The 2012 Pulitzer Prize winners reflect the rising role of social media and the Internet in today's news coverage.
Online news sites The Huffington Post and Politico were recognized for their editorial content. Traditional news outlets integrated social media into their reporting of breaking news in real time.
"Social media appeared in several categories this year, especially in the breaking news category," Sig Gissler, Pulitzer Prize administrator told Mashable. "One of the factors considered this year was the real time reporting in early phases of events."
Breaking News category winner The Tuscaloosa News (Ala.) included its Twitter feed among the pieces submitted of its coverage of the April 2011 tornadoes.
The Huffington Post became the first online-only daily news site to win a Pulitzer, for David Wood's 10-part series "Beyond the Battlefield," which discusses the lives of severely injured Afghanistan and Iraq War veterans. The series was recognized in the National Reporting category. Arianna Huffington told Brian Stelter that this was the first year The Huffington Post has submitted work for consideration.
Non-profit investigative journalism organization ProPublica became the first online-only outlet to win a Pulitzer in 2010 (and won a second award in 2011). However, its stories are published in partnership with traditional print news outlets as well.
The mostly digital Politico won the Pulitzer for Matt Wuerker's editorial cartooning, though Politico is also available in print in Washington, D.C.
Gissler sees social media penetrating into many of the existing Pulitzer award categories in the coming years, so a category specifically for digital reporting technique seems unlikely.
"I think you'll continue to see social media in the breaking news category, but it will show up in others as well," Gissler says.
The Pulitzer committee took big digital leaps this year. In November, the Pulitzer Prize board announced that applications for the 2012 awards could only be submitted online. All news packages were reviewed digitally for the first time ever. Up until this year, Gissler says, applications were reviewed on paper.
The Social Web Reacts to the 2012 Winners
Shortly after its historic win was announced, The Huffington Post tweeted a link to a cat slumber party.
19 cat slumber parties (PHOTOS) huff.to/J5Oomt
— Huffington Post (@HuffingtonPost) April 16, 2012
In it's moment in the spotlight, the digital media powerhouse showed that cat photos and investigative war reporting can live together in harmony on the same site.
Shortly after the award winners were released, the name of one reporter, Sara Ganim, trended on Twitter above the name "Pulitzer" itself. Ganim, 24, is the crime reporter for The Patriot-News in Harrisburg, Pa., who broke the Jerry Sandusky story in November 2011.
Much of the buzz of Ganim's win focused on her young age for such significant professional recognition.
RT @BNightengale: Congrats to Sara Ganim, @sganim, the 2nd-youngest reporter to ever win a Pulitzer for her Sandusky coverage.
— Bruce Feldman (@BFeldmanCBS) April 16, 2012
In addition to the online winners, Twitter discussed the prominence of local winners compared to dominating nation-wide outlets.
#Pulitzer trends I noticed: Digital winners (HuffPo, Politico), smaller regional winners, no national papers dominated bit.ly/HLmjTr
— Liz Heron (@lheron) April 16, 2012
Do you think Pulitzer should create an award specifically for the use of new reporting tools? How in touch with new media do you find this years winners? Sound off in the comments.
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, wellphoto
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