Wyoming Public Media Wins Regional Edward R. Murrow and PMJA Awards

Wyoming Public Media (WPM) has won several awards for reporting during 2022.

These include two regional Edward R. Murrow Awards in the podcast and breaking news categories as well as a Public Media Journalist Association (PMJA) award for best news documentary.

The Murrow Award is granted by the Radio Television Digital News Association, honoring outstanding achievements in electronic journalism since 1971. Award recipients demonstrate the spirit of excellence that Murrow set as a standard for the profession of broadcast and digital journalism. They are considered among the most prestigious awards in broadcast and digital news.

The podcast “The Great Individualist: Episode 8, Slow Waters Run Deep,” by WPM reporter and producer Melodie Edwards, won a first-place regional Murrow Award.

The news feature “After Defeat, Cheney Says ‘the Real Work Begins,’” a story produced by Caitlin Tan, won a first-place regional Murrow Award for breaking news.

Since 2005, WPM has won a combination of 30 regional and national Murrow Awards. Broadcast and digital news outlets in Wyoming compete against commercial and noncommercial stations in Region 3, which includes Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah. WPM competes in the small market category.

WPM also won a PMJA award for a “The Modern West” podcast episode, “Cows = Civilization,” which took first in the documentary category and focused on the value of the bison. PMJA represents public media journalists across the U.S., supporting, empowering and advocating. The winning podcast episode was produced by Edwards.

According to one source for “The Modern West,” Eastern Shoshone tribal member and National Wildlife Federation Buffalo Coordinator Jason Baldes, “I think buffalo give us a lot of hope for our future. The way that cows represent the oppression, buffalo represent the opposite.”

“The Modern West” podcast series “The Great Individualist” was granted an award from the Society of Professional Journalists, which gave the series third place in the podcast category. “The Great Individualist” proclaims in its introduction: “The cowboy roaming horseback across the American West is nearly inextricable from what it means to be American. But now a new generation of ranchers is working to reinvent this iconic way of life to fit a modern world.”

Based at the University of Wyoming, WPM is Wyoming’s public radio/media statewide network, operating four FM channels and online services.