The Pulitzer Prize is administered by Columbia University in New York City, based on the will of Hungarian-American newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer, who endowed the awards upon his death in 1911. The first prizes were conferred in 1917 and have been awarded annually since.
The program recognizes excellence across multiple categories, broadly divided into:
- Journalism awards, open to U.S.-based news organizations and journalists, covering categories such as Public Service, Breaking News Reporting, Investigative Reporting, International Reporting, National Reporting, Editorial Writing, Commentary, Criticism, Feature Photography, and Breaking News Photography.
- Letters, Drama, and Music awards, recognizing American authors and composers in fields including Fiction, Drama, History, Biography, Poetry, General Nonfiction, and Music.
Winners are selected by the Pulitzer Prize Board following recommendations from juries of editors, academics, and practitioners. The Public Service award in journalism is the only category whose winner receives a gold medal; other journalism and letters winners receive a cash prize, which the Board has periodically increased.
For political researchers and IR students, the Pulitzer Prize is often used as a marker of high-credibility reporting when evaluating sources. Investigative and International Reporting winners have repeatedly shaped public debate on foreign policy, intelligence, and human rights — examples include reporting on the Pentagon Papers (awarded to The New York Times for Public Service in 1972), the Abu Ghraib disclosures, and disclosures based on documents leaked by Edward Snowden (shared by The Guardian US and The Washington Post for Public Service in 2014).
The Prize has also generated controversy. The Board revoked Janet Cooke's 1981 Feature Writing award after The Washington Post determined her story was fabricated. Debates have continued over eligibility rules, the U.S.-centric scope of journalism categories, and the inclusion of online-only and magazine outlets — the latter formally admitted in stages during the 2010s.
The Prize remains one of the most cited benchmarks of journalistic and literary distinction in the English-speaking world.
Example
In 2014, The Guardian US and The Washington Post shared the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for their reporting on NSA surveillance based on documents leaked by Edward Snowden.