A summary video and an austere voiceover replaced the usual press conference, but on May 4, the Pulitzer Prize jurors awarded their string of awards. For the 2020 edition, alongside the traditional categories, a prize was awarded for the first time. Crowning an “audio report”, he came to sanctify a monument of American culture: “This American Life”, one of the most popular radio programs in the world, with its 5.8 million weekly listeners (including 3 , 6 million in podcast).
At the head, a man, Ira Glass, who is to FM what Tom Wolfe, Joan Didion or Gay Talese were to the print media: a revolutionary and a forerunner. In the 1970s, new journalists put forward anonymous subjects and enriched the real with romantic effects. In 1995, Ira Glass decided to apply the spirit of new journalism to radio reporting.
"This American Life" is a short story that enlightens the listener on the world, society, politics. "High-level journalism, but embodied," sums up Sonia Kronlund, producer of the France Culture show "Les Pieds sur terre".
A Baltimore native and a graduate in semiotics, the journalist was 36 years old and worked in Chicago for the local branch of public radio NPR. Encouraged by its editor-in-chief to think about a new program, it creates an hour-long show that shakes up traditional formats: we hear self-fiction texts by writers or playwrights, but also and above all everyday voices , which tell everyday stories. " Person known, person you have heard of, person passing on the news ", he summarized in 2007 in an interview.
Led by one or more narrators, who reveal the underside of their investigation, very written and full of anecdotes, quotes and sounds collected in the field, each episode of "This American Life" is a short story that enlightens the listener about the world, society, politics. " High-level journalism, but embodied ", sums up Sonia Kronlund, producer of the France Culture show "Les Pieds sur terre", who owes her a lot.
A model that adapts to all genres
Sarah Larson, who covers podcasts for Tea New Yorker, rewinds: "Before" This American Life ", some people were already trying different styles, but Ira Glass popularized and pushed the concept of alternative reporting by combining investigation with storytelling, sound, music, and raw reporting. " From intimate documentary to investigative journalism, the "This American Life" model adapts to all genres. Among the more than seven hundred episodes archived online, we therefore find personal testimonies (such as on two babies exchanged at maternity in 1951, or "Notes on Camp", which compiles memories of summer camps), reports (like this double episode of 2013 on a shooting in a Chicago high school, which required five months of investigation), and of course " The Out Crowd ", The episode, broadcast in mid-November 2019, which has just won the famous Pulitzer.
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