This study compares the standard of journalistic excellence between the news reporting awards in the United States and China from 1979 to 1984, under a newsgatherer-analyst-narrator framework. The manifest criteria of selection in the Pulitzer Prize emphasizes analytical excellence while its Chinese counterpart emphasizes narrative excellence. However, when the latent attributes of the prize-winning stories are analyzed by content analysis, both awards emphasize narrative excellence. Prize-winning stories in both systems are characterized by opinionated reports. Objectivity is not treasured as a criterion for journalistic excellence.
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