The Oscars of journalism were handed out last week. However, in the modern media environment you're probably more likely to have read a listicle on the week's funniest lol cats than the Pulitzer Prize-winning stories that helped educate and inform people on some of the year's biggest events.
Pulitzer Prizes honor the best work from newspaper and magazine journalists, and though this was expanded in 2009 to include online publications, all of this year's winning work came from traditional print publications. As a result, you may not have seen their often gripping accounts in your Facebook news feed, so Tech Times has put together a list of the winners with links so that you can easily read them online.
2015 Pulitzer Prize Winners
Breaking News Reporting
Seattle Times, Oso landslide
Awarded to The Seattle Times Staff for its digital account of a landslide that killed 43 people and the impressive follow-up reporting that explored whether the calamity could have been avoided. This is hard to appreciate, as the award is for breaking news and the Oso landslide happened on March 22, but here's a link to all the papers articles on the natural disaster.
Public Service
The Post and Courier, "Till Death Do Us Part"
This award was given to the Charleston-based newspaper for its series on why South Carolina is one of the deadliest states in America for women to live in. This riveting series is well worth a read and has an easily digestible digital design.
Investigative Reporting
Joint winners
The Wall Street Journal, "Medicare Unmasked"
This series exposed previously unseen data and questioned the motives of America's health care providers.
Eric Lipton, The New York Times
Lipton's coverage described how wealthy lobbyists sway the opinions of congressional leaders and state attorneys general.
Explanatory Reporting
Zachary R. Mider, Bloomberg News
Mider won for his ongoing explanation of how U.S. corporations dodge taxes and why lawmakers and regulators have a hard time stopping them. This one describing how lawyers at a late-night party wrote a short operetta about their tax avoidance schemes is my personal favorite.
Local Reporting
Rob Kuznia, Rebecca Kimitch and Frank Suraci, Daily Breeze, Torrance, Calif.
This award was for the investigation into corruption in a cash-strapped school district. The paper has put together its own summary of the investigation here.
National Reporting
Carol D. Leonnig, The Washington Post
Leonnig won for her coverage of security lapses within the Secret Service. This digital interactive piece is an excellent example of her work.
International Reporting
The New York Times Staff
This award went to the entire Times staff for its coverage of the Ebola crisis in West Africa. This piece describes how the disease shattered one Liberian family.
Feature Writing
Diana Marcum, Los Angeles Times
Marcum won for her coverage of the drought in California. This piece describes the effect the drought has had on the farming communities of the San Joaquin Valley.
Commentary
Lisa Falkenberg, Houston Chronicle
This prize was awarded for Falkenberg's columns on grand jury abuses that led to a wrongful conviction and other egregious problems in the legal and immigration systems. This article takes a look at the disturbing world of the Texas grand jury system.
Criticism
Mary McNamara, Los Angeles Times
Mary McNamara was awarded the prize for her critiques detailing the effect of cultural changes on the programs that appear on our television sets. Here, she explains why TV has become the place to be for top actors and directors.
Editorial Writing
Kathleen Kingsbury, The Boston Globe
Kingsbury was awarded for her expose on the real price of cheap food and the human costs of income inequality. "The true cost of a cheap meal" tells the story of workers at an all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet in Raynham, Mass.
Editorial Cartooning
Adam Zyglis, The Buffalo News
All of Zyglis' political cartoons are worth checking out here, but my personal favorite is this one ridiculing CNN's Wolf Blitzer and rolling 24-hour news shows in general.
Breaking News Photography
St. Louis Post Dispatch Photography Staff
This was awarded to the entire photography staff for their pictures of the protests in Ferguson. Check out some of the most striking images here.
It's a long list, but if you can tear yourself away from the Internet's vast array of click-bait for an hour or two you might just enjoy some of this "news."
