journalism and news winners are:
- The Diane Rehm Show @drshow
- William Bonner @realwbonner
- Rachel Maddow @maddow
FYI: Diane Rehm is a member of the DC SPJ Journalism Hall of Fame.