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KUNR Earns Several Awards For Local Journalism In 2020

KUNR logo with Journalism News Awards 2020 headline.
KUNR Public Radio
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KUNR Receives National Murrow Award

KUNR, Noticiero Móvil and This Is Reno have won a national Edward R. Murrow award for Excellence in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. The award is for bilingual pandemic coverage produced by these three partner organizations throughout 2020.

Contributors include Andrew Mendez, Stephanie Serrano, Natalie Van Hoozer, Lesly Virgen-Mariscal and Bianca Wright. Jenny Manrique served as a bilingual translator and editor. Tatiana Ramirez provided event support. Crystal Willis served as digital editor. Michelle Billman and Claudia Cruz served as managing editors. America Amplified provided bilingual editorial support for several virtual informational events in Spanish.

The Radio Television Digital News Association hosts the Edward R. Murrow journalism contests each year. KUNR and Noticiero Móvil have previously won two other national Murrow awards for their bilingual content in the categories of sports reporting and excellence in innovation. 

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KUNR Receives Four National PMJA Awards

Award announcement published July 2, 2021

KUNR has received four national awards from the Public Media Journalists Association for reporting projects in 2020. Here’s a breakdown of what we won:

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Credit Lucia Starbuck / KUNR Public Radio
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KUNR Public Radio
Black Lives Matter supporters gathered to protest the Douglas County Sheriff after he made a controversial statement in regards to the Black Lives Matter movement. They were met with hostility by counter-protesters in Minden, Nev., on Aug. 8, 2020.

Lucia Starbuck received second place recognition in the Social Justice Feature category for her coverage of a Black Lives Matter protest in Douglas County. Lucia is a corps member for Report for America as well as a graduate of the Reynolds School of Journalism.

KUNR’s Youth Media program has earned second place recognition for Best Collaborative Effort. The program is a special partnership with the Washoe County School District (WCSD) to train the next generation of journalists. Despite the challenges of the pandemic, the program quickly pivoted to a remote classroom in the spring of 2020, and its students have been producing audio diaries, StoryCorps-style interviews and news stories about their pandemic experiences. In 2020, our high school student reporters did not collect audio in the field due to COVID-19 mitigation efforts.

In 2020, our student reporters included: Hannah Choi, Maya Dampier, Hudson Heimerman, Isabella LoConte, Janelle Olisea, Haziel Ramirez, Avery Thunder and Isabella Wolf. The instructor is Robert Zorn, who teaches video production, photography and journalism at the Academy of Arts, Careers and Technology in Reno. At KUNR, Lucia Starbuck is program coordinator, Jayden Perez is digital producer, Crystal Willis is digital editor and Michelle Billman is managing editor. The program receives support from the WCSD Work-Based Learning Programs, facilitated by the Career and Technical Education Department, as well as Report for America.

Nevada mail-in voting. Here’s what to know. Illustration of a mail truck.
Credit Stephanie Serrano / KUNR Public Radio
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KUNR Public Radio
KUNR produced an illustrated mail-in voting guide based on the reporting of bilingual reporters Stephanie Serrano and Natalie Van Hoozer regarding the Nevada 2020 general election on Oct. 13, 2020.

KUNR also won second place in the Best Multimedia Presentation category for its 2020 election coverage. You can check out KUNR’s award-winning coverage here, where you’ll also find content from our partners and NPR. Our work included a Northern Nevada voter guide, illustrated instructions on how to vote by mail, and a one-sheet on how to caucus

Contributors included Olivia Ali, Paul Boger, Noah Glick, Anh Gray, Andrew Mendez, Jayden Perez, Stephanie Serrano, Lucia Starbuck, Natalie Van Hoozer and Bree Zender. David Isaacson and Jayden Perez were digital producers. Crystal Willis was digital editor. Michelle Billman and Paul Boger were co-managing editors.

KUNR’s 2020 election coverage included digital reporting and virtual events in Spanish, produced in partnership with Noticiero Móvil, This Is Reno and The Nevada Independent. Support was provided by the Facebook Journalism Project, America Amplified and Report for America.

Finally, KUNR and Noticiero Móvil's joint college reporter Andrew Mendez won a second place award in the student category for feature - hard news for his story Many Latinx Voters Say Candidates Need ‘Cultural Competency.’ Andrew was also selected from among the 2021 student winners for a PMJA scholarship. 

You can view all of the PMJA winners here.

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RTDNA
KUNR Receives Three Regional Murrow Awards

Award announcement published May 7, 2021

The Regional Edward R. Murrow Awards are decided by judges for the Radio Television Digital News Association. The contest honors “outstanding achievements in broadcast and digital journalism” according to the RTDNA website. Here are the categories KUNR and partner organizations won in the small market radio division for work aired and published in 2020:

  • Excellence in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion for bilingual pandemic coverage produced by KUNR, Noticiero Móvil and This Is Reno. Contributors include Andrew Mendez, Stephanie Serrano, Natalie Van Hoozer and Lesly Virgen-Mariscal. Jenny Manrique served as a bilingual translator and editor. Tatiana Ramirez provided event support. Crystal Willis served as digital editor. Michelle Billman and Claudia Cruz served as managing editors.

Noah Glick Of The Mountain West News Bureau Wins Regional Murrow Award

The Mountain West News Bureau is a regional collaboration between public media stations, and Noah Glick was the KUNR reporter for this partnership in 2020. Here is the category the Mountain West News Bureau won in the large market radio division:

Michelle Billman is a former news director at KUNR Public Radio.
Crystal Willis (she/her/hers) is a digital editor at KUNR Public Radio and manages the station’s digital offerings.
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