Annenberg professor Joe Saltzman was named the national Journalism & Mass Communication Teacher of the Year by the Scripps Howard Foundation Friday.

Scripps Howard’s National Journalism Awards are considered some of the most prestigious in American journalism — both professional and academic.

The foundation honors the best communication professionals and educators in the nation every year.

Saltzman, a journalism professor at the Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism, will receive the Charles E. Scripps Award and a $10,000 prize. Saltzman directs the Image of the Journalist in Popular Culture, a project of the Norman Lear Center at Annenberg.

“This is an incredible honor, totally unexpected,” said the 71-year-old Saltzman, an award-winning journalist and filmmaker.

He said he’s thoroughly enjoyed teaching students and sharing his own knowledge and experiences over the past five decades.

“When I started in journalism, television was brand new and we had a chance to invent non-fiction TV in new and wonderful ways,” he told ATVN. “Today, our students have a similar opportunity to invent journalism for the Internet and the social networks. Just as it was a half century ago, this is an exciting time to be a young journalist, and it is the job of the journalism teacher to do what he/she has always done: to pass along a craft to the next generation.”

Saltzman said the $10,000 prize will go to The Jester & Pharley Phund, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping children battling cancer and other diseases.

Saltzman beat out other educators from the University of Illinois and Boston University.

He, along with other winners, will be honored May 3 at a banquet dinner in Cincinnati.

The Scripps Howard Foundation National Journalism Awards competition was established in 1953 and recognizes outstanding print, broadcast and online journalism as well as college journalism and mass communication educators.

“This year’s winners have improved lives, given hope, held officials and institutions accountable and typically informed, entertained or enlightened their audiences with skillfully presented work across multiple platforms,” said Mike Philipps, president of the Scripps Howard Foundation, in a statement Friday. “We are proud to honor them in the hometown of our corporate headquarters.”