Partners in Power Alliances between investigative journalists and officials in the United States, 1917-1960

• Published in: Journalism practice Vol. 9; no. 3; pp. 367 - 382
• Main Author: Lanosga, Gerry
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Routledge 04.05.2015
• Subjects: agenda building; investigative reporting; journalism history; news sources; objectivity; professionalization; Pulitzer Prizes
• ISSN: 1751-2786; 1751-2794
• DOI: 10.1080/17512786.2014.953769

This historical analysis examines the relationship between investigative journalists and official sources through the prism of Pulitzer Prize archive materials from 1917 through 1960. Most prize research has focused on the content of winning stories, but this study provides a fuller picture of the process of newsmaking-and policymaking-through an exploration of deliberative material created by prize juries. While the role of the press in these decades and beyond has been conceptualized alternately as a passive lapdog or an aggressive watchdog, this essay offers a more nuanced view of newspapers that are fully entangled with power in society-sometimes collaborating with a faction of power, sometimes confronting a faction, and, often, both at once. Detailed jury notes on the nominations tell the stories behind the investigations, revealing a press that sometimes leads and other times takes the lead from those in positions of official power. The paper adds to the literature on policy and media agenda building, arguing that through investigative reporting, journalists have often been active rather than passive partners in systems of community standard maintenance.