Senior News and Broadcasting student wins BEA award

Emily Nohr, a senior news and broadcasting student at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln has won first place in the radio hard news reporting division from the Broadcast Education Association’s Festival of Media Arts. She will be recognized at the BEA National Convention’s awards dinner April 15 in Las Vegas, Nev.

Nohr’s entry, “Keystone Pipeline: Sandhills dilemma,” aired in October 2011. It chronicled the anxiety and growing uncertainty Nebraska’s Sandhills families faced regarding the potential environmental threat posed by the proposed Keystone XL pipeline.

Associate professor of broadcasting Barney McCoy said, “Emily’s reporting captured the fear and frustration that left many Sandhills’ residents feeling as if they were powerless to do much about the invasive project.”

Nohr, of Crofton, Neb., has interned for The Omaha World-Herald and Yankton (S.D.) Daily Press & Dakotan. Her other experience includes freelancing for the Norfolk Daily News and Grand Island Independent, as well as reporting for the CoJMC classes New Voices and the Nebraska News Service. This summer, Nohr will work as a reporter for a Carnegie-Knight investigative reporting fellowship called News21. Currently, she is the recruiting assistant for the CoJMC, a member of Mortar Board and a member of Alpha Omicron Pi sorority.

The BEA Festival of Media Arts is an international refereed exhibition of faculty creative activities and a national showcase for student work. The festival provides a venue for exhibition of winning submissions, including recognition of project authors, through showcase and awards sessions held during the annual convention of BEA in Las Vegas, Nev.

Emily Nohr

Emily Nohr

Additional Links

Listen to Nohr’s winning entry

The Keystone XL Pipeline and supporters say it will bring jobs and economic growth to Nebraska. Many people who live in Nebraska's Sandhills country just want the issue to go away. They've spent months, even years, worrying and growing anxious about the unknowns of the pipeline.