The Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting has been presented since 1998, for a distinguished example of explanatory reporting that illuminates a significant and complex subject, demonstrating mastery of the subject, lucid writing and clear presentation. From 1985 to 1997, it was known as the Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Journalism.
The Pulitzer Prize Board announced the new category in November 1984, citing a series of explanatory articles that seven months earlier had won the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing. The series, "Making It Fly" by Peter Rinearson of The Seattle Times, was a 29,000-word account of the development of the Boeing 757 jetliner. It had been entered in the National Reporting category, but judges moved it to Feature Writing to award it a prize. In the aftermath, the Pulitzer Prize Board said it was creating the new category in part because of the ambiguity about where explanatory accounts such as "Making It Fly" should be recognized. The Pulitzer Committee issues an official citation explaining the reasons for the award.
List of winners for Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Journalism (1985–1997)
"for a six-part comprehensive series on the Strategic Defense Initiative, which explored the scientific, political and foreign policy issues involved in 'Star Wars.'"
"for its coverage of a shooting spree by a local mail carrier and the subsequent examination of the problems and stress faced by postal service workers."
"for its probe of questionable management practices and self-interest at the Southern Poverty Law Center, the nation's best-endowed civil rights charity."
"for reporting on problems stemming from the lack of regulation in California's booming managed health care industry and the implications for the rest of the country."
"for a series of reports that illustrated through dramatic examples the need for training of personnel and installation of special equipment by U.S. airlines to cope with medical emergencies in the air."
"for his narrative portrait of the legal struggle against the tobacco industry, centered on the personalities who were key in reaching a tentative settlement of billions of dollars."
"for his profile of a mentally ill man who pushed a woman to her death before an onrushing subway train, a case used by the writer for a broad overview of deficiencies in the mental health care system."
"for her moving and humane portrait of a young mother killed by a falling skyscraper window, its effect on her three-year-old daughter, and the negligence of the company involved."
"for its insightful coverage of the completed deciphering of the human genome, which explained the scientific context for understanding the chemical string that makes up DNA, as well as the discovery's implications for the future."
"for its informed and detailed reporting, before and after the September 11th attacks on the USA, that profiled the global terrorism network and the threats it posed."
"for its sustained explanatory reporting on the nature of the structural damage at 'Ground Zero,' the lower Manhattan area where the World Trade Center towers collapsed."
"for its painstaking explanation of chronic wasting disease among deer in Wisconsin, and the impact of the affliction on the state's citizens, communities and culture."
"for their ambitious exploration of the quality of care at 26 local hospitals and the creation of a 'report card' to help consumers make medical decisions."
"for her illuminating account of how one of America's best hospitals let an infant die of a preventable condition and how the devastated mother joined with the hospital to spare other families such heartache."
"for their richly portrayed reports on the world's distressed oceans, telling the story in print and online, and stirring reaction among readers and officials."
"for its multi-faceted explanation of the growing menace of diabetes, especially among the poor and vulnerable, that elicited a range of public and private responses."
"for their vivid, richly documented explanation of why AIG, the insurance industry giant, nearly collapsed and what lessons the crisis holds for the nation's policymakers."
"for his lucid exposition of how the cornerstones of the American judicial system differ from those in other democratic nations, awakening readers to the benefits and drawbacks of those differences."
"for relentless reporting on contaminated hamburger and other food safety issues that, in print and online, spotlighted defects in federal regulation and led to improved practices."[d]
"for his path-breaking coverage of how invasive aquatic creatures have disrupted the ecosystem of the Great Lakes and other bodies of water, illuminating the science and politics of an important national issue."
"for their meticulous examination of the collapse of Washington Mutual, the biggest bank failure in U.S. history, plumbing causes and raising troubling questions about federal regulation."
"for their exploration of the lack of progress in the 40-year war on cancer, combining explanation of scientific complexity and the exposure of myths with an empathetic portrayal of the human suffering caused by the disease."
"for their lucid examination of an epic effort to use genetic technology to save a 4-year-old boy imperiled by a mysterious disease, told with words, graphics, videos and other images."
"for its penetration of the shadowy world of fraud and abuse in Medicare, probing previously concealed government databases to identify millions of dollars in waste and corrupt practices."
"for its exploration of how the military is using trauma surgery, brain science and other techniques both old and new to reduce fatalities among the wounded in warfare, telling the story with words, images and other tools."
"for his lucid series that penetrated a legal thicket to explain how the nation's wealthiest citizens and corporations often exploited loopholes and avoided taxes."
"for his sharply focused exploration of inflated pensions for state and local employees, enhancing stories with graphic material to show how state legislators pump up retirement benefits in creative but unconscionable ways."
"for its tenacious exploration of how personal information is harvested from the cellphones and computers of unsuspecting Americans by corporations and public officials in a largely unmonitored realm of modern life."
"for its penetrating look into business practices by Apple and other technology companies that illustrates the darker side of a changing global economy for workers and consumers."
"for his exhaustive examination of the struggle to keep Asian carp and other invasive species from reaching the Great Lakes and ultimately all of the nation's inland waters, a story enhanced by animated graphics."
"for his unsettling and nuanced reporting on the prevalence of food stamps in post-recession US, forcing readers to grapple with issues of poverty and dependency."[1]
"for his authoritative illumination of the race by two competing teams of 3,000 scientists and technicians over a seven-year period to discover what physicists call the 'God particle.'"
"for chilling narratives that, at personal risk to him and his sources, revealed how lethal Mexican drug cartels infiltrated Oregon and other regions of the country."
"for a painstaking, clear and entertaining explanation of how so many U.S. corporations dodge taxes and why lawmakers and regulators have a hard time stopping them."[2]
"for an intimate and troubling portrayal of how Colorado's relaxed marijuana laws have drawn hundreds of parents to the state to seek miracle cures for desperately ill children."
"for using data analysis to reveal how an elite cadre of lawyers enjoy extraordinary access to the U.S. Supreme Court, raising doubts about the ideal of equal justice."
"for a startling examination and exposé of law enforcement's enduring failures to investigate reports of rape properly and to comprehend the traumatic effects on its victims."
"for a lucid explanation of how pharmaceutical companies employ secretive tactics to raise drug prices relentlessly, at great cost to patients and taxpayers."
"for the Panama Papers, a series of stories using a collaboration of more than 300 reporters on six continents to expose the hidden infrastructure and global scale of offshore tax havens."[a][3]
"for a rigorous examination that used data journalism and lucid writing to make tangible the abstract world of algorithms and how they shape our lives in realms as disparate as criminal justice, online shopping and social media."
"for an examination of the income inequality hiding behind Chattanooga's rise as the shining star of the South—reporting that combined data, research and human stories to render a full picture of poverty."
"for a deep and sensitive exploration of gender worldwide, using remarkable photography, moving video and clear writing to illuminate a subject that is at once familiar and misunderstood."
"for vivid and timely reporting that masterfully combined text, video, podcasts and virtual reality to examine, from multiple perspectives, the difficulties and unintended consequences of fulfilling President Trump's pledge to construct a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico."
"for a sobering examination of why the United States has one of the highest rates of maternal deaths in the developed world, and why at least half are preventable."
"for an exhaustive 18-month investigation of President Donald Trump's finances that debunked his claims of self-made wealth and revealed a business empire riddled with tax dodges."[d]
"for an exposé of redlining that analyzed more than 30 million mortgage records to uncover discrimination in the banking system, highlighting how skin color still shuts out millions of people from home ownership."
"for an ambitious explanation of a far-reaching criminal operation in which South American gold mining fueled international money laundering, urban street crime, environmental degradation, child exploitation, drug trafficking and a thriving precious metals industry in Miami."
"for an exhaustive examination, powered by a pioneering data analysis of U.S. federal court cases, of the obscure legal doctrine of 'qualified immunity' and how it shields police who use excessive force from prosecution."
"for a series of lucid, definitive pieces on the COVID-19 pandemic that anticipated the course of the disease, synthesized the complex challenges the country faced, illuminated the U.S. government's failures and provided clear and accessible context for the scientific and human challenges it posed."[4]
"for a series of clear and compelling stories that used satellite imagery and architectural expertise, as well as interviews with two dozen former prisoners, to identify a vast new infrastructure built by the Chinese government for the mass detention of Muslims."[a]
"for coverage that revealed the complexities of building the James Webb Space Telescope, designed to facilitate groundbreaking astronomical and cosmological research."[5]
"for a richly reported series that, with compelling writing and photography, tackled the complex roots of gun violence in the city, centering on the people and communities most affected by it."
"for stories that vividly reconstructed the 1921 Tulsa race massacre and illuminated its enduring effects, describing how the destruction of Black wealth and property burdened future generations."
"for poignant, comprehensive reporting that clearly demonstrated how the U.S. healthcare system has failed to lower the number of preventable stillbirths in the country."
"for his sweeping examination of the destruction of the Amazon, using rich data and images, that explores the conflicts between those people who see it as their birthright to exploit the area, those who seek to preserve indigenous communities and those desperate to protect the earth."
"for a searing indictment of our legal system's reliance on the felony murder charge and its disparate consequences, often devastating for communities of color."[7]
"for rigorous, far-reaching reporting that holds corporate water profiteers to account and exposes how they willfully exacerbate the effects of climate change at the expense of less powerful communities."
"for advancing understanding of law enforcement's catastrophic response to the mass shooting at a Uvalde, Texas elementary school and also for documenting the political and policy shortcomings that have led to similar deadly police failures across the country."
"for an authoritative examination of how the United States sowed the seeds of its own failure in Afghanistan, primarily by supporting murderous militia that drove civilians to the Taliban."
"for using innovative technology, archival research and personal storytelling to reveal how land titles granted to formerly enslaved Black men and women in the wake of the Civil War were unjustly revoked."
"for a deep and haunting examination of how insurance companies quietly, and with little public scrutiny, deny mental health services to those in need."
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