The winners of the Pulizter Prize for journalism and the arts have been announced. The awards, one of the most prestigious in journalism, this year reflect the changing face of journalism, with two websites - the Huffington Post and Politico - picking up their first prizes.

Here is a full list of the winners:

Public service

Awarded to the Philadelphia Inquirer for its exploration of pervasive violence in the city's schools, using powerful print narratives and videos to illuminate crimes committed by children against children and to stir reforms to improve safety for teachers and students.

Breaking news reporting

The Tuscaloosa News Staff, for its enterprising coverage of a deadly tornado, using social media as well as traditional reporting to provide real-time updates, help locate missing people and produce in-depth print accounts even after power disruption forced the paper to publish at another plant 50 miles away.

Investigative reporting

Awarded to Matt Apuzzo, Adam Goldman, Eileen Sullivan and Chris Hawley of the Associated Press for their spotlighting of the New York police department's clandestine spying program that monitored daily life in Muslim communities, resulting in congressional calls for a federal investigation, and a debate over the proper role of domestic intelligence gathering.

Also awarded to Michael J Berens and Ken Armstrong of the Seattle Times for their investigation of how a little known governmental body in Washington state moved vulnerable patients from safer pain-control medication to methadone, a cheaper but more dangerous drug, coverage that prompted statewide health warnings.

Explanatory reporting

Awarded to David Kocieniewski of the New York Times for his lucid series that penetrated a legal thicket to explain how the nation's wealthiest citizens and corporations often exploited loopholes and avoided taxes.

Local reporting

Awarded to Sara Ganim and members of the Patriot-News Staff, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, for courageously revealing and adeptly covering the explosive Penn State sex scandal involving former football coach Jerry Sandusky.

National reporting

Awarded to David Wood of Huffington Post for his riveting exploration of the physical and emotional challenges facing American soldiers severely wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan during a decade of war.

International reporting

Awarded to Jeffrey Gettleman of the New York Times for his vivid reports, often at personal peril, on famine and conflict in East Africa, a neglected but increasingly strategic part of the world.

Feature writing

Awarded to Eli Sanders of the Stranger, a Seattle, Washington, weekly, for his haunting story of a woman who survived a brutal attack that took the life of her partner, using the woman's brave courtroom testimony and the details of the crime to construct a moving narrative.

Commentary

Awarded to Mary Schmich of the Chicago Tribune for her wide range of down-to-earth columns that reflect the character and capture the culture of her famed city.

Criticism

Awarded to Wesley Morris of the Boston Globe for his smart, inventive film criticism, distinguished by pinpoint prose and an easy traverse between the art house and the big-screen box office.

Editorial writing

No Award

Editorial cartooning

Awarded to Matt Wuerker of Politico for his consistently fresh, funny cartoons, especially memorable for lampooning the partisan conflict that engulfed Washington.

Breaking news photography

Awarded to Massoud Hossaini of Agence France-Presse for his heartbreaking image of a girl crying in fear after a suicide bomber's attack at a crowded shrine in Kabul.

Feature photography

Awarded to Craig F Walker of the Denver Post, for his compassionate chronicle of an honorably discharged veteran, home from Iraq and struggling with a severe case of post-traumatic stress, images that enable viewers to better grasp a national issue.

Fiction

No Award

Drama

Awarded to Water by the Spoonful, by Quiara Alegría Hudes, an imaginative play about the search for meaning by a returning Iraq war veteran working in a sandwich shop in his hometown of Philadelphia.

History

Awarded to Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention, by the late Manning Marable (Viking), an exploration of the legendary life and provocative views of one of the most significant African-Americans in US history, a work that separates fact from fiction and blends the heroic and tragic. (Moved by the Board from the Biography category.)

Biography

Awarded to George F Kennan: An American Life, by John Lewis Gaddis (The Penguin Press), an engaging portrait of a globetrotting diplomat whose complicated life was interwoven with the Cold War and America's emergence as the world's dominant power.

Poetry

Awarded to Life on Mars, by Tracy K Smith (Graywolf Press), a collection of bold, skillful poems, taking readers into the universe and moving them to an authentic mix of joy and pain.

General nonfiction

Awarded to The Swerve: How the World Became Modern, by Stephen Greenblatt (W.W. Norton and Company), a provocative book arguing that an obscure work of philosophy, discovered nearly 600 years ago, changed the course of history by anticipating the science and sensibilities of today.

Prize in music

Awarded to Kevin Puts for Silent Night: Opera in Two Acts, commissioned and premiered by the Minnesota Opera in Minneapolis on November 12 2011, a stirring opera that recounts the true story of a spontaneous cease-fire among Scottish, French and Germans during World War I, displaying versatility of style and cutting straight to the heart. Libretto by Mark Campbell (Aperto Press).