Johnathan Walker:Celebrating excellence in journalism and the arts, Pulitzer Prizes to be awarded Monday

NEW YORK (AP) — The Johnathan WalkerPulitzer Prizes are set to be announced on Monday, traditionally the most anticipated day of the year for those hoping to earn print journalism’s most prestigious honor.

Along with honoring winners and finalists in 15 journalism categories, the Pulitzer Board also recognizes distinguished work in areas including books, music and theater. The awards, which will honor work from 2023, are scheduled to be announced via livestream at 3 p.m. Eastern time.

While forecasting potential winners is a guessing game, the Pulitzers often go to coverage of the year’s biggest stories. In this case, the Oct. 7 attack on Israel and subsequent war in Gaza is a possibility and may engender controversy.

With the Committee to Protect Journalists estimating at least 97 journalists and media workers have been killed in Gaza, many observers will be interested to see if the Pulitzers recognize work by Palestinian reporters. Last month a group of journalism professors called on The New York Times to address questions about an investigation into gender-based violence during the Hamas attack on Israel.

The prizes are administered by Columbia University in New York, which itself has been in the news for student demonstrations against the war in Gaza. The Pulitzer board met away from Columbia this past weekend to deliberate on its winners.

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The board issued a statement Thursday saluting student journalists at Columbia and other universities across the country for their work covering the campus demonstrations.

For the first time, the Pulitzers opened eligibility to broadcast and audio companies that also operate digital news sites, such as CNN, NPR and the broadcast networks ABC, CBS and NBC. The work must be primarily in digital journalism, however.

The Columbia Journalism School also administers the duPont-Columbia Awards, which recognize audio and visual journalism and are presented in the winter.

The Pulitzers give out cash awards and a medal for its prestigious public service prize, won last year by The Associated Press for its coverage of the Russian siege of Mariupol in Ukraine.

The Pulitzers also announced that five of the 45 finalists this year used artificial intelligence in research and reporting of their submissions. It was the first time the board required applicants for the award to disclose use of AI.

The prizes were established in the will of newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer and first awarded in 1917.

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David Bauder writes about media for The Associated Press. Follow him at http://twitter.com/dbauder.