David Barboza

David Barboza (born 1966^[1]) is an award-winning American journalist.

Awards

In 2013 David Barboza was part of the winning team from the staff of The New York Times that received the Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting. Other staff members on this team included: Charles Duhigg, David Kocieniewski, Steve Lohr, John Markoff, David Segal, David Streitfeld, Hiroko Tabuchi, and Bill Vlasic. They received the award for the report that provided readers with a “penetrating look into business practices by Apple and other technology companies that illustrates the darker side of a changing global economy for workers and consumers.”

In the same year, Barboza received the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting “for his striking exposure of corruption at high levels of the Chinese government, including billions in secret wealth owned by relatives of the prime minister, well documented work published in the face of heavy pressure from the Chinese officials.” This report – which became so controversial – resulted in a blocking of both the Chinese and English versions of The New York Times on the web from the government of China.^[2]

Barboza received two awards in The Society of American Business Editors and Writers (SABEW) 2007 Business Journalist of the Year Awards: one for a New York Times article, “A Chinese Reformer Betrays His Cause, and Pays.”

The year later, Barboza was a member of the team that took home the 2008 Grantham Prize for Environmental Reporting for the series “Choking on Growth: China’s Environmental Crisis.”

In 2002, Barboza participated in the team that earned the position of finalist for a Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the Enron scandal. And in that same year, he received The Times’s internal business award, known as the Nathaniel Nash Award. In addition, on two separate occasions he received the Gerald Loeb Award for Business Reporting.

Journalistic ventures

In 1997, Barboza was a staff writer for The New York Times. Prior to that, he was still connected to the journal, working as a research assistant and freelance writer. Then, in November 2004, he took on the role of Shanghai’s correspondent for The New York Times in China. Four years later he was promoted to the Shanghai bureau chief.^[2] He was also working out of Chicago as the NYT’s Midwest business correspondence.

Barboza also addresses large crowds of students and other interested parties about his work in investigative reporting and how to be a success. ^[3]

Education

Barboza has a Bachelor's degree in History from Boston University. While there, he worked on the student newspaper as a sports reporter. He also studied History at Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.^[2]

Personal information

Barboza is married to Lynn Zhang and the couple live in Shanghai. He has held a long-time interest in writing since his father bought him a typewriter back when he was in high school. He first showed an interest in China when he was at college and then when he found in 2004 there was a job vacancy in Shanghai, he jumped at the chance saying, “If The New York Times didn’t send me to China, I would quit my job and go to China to study Chinese…There was just something about China that made me say, ‘This is the place I want to live in’.” He has been there ever since and speaks fluent Mandarin.^[4]

References

1. "David Barboza Biography". FrostSnow. Retrieved 18 November 2016.
2. Funakoshi, Minami. "China Reacts to David Barboza's Pulitzer Prize". The Atlantic. Retrieved 3 August 2015.
3. Fromson, Noah. "Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications at Northwestern University". Medill School. Retrieved 3 August 2015.
4. "Pursuing Truth in China". China Hands Magazine. Retrieved 3 August 2015.