By: Joe Strupp The Pulitzer Prizes may think they're on the technology edge by allowing Web-only news outlets to enter their competition, but the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation has them beat.
The Knight Foundation, along with Sawhorse Media, presented what appears to be the first prizes for twittering, honoring 26 winners of the Shorty Awards Wednesday night.
"An international breaking news service based in the Netherlands and the space agency NASA were recognized Wednesday night as two of the 26 winners of the first Shorty Awards, which highlight the best micro-blogging on the site Twitter," a release stated. "Also receiving an award was Carri Bugbee, a Portland, Oregon PR executive who created a following among ad execs while blogging anonymously as the character Peggy Olson, a junior copywriter on the AMC TV series Mad Men. Bugbee's identity was revealed at the Shorty Awards ceremony at New York's Galapagos Art Space."
"Twitter has emerged as powerful platform for covering news, politics, entertainment and more - but it would be nothing without talented writers," said Gregory Galant, CEO of Sawhorse Media. "The Shorty Awards recognize those who excel on Twitter at covering a certain beat."
"The winners received more than 50,000 nominations and votes for the awards, created in December. The Knight Foundation co-sponsored the event, awarding travel money to the winners to attend the ceremony," the release stated, adding, "all acceptance speeches were delivered in 140 characters or less, the maximum allowed for a Twitter post."
Other winners included:
- @FLWbooks, operated by FlashlightWorthyBooks.com, a winner in the entertainment category.
- @MarsPhoenix, which posted 600 updates during the 152 days NASA's Mars Phoenix Lander was on its mission last year. The account has more than 41,000 followers.
- @BreakingNewsOn, one of Twitter's most popular news services, created by Michael van Poppel, a 20-year-old from the Netherlands
- @Yiying Lu, in the design category, for creating the Fail Whale, an icon that rose to popularity as Twitter's error message when the fledgling service struggled to keep its servers running. Yiying Lu traveled to the ceremony from Australia.
For a full list of winners, visit www.shortyawards.com.
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