If you follow just about anyone in the media on Twitter, you know by now that the winners of the Pulitzer Prize have been announced, and there’s a bit of a party atmosphere online as journalists congratulate their colleagues for their award-winning work.
Astonishing powerhouse @nytimes team of investigative and foreign reporters accept Pulitzer for Russia coverage. pic.twitter.com/koSuoRuOc7
— Sam Dolnick (@samdolnick) April 10, 2017
You might also know that Newsweek’s Kurt Eichenwald walked away empty handed, which has to sting just a little bit more knowing that the pay gap journalists like to write about so much has nothing on the Pulitzer gap, according to the Columbia Journalism Review. Be white and a man should have been more than enough.
According to a study published last spring, 84 percent of Pulitzer winners over the last century have been white, and only 16 percent have been female.
https://twitter.com/mkramer/status/851504497167933440
And he’s another chart from the Columbia Journalism Review’s analysis of 100 years’ worth of data on Pulitzer Prize winners … something to keep in mind the next time a white journalist complains about a bunch of white guys at a Trump thing doing stuff.
https://twitter.com/lamthuyvo/status/851533202992750592
So, what are newspapers doing about this disparity? The white men who make up the majority of the reporting positions inside the Wall Street Journal are apparently uncomfortable controlling so much of the narrative at the paper. So, are they quitting to free up positions for women and minorities? Not exactly.
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https://twitter.com/robaeprice/status/846770810035556353
Business Insider recently reported that 160 staffers signed a letter to the paper’s editor in chief, requesting “a review of how well we do in quoting women as expert sources, rather than just men,” “a significant effort made to hire a woman in a masthead-level position overseeing news gathering and involved in setting the coverage agenda,” and more.
Or, a bunch of white men could quit …
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Related:
Developing: HuffPo reporter's keen eye uncovers bunch of white guys at a Trump thing https://t.co/2YIzFQrko2
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) March 28, 2017
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