Robert Merton’s theory of cumulative advantage posits that the initial status advantages one acquires can successively lead to greater opportunities in career advancement. This study examines the cumulative effect of individual and institutional factors on the likelihood of one’s success in international reporting, an area commonly considered as the mark of an ultra-elite in journalistic stratification. Analyzing a sample of 814 Pulitzer winners whose life courses and career progressions are reconstructed using various archival data, our study shows that international reporting winners, compared with local reporting awardees, are more likely to be male, foreign born, cosmopolites, and Ivy League graduates. These initial advantages, however, mainly improve their chances of joining top news organizations in the first place. Being selected by those news organizations boosts disproportionally their successive probability of winning the Pulitzers. The process of advantage accumulation in journalism accentuates the social stratification in society at large.
AllisonPStewartJ (1974) Productivity differences among scientists: Evidence for accumulative advantage. American Sociological Review39: 596–606.
2.
AlmquistEAngristS (1970) Career salience and atypicality of occupational choice among college women. Journal of Marriage and the Family32: 242–249.
3.
ArthurWArrowK (1994) Increasing Returns and Path Dependence in Economy. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
4.
BeamRDunwoodySKosickiG (1986) The relationship of prize-winning to prestige and job satisfaction. Journalism Quarterly63: 693–699.
5.
BogartL (1968) The overseas newsman: A 1967 profile study. Journalism Quarterly45: 293–306.
6.
BourdieuP (1986) The forms of capital. In: RichardsonJE (ed.) Handbooks of Theory of Research for the Sociology of Education. New York: Greenwood, 241–258.
7.
BrittainV (2002) The NS profile: The foreign correspondent. New Statesman, 13May.
8.
ColeJRColeS (1973) Social Stratification in Science. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
DiamondE (1994) Behind the Times: Inside the New York Times. New York: Villard Books.
11.
DiPreteTEirichG (2006) Cumulative advantage as a mechanism for inequality: A review of theoretical and empirical developments. Annual Review of Sociology32: 271–297.
12.
DouglasEShepherdD (2002) Self-employment as a career choice: Attitudes, entrepreneurial intentions, and utility maximization. Entrepreneurship: Theory and Practice26: 81–90.
13.
EricksonEHamiltonJ (2006) Foreign reporting enhanced by parachute journalism. Newspaper Research Journal27: 33–47.
14.
FischerH (1986) Outstanding International Press Reporting. Berlin: Walter De Gruyter.
15.
FischerHFischerE (2003) Complete Historical Handbook of the Pulitzer Prize System, 1917–2000. Berlin: KG Saur.
16.
GeyerG (1983) Buying the Night Flight: The Autobiography of a Woman Foreign Correspondent. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
17.
GladneyG (1990) Newspaper excellence: How editors of small and large papers judge quality. Newspaper Research Journal11(2): 58–72.
18.
GouldR (2002) The origins of status hierarchies: A formal theory and empirical test. American Journal of Sociology107: 1143–1178.
19.
GreenwaldABanajiM (1995) Implicit social cognition: Attitudes, self-esteem, and stereotypes. Psychology Review102: 4–27.
20.
GrossPKopperG (2011) Understanding Foreign Correspondence: A Euro-American Perspective of Concepts, Methodologies and Theories. New York: Peter Lang.
21.
HagstromW (1975) The Scientific Community. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.
22.
HamiltonJ (2009) Journalism’s Roving Eye: A History of American Foreign Reporting. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press.
23.
HamiltonJJennerE (2003) The new foreign correspondence. Foreign Affairs82(5): 131–138.
24.
HannerzU (2007) Foreign correspondents and the varieties of cosmopolitanism. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies33: 299–311.
25.
HatcherJ (2007) Were those the days? Revisiting the Pulitzer-winning efforts of community newspapers in the 1970s. American Journalism24: 89–118.
26.
HessS (1996) International News and Foreign Correspondents. Washington, DC: Brookings.
27.
HodkinsonPSparkesA (1997) Careership: A sociological theory of career decision making. British Journal of Sociology of Education18: 29–44.
28.
HohenbergJ (1969) The Professional Journalist: A Guide to the Practices and Principles of the News Media. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
29.
JohnstonJ. (1976) The News People: A Sociological Portrait of American Journalists and their Work. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
30.
KerinRVaradarajanPPetersonR (1992) First mover advantage: A synthesis, conceptual framework and research propositions. Journal of Marketing56: 33–52.
31.
LongJFoxM (1995) Scientific careers: Universalism and particularism. Annual Review of Sociology21: 45–71.
32.
MertonR (1957) Priorities in scientific discovery: A chapter in the sociology of science. American Sociological Review22: 635–659.
33.
MertonR (1973) The Matthew effect in science. In: StorerN (ed.) The Sociology of Science. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 439–459.
34.
MertonR (1988) The Matthew effect in science, II: Cumulative advantage and the symbolism of intellectual property. Isis79: 606–623.
RandP (1995) China Hands: The Adventures and Ordeals of the American Journalists Who Joined Forces with the Great Chinese Revolution. New York: Simon and Schuster.
37.
RosenbaumJ (1979) Tournament mobility: Career patterns in a corporation. Administrative Science Quarterly24(2): 220–241.
38.
SekowskiASiekanskaM (2008) National Academic award winners over time: Family situation, education, and interpersonal relations. High Ability Studies19(2): 155–171.
39.
ShawD (2006) The Pulitzer. American Journalism ReviewOct/Nov: 33–9.
40.
WeaverDWilhoitC (1986) The American Journalist: A Portrait of US News People and their Work. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
41.
WeaverDWilhoitC (1996) The American Journalist in the 1990s: US News People at the End of an Era. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
42.
WeaverD. (2007) The American Journalist in the 21st Century. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
43.
WilhelmJ (1963) The reappearing foreign correspondent: A world survey. Journalism Quarterly40(2): 147–168.
44.
WillnatLWeaverD (2003) Through their eyes: The work of foreign correspondents in the United States. Journalism4(4): 403–422.
45.
WuHHamiltonJ (2004) US foreign correspondents: Changes and continuity at the turn of the century. Gazette66(6): 517–532.
46.
XieYShaumanK (2004) Women in Science: Career Processes and Outcomes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
47.
ZuckermanH (1977) Scientific Elite: Nobel Laureates in the United States. New York: Free Press.
