For “The Out Crowd,” a piece of “revelatory, intimate journalism that illuminates the personal impact of the Trump administration's ‘Remain in Mexico' policy,” This American Life has been awarded the first Pulitzer Prize ever given to audio journalism. In an acceptance post, host and producer Ira Glass acknowledges the individuals involved.
The honor has been specifically awarded to the staff of This American Life, with Molly O'Toole of the Los Angeles Times and Emily Green, freelancer, Vice News. Ren LaForme of Poynter confirms that “The Pulitzer Prizes are generally regarded as the highest honor that U.S.-based journalists and organizations can receive.”
“It’s an honor to be recognized this way by the Pulitzers,” Glass writes of his iconic radio show, aired since 1995. “Fun fact: the Peabody Awards were established in 1940 partly because the Pulitzers wouldn’t give out awards to this newfangled medium called radio. I guess they decided audio journalism is finally here to stay.”
Miranda Sawyer, radio critic at The Guardian, asks of podcasting: “Now, as star names pile in, they’re big business. Can the quality survive?” Known as ‘The Pod Doc’ of the publication, Sawyer has reported on podcasts since the summer of 2006, when “they rescued [her] from aural monotony.”
In a wide-ranging article, she discusses the medium’s independence alongside its ongoing capitalistic pitfalls. What’s changed in the 15 or so years since podcasting was first labeled the Next Big Thing? Speaking with longtime creative veterans like Helen Zaltzman of The Allusionist, Sawyer illustrates a realistic horizon.
Contrasting podcasts (“emphatically not a shared experience”) with true celebrity-fueled media, Sawyer concludes that ‘Big Niche’ may stay so. “Podcasts, in the end, are just too personal. Too niche, whether small niche or big,” Sawyer concludes. “Which is, of course, why we fans love them. They’re ours.”
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