“THIS AMERICAN LIFE” WINS PULITZER PRIZE • JACOBS MEDIA ANNOUNCES SECOND ROUND OF COVID-19 SURVEYS

This American Life, the public radio program and podcast, was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in the 2020 competition. 

The move was historic because it was in a newly created category – Audio Journalism.

It is the first category that has been added by the Pulitzer Prize Board in 20 years. 

You can see the complete list of Pulitzer winners here.

The Prize was given to staff of This American Life and their collaborators Molly O’Toole of the Los Angeles Times and Emily Green, a freelancer for Vice News.

The program that won the award was The Out Crowd. 

The Pulitzer Board said the entry was a “revelatory, intimate journalism that illuminates the personal impact of the Trump Administration’s “Remain in Mexico” policy. 

 The judges called it “a distinguished example of audio journalism that serves the public interest.”

You can listen to the The Out Crowd here.

Host and producer Ira Glass acknowledged the good news on the This American Life webpage [link]. He said, in part:

“I’m thrilled to tell you that This American Life just won the very first Pulitzer Prize ever given to audio journalism. For years now, we’ve been doing serious reporting, including investigative stories. It’s gratifying to be recognized by the Pulitzers for that side of our work.”

"When we started putting it together, we knew that elements of the "Remain in Mexico" policy had been covered by the press. But a lot of that coverage had come out in drips and drops, as the wonky specifics of the policy changed. Most listeners – hell, most of our own families and friends – had not put together what the policies really meant: Tens of thousands of asylum seekers stranded on the other side of the border in shelters, on the streets, and in makeshift encampments."

"We wanted to document the emotional truth of that, building stories around characters and scenes and story arcs like we have in all our shows."

"I guess they decided audio journalism is finally here to stay."

JACOBS MEDIA LAUNCHES SECOND ROUND OF COVID-19 SURVEYS

In late March, Jacobs Media conducted a “popup survey” of radio listeners to gauge the impact of COVID-19 on their lives and their media consumption habits.

In a press release, survey supervisor Fred Jacobs said the first survey had 40,000 respondents and 170 participating stations. Jacobs partnered with PRPD to survey 17,444 core public radio listeners from 46 stations. Jacobs is partnering with PRPD on the second survey.

The purpose for both surveys is to track changes in listeners’ mindsets and the media they are consuming.  The Covid-19 situation keeps changing rapidly. Since the first survey period ended on April 2, the national death toll has climbed to over 70,000 people.

The deadline for stations to register is this Friday, May 8th. More information is available here.

In related news, Nielsen Audio will begin releasing the results for April on Monday (4/11). Of course, Spark News will report the ratings next week.