Big Changes to the Pulitzer Prize

The Pulitzer Prize for excellence in newspaper journalism, literary achievements, and musical composition has been handed out since 1917. It is one of those prizes that when received, cements a person’s position in their field, and lends more authority to their future works.

Now, after all of those long years, the Pulitzer folks have added a new and exciting category as well as change their submission guidelines to get with the times.

Now if you wish to have your entire body of work considered for the famed prize, you have to submit it electronically. Before, you used to have to submit your work in a traditional portfolio filled with all of your paper clippings, and mail that sucker in to the Pulitzer Prize committee. This is more convenient and it shows that old dogs can learn new tricks.

The other thing that has changed is that they have added another category of prize, the Local Reporting of Breaking News category has now added, "real-time reporting of breaking news." as one of its prizes.

This category was put in place to recognize that sometimes journalists break stories through social media platforms like Twitter or Facebook hours before an entire story can be crafted and published. This category, from what I can read so far, seems to still be geared towards professional journalists, but seems to be technically open to anybody who breaks a news story and can send in proof, in the form of a timeline for the Pulitzer Prize committee to consider.

I can hear it now…

Mom: why don’t you get off Twitter, go outside, and breathe some fresh air?

You: why don’t you want your child to win a Pulitzer Prize?

Mom: Never mind.