TORONTO, May 6, 2026 /CNW/ - Shauna Rae has won the 2026 Dalton Camp Award for her essay Beyond Objectivity: How Creator Journalism Helps Democracy Remember Its Voice, an essential interrogation of the role of objectivity and neutrality in contemporary journalism. 

The Dalton Camp Award is a $10,000 prize for the best essay on the link between media and democracy, presented annually by Friends of Canadian Media. 

Shauna Rae is a writer, poet, researcher, podcaster, and entrepreneur, with a background in radio journalism. She lives in Dorchester, Ontario, with her partner, Dan, and their rescue dog, Lucy.

"The premise of objectivity rests on a comforting fiction: that journalists can function as unfeeling, unaffected, uniform witnesses. In reality, journalists are embodied human beings shaped by culture, class, race, gender, geography and lived experience."

– Beyond Objectivity: How Creator Journalism Helps Democracy Remember Its Voice

The award was created in 2002 to honour the memory of Dalton Camp, a distinguished commentator on Canadian public affairs. The winners were chosen from over 250 entries. The winning essays can be read here. 

Friends of Canadian Media is a non-partisan citizens' movement that stands up for Canadian voices in Canadian media – from public broadcasting to news, entertainment, culture, and online civil discourse, we work to protect and defend Canada's rich cultural sovereignty and the healthy democracy it sustains. We are a not-for-profit organization that receives no government funding or donations from political parties or CRTC-regulated entities.

SOURCE Friends of Canadian Media