The Columbia University Journalism School has named its 2018 Alfred I. duPont - Columbia University Awards recipients, with Netflix new to the winners circle.

Five of the awards, given for journalistic excellence, went to local TV stations, including two for Tegna-owned stations; three to commercial broadcast networks; two to PBS; and two to cable networks. Streaming service Netflix's award was for 13TH, the critically acclaimed documentary about the targeting of African Americans by the legal system as criminals, directed by Ava DuVernay.

The annual juried awards recognize excellence in broadcast, digital and documentary journalism. About a dozen news stories and films are honored each year for the strength of their reporting, storytelling and impact in the public interest.

The cable networks honored were HBO, for Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel, and National Geographic Networks. CBS News's two included one for 60 Minutes in its 50th year, and ABC received one for a documentary on the Los Angeles riots. PBS's awards were for Frontline and World Channel.

Five local TV stations were honored for investigative reporting: ABC15 Arizona (Phoenix) for exposing abuse of the Americans with Disabilities Act; KARE 11 (Minneapolis) for three separate hard-hitting investigative stories; KHOU-TV (Houston) for revealing Houston’s wasteful police body camera program; KNTV (San Jose, Calif.) for an investigative series that chronicled the misuse of school police officers to discipline students; and WITI-TV (Milwaukee) for bravely challenging public opinion about laws intended to safeguard children that paradoxically may put them at greater risk.

“Like many of our Tegna stations, KARE and KHOU have produced incredibly meaningful work that impacts the lives of many," said Tegna president David Lougee. "Their projects are strong examples of the positive impact of local journalism on communities and the importance of storytelling for the public interest. We are committed to continuing to invest in our local stations to ensure they have the journalistic freedom to pursue investigations that make communities stronger without bias or agenda.”

Stacy Owen, president and general manager of KNTV, said: “We are honored to be recognized with this very important award and proud that our investigative unit helped to inspire security changes at schools in our own backyard and all across the country. The sweeping changes that resulted from our investigation reinforces our station’s mission of shining a light on questionable practices and holding the powerful accountable to make the Bay Area a better place to live for all.”

The awards will be given out Jan. 16, hosted by CBS This Morning's Gayle King and CNN's Jake Tapper.

Click here for a list of all the winners and their stories.

Controversies surrounding race and the U.S. criminal justice system have spurred a national debate in homes and communities around the country over the past few years. Two new series debuting in the next few weeks will tackle some of those controversies head on.

Following critical acclaim for Netflix’s Ava DuVernay-produced documentary 13th, which focuses on race and mass incarceration in the country, Spike TV will take an unscripted look at the tragic life of Kalief Browder in a six-part documentary series premiering Wednesday, March 1.

Executive-produced by hip-hop entrepreneur Jay-Z, Time: The Kalief Browder Story follows the experiences of Browder (pictured), who in 2010, at 16, was arrested for stealing a backpack. He was never convicted of the alleged crime but nonetheless spent three years in Rikers Island prison in New York — a good portion of that time in solitary confinement. His case has stirred up calls for a reform of the city’s criminal justice system.

Whatever your opinion on whether the scales of justice are balanced for all, Spike TV president Kevin Kay said in an interview that the tragic circumstances surrounding Browder should be of interest.

“This is a hot topic in our society today, and I think people are thinking about this more than they were a couple of years ago,” he said. “I think the timing is right. It’s a story that needs to be told and Spike is in a unique position to tell it.”

Three weeks later (March 22) Fox will premiere a 10-episode scripted drama series, Shots Fired, examining the criminal-justice system in the aftermath of two racially charged shootings in a rural North Carolina town.

The series, starring Sanaa Lathan, Richard Dreyfuss, Helen Hunt and Stephan James, is “probably the most current show you’ll ever see,” according to Dreyfuss, who spoke at the Television Critics Association Winter Tour in January. Shots Fired touches upon the schisms between racial groups and local law enforcement that have made headlines and spurred protests around the country over the past few years — a fact the show’s creators weren’t afraid to explore.

“Going into it, we knew the story we wanted to tell; we knew what we wanted to deal with,” Shots Fired co-creator Gina Prince-Bythewood said at TCA. “It’s very easy for people to watch the news and see a piece about a shooting, and if you don’t identify with who’s on the screen, you turn it off. So we felt the best way to address this issue for us — and to get people who don’t normally go through this issue to understand — was to give them a way in and give them a way to understand.”

Netflix on Jan. 26 will stream an interview special featuring Oprah Winfrey and Ava DuVernay, the OTT service said Wednesday.

The 30-minute interview, 13TH: A Conversation With Oprah Winfrey & Ava DuVernay, comes on the heels of an Oscar nomination in the Best Documentary Feature category for DuVernay’s 13TH.

The special features Winfrey interviewing DuVernay about her filmmaking process for 13TH, which launched on Netflix last October.

“The truths revealed within 13TH are stunning, and a brilliant primer for a much needed global conversation,” says Lisa Nishimura, Netflix vice president of original documentaries in a statement. “The 13THinterview special was born from an organic post-screening discussion between two of the most influential and insightful women in media, Ava DuVernay and Oprah Winfrey, who invite us to share in their personal feelings surrounding one of the most important issues of our time.”