The Board typically exercised its broad discretion in 1997, the 150th anniversary ofPulitzer's birth, in two fundamental respects. It took a significant step in the recognition ofthe growing importance of work being done by newspapers in online journalism. Beginningwith the 1999 competition, the Board sanctioned the submission by newspapers of onlinepresentations as supplements to print exhibits in the Public Service category. The Board leftopen the distinct possibility of further inclusions in the Pulitzer process of online journalismas the electronic medium developed. Thus, with the 2006 competition, the Board allowedonline content in all 14 of its journalism categories and said it will continue to monitor thefield.
The other major change was in music, a category that was added to the Plan of Awardfor prizes in 1943. The prize always had gone to composers of classical music. The definitionand entry requirements of the music category beginning with the 1998 competition werebroadened to attract a wider range of American music. In an indication of the trend towardbringing mainstream music into the Pulitzer process, the 1997 prize went to WyntonMarsalis's “Blood on the Fields,” which has strong jazz elements, the first such award. Inmusic, the board also took tacit note of the criticism leveled at its predecessors for failure tocite two of the country's foremost jazz composers. It bestowed a Special Citation on GeorgeGershwin marking the 1998 centennial celebration of his birth and Duke Ellington on his1999 centennial year. In 2004, the Board further broadened the definition of the prize and themakeup of its music juries, resulting in a greater diversity of entries. In 2007, the music prizewent to Ornette Coleman for “Sound Grammar,” the first live jazz recording to win theaward. The Board also awarded posthumous Special Citations to jazz composers TheloniousMonk in 2006 and John Coltrane in 2007.
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