UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — A Rolling Stone article focusing on the growth of Christian rock, more specifically the nonprofit organization that has become the fastest-growing radio chain in the United States, earned the Bart Richards Award for Media Criticism.
Journalist Katie Thornton earned the award for work published in 2024 with “Jesus Take the Dial,” a 6,000-word piece published in February 2024.
Thornton became just the fourth two-time winner of the respected award, which honors media criticism and has been presented annually by the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications at Penn State since 1995. Thornton, who will receive an honorarium and a crystal award, will visit the University Park campus at the start of the 2025-26 academic year to officially accept the award during a public session and then participate in classes and meetings with students and faculty members.
Entries from around the United States were submitted for the award and a team of Penn State faculty screeners whittled the entries to three finalists that were then reviewed by external judges. Those judges — Nadine Barnett Crosby, dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University, Suki Dardarian, retired editor of the Minnesota Star Tribune, and Chip Mahaney, emerging talent leader for E.W. Scripps Company — selected Thornton’s work unanimously.
“Jesus Take the Dial” focuses on the growth of the nonprofit Educational Media Foundation (EMF), which owns more than 1,000 radio signals across all 50 U.S. states. It is the second-largest station owner behind iHeartMedia. Thanks to Thornton’s comprehensive work, based on a mix of public records, interviews and research, the article looks at EMF’s business model and strategic growth. It also examines the cultural and religious implications of the group’s growth, and its impact on local radio across the nation.
Thornton is an award-winning print and audio journalist covering media, infrastructure and history. Her work has been published in Rolling Stone, The Guardian, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, National Geographic, 99% Invisible, NPR, BBC, and many more. In 2022, she created the podcast "The Divided Dial" with WNYC's "On The Media," which dove into the history, politics, and economics of conservative talk radio. The podcast earned a Pebody Award and the Bart Richards Award. She has also been honored with a prestigious Fulbright Fellowship for her storytelling work, and earned grants from the Fund for Investigative Journalism.
Thornton said she is especially interested in long-form, historically informed reporting that shows how infrastructure and communications technologies impact the daily lives and deeply held beliefs of Americans. She spent years working behind the scenes at small radio stations and radio-related organizations, which has influenced her interest in, and admitted soft spot for, the medium. She serves as the instructor of a podcasting course she designed at Macalester College in Minnesota.
The Bart Richard Award for Media Criticism, presented by the Bellisario College, annually considers constructively critical articles, books, and electronic and online media reports; academic and other research; and reports by media ombudsmen and journalism watchdog groups.