On April 16, 2018, winners of the Pulitzer Prize, a prestigious US award for achievements in journalism, literature, and music, were announced at Columbia University’s School of Journalism. Pulitzer Administrator Dana Canedy said at the award ceremony: “The journalism categories yet again uphold the highest purpose of a free and independent press, even in the most trying of times… These courageous, inspiring, and committed journalists and their news organizations are undaunted in their mission in support of the Fourth Estate.” The awards were announced in 14 journalism and 7 letters, drama, and music categories. The prize “for public service” was awarded to the journalists of US newspapers The New York Times and The New Yorker for “explosive, impactful journalism” – the articles that expose sexual harassment in Hollywood. The staff of The New York Times shared one more prize with their counterparts in The Washington Post “for deeply sourced, relentlessly reported coverage in the public interest that dramatically furthered the nation’s understanding of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and its connections to the Trump campaign, the President-elect’s transition team, and his eventual administration,” the Pulitzer website reports.
In the Feature Photography category, the prize was awarded to the photography staff of Reuters “for shocking photographs that exposed the world to the violence Rohingya refugees faced in fleeing Myanmar.” In the Breaking News Photography category, the award went to Ryan Kelly of the Daily Progress “for a chilling image that reflected the photographer’s reflexes and concentration in capturing the moment of impact of a car attack during a racially charged protest in Charlottesville, Va.” Time notes that Kelly took this picture on the last day of working for this publication.
APRIL 16, 2018. SANTA ROSA. THE PRESS DEMOCRAT STAFF CELEBRATE BEING AWARDED A PULITZER PRIZE FOR THE COVERAGE OF WILDFIRES IN SANTA ROSA, CALIFORNIA / REUTERS photo
The Pulitzer Board awarded a prize in the music category to US rapper Kendrick Lamar for the album “Damn,” “a virtuosic song collection unified by its vernacular authenticity and rhythmic dynamism that offers affecting vignettes capturing the complexity of modern African-American life.” The media say this is the first time the hip-hopper received this prize. “That marks the first time in the prize’s 75-year history that it was awarded to a musical work that is not jazz or classical.”
