Barney McCoy, an associate professor of journalism at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln is among six national entrants selected by peers and professional judges to receive the Festival of Media Art’s highest honor in recognition of outstanding scholarship and contribution to the media arts.
The award is from the Broadcast Education Association in the hard news reporting category. He will be honored at the 10th Annual BEA Best of Festival King Foundation Awards Ceremony in Las Vegas, Nev., on April 16.
McCoy's entry, “Catastrophe on the Skywalks: 30 Years After the Fall,” was broadcast on KRNU radio. It was part of a broader joint reporting effort McCoy participated in last year with Kansas City CBS affiliate KCTV and the Kansas City Star on the 30th anniversary of the 1981 Hyatt Regency Hotel skywalk collapse.
The overall winners will be honored with the presentation of a specially produced tribute video and a $1,000 cash award from the Charles and Lucille King Family Foundation and Avid software.
McCoy has won three other awards from the BEA: Best of Competition for "Kosovo Elections: Democracy in Transition;" a Best of Competition award in the faculty documentary long form category; and an award of excellence in the faculty documentary long form category (with advertising professor Bruce Mitchell).
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. The festival seeks to enhance and extend creative activities, teaching, and professional standards in broadcasting and other forms of electronically mediated communication.
Before joining UNL in 2006, McCoy was a fulltime journalist for 27 years where he worked as a television and print news reporter, photographer, producer, and anchor. He has worked at WIBW-TV, Topeka, Kan., KCTV, Kansas City, Mo., WKBD-TV, Detroit, Mich., WILX-TV, Lansing, Mich., WBNS-TV, Columbus, Ohio, and has been a contributing reporter for The Columbus Dispatch, Associated Press, CBS, CNN and the Ohio News Network.
McCoy teaches convergence, investigative and computer-assisted reporting, broadcast news writing, information gathering, beginning and depth-reporting classes.
He has won six Emmy awards and several other citations for journalistic excellence.
Barney McCoy