Awards

Since 1971, NPR journalists and programming have won hundreds of awards for investigative reports, outstanding features and series, digital innovations and bodies of coverage. Among the highest honors: 36 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards, 62 George Foster Peabody Awards and 23 awards from the Overseas Press Club of America. Learn more about our recent achievements below.

Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards

Planet Money Makes A T-Shirt
2014
Visuals Team: Brian Boyer, Kainaz Amaria Planet Money Team: Neal Carruth, Robert Smith, Caitlin Kenney, Alex Blumberg, David Kestenbaum, Jacob J. Goldstein, Zoe Chace, Marianne McCune

Planet Money and NPR's Visuals Team created and sold their very own T-shirt. The interactive documentary, "Planet Money Makes A T-Shirt," explored how this simple shirt was touched by people and machines all over the world from highly paid researchers in seed laboratories to factory workers who earn a few dollars a day. "With compelling and versatile writing, the jury called the project a tour de force," read the duPont Award announcement.

Guilty And Charged
2014
Christopher Turpin, Madhulika Sikka, Robert Little, Robert Benincasa, Barbara Van Woerkom, Alicia Cypress, Joseph Shapiro, Nicole Beemsterboer, Emma Anderson

In the six-part investigative series "Guilty And Charged" Joseph Shapiro tells the story of people serving jail time – not for crimes – but for failure to pay the fees and fines associated with the criminal justice system, which has created a system of justice that targets the poor. According to the duPont announcement: "It combined compelling personal narratives and unique data gathering to create memorable, insightful and in-depth stories."

George Foster Peabody Awards
The University of Georgia

Reporting from The Frontlines: The Ebola Outbreak
2014
NPR News

From the Peabody announcement: "Often at considerable risk, for the territories were sometimes hostile and the deadly disease was then poorly understood, they filed more than 200 reports, taking advantage of multiple platforms – radio, web, mobile and social media. And what compelling stories they were, vividly descriptive and incorporating real voices and natural sound. The reporters didn't just talk with Western experts but with those doctors, nurses and government officials from the heart of where Ebola was breaking out. They gave voice to scientists and to those who were suffering."

Gracie Awards
The Alliance for Women in Media

Talking While Female
2015: Outstanding Online Programming - Standalone Video
Selena Simmons-Duffin, Kelli Anderson, Claire O'Neill, Kainaz Amaria

The four and half minute video explores the criticism women face when their voices are perceived in a certain way – whether as too squeaky, too loud, sounding childish or lacking in authority. The video uses narratives from women that have faced such criticism and experts to provide some context. The piece was part of NPR's "The Changing Lives of Women" series.

Grave Science
2015: Outstanding Investigative Program or Feature
NPR: Kelly McEvers, Nicole Beemsterboer, Robert Little ProPublica: Megan McCloskey

"Grave Science," NPR's and ProPublica's joint investigation, explored the struggles the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) has in finding and identifying service members. Hindered by several layers of bureaucracy, an aversion to risk, and a reluctance to lead with DNA testing, in one year the agency averages approximately 70 remains. With more than 45,000 people classified as missing in action or prisoners of war from World War II, Vietnam and Korean conflicts, NPR and ProPublica estimates that it would take JPAC more than 600 years to find and identify all of the missing.

Campus Sexual Assault
2015: Outstanding Series
Tovia Smith, Andrea Bruce

A multi-report series, "Campus Sexual Assault" examined the efforts by students, parents, colleges and universities, and lawmakers to reduce sexual assaults on campuses and to change a culture in which only a small percentage of victims report the crime.

Edward R. Murrow Award
Radio Television Digital News Association

Taliban in Pakistan Derail World Polio Eradication
2015: Reporting: Hard News
Jason Beaubien, Vikki Valentine

Before the Taliban in Pakistan banned polio vaccinations, the country was on the verge of eliminating the disease. Today, the number of polio cases in the country is rising significantly; health care administrators attempting to provide immunizations are being killed; and parents are being threatened if they allow their children to get the vaccine. Jason Beaubien explores how Pakistan went from nearly eradicating the disease to a point where more children are now being paralyzed by polio than anywhere else in the world.

Delinquent Mines
2015: Investigative Reporting
Howard Berkes, Robert Little, Anna Boiko-Weyrauch, Robert Benincasa, Nicole Beemsterboer

"Delinquent Mines", a joint investigation by NPR News and Mine Safety and Health News, highlighted federal regulators' failure to collect from mine owners more than $70 million in delinquent safety fines. Further, the investigation found that mines that don't pay their fines are more dangerous than those that do, with injury rates 50 percent higher; delinquent mines reported close to 4,000 injuries in the years they failed to pay, including accidents that killed 25 workers and left 58 others with permanent disabilities; and delinquent mines continued to violate the law, with more than 130,000 violations while they failed to pay safety fines.

As Ebola Pingpongs In Liberia, Cases Disappear Into The Jungle
2015: Use of Sound
Kelly McEvers, Rebecca Hersher, Vikki Valentine

Kelly McEvers takes listeners on a journey to a remote village in Liberia to show the difficulty that health officials had stopping Ebola from spreading to rural areas. The effect known as pingponging is caused by infected people who seek treatment in the capital, only to return to their villages to be cared for by relatives. This causes a pingpong effect from the capital to these remote areas. They follow a team of Ebola investigators into the hot, thick jungle of Liberia in search of a woman rumored to have contracted the disease in an effort to keep her from spreading it. Listen as their journey takes them to a small rural clinic and from there a four hour (each way) walk down a long footpath into the jungle.

Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award

Boxed In: When The Punishment No Longer Fits The Crime
2015
Carrie Johnson, Marisa Penaloza, Beth Donovan

The shocking death of college basketball player Len Bias from a cocaine overdose in 1986 led Congress to pass tough mandatory sentences for drug crimes that targeted not only kingpins but also low-level couriers and girlfriends. The "Boxed In" series focuses on the human toll of these mandatory prison sentences from judges to inmates and their families.

Overseas Press Club Award

Borderland: Dispatches From the U.S.-Mexico Boundary
2014: 20 Best Multimedia News Presentation
NPR:Steve Inskeep, Kainaz Amaria, Brian Boyer, Jeremy Bowers, Danny DeBelius, Tyler Fisher, Chris Groskopf, Becky Lettenberger, Wes Lindamood, Claire O'Neill, Matt Stiles, The Center for Investigative Reporting: Michael Corey, Andy Becker, Tia Ghose

From the Overseas Press Club announcement: "Technically flawless, 'Borderland' is a simple idea but brilliant in its approach and execution. This thorough report documents the world that exists on the 2,248-mile U.S.-Mexico border – and tells the stories of those who live in a world of human smuggling, drugs and poverty – through the combined efforts of NPR radio reporters, web developers, data experts, producers and photographers."

The Eyes of History Award, White House News Photographers Association

They Are The Body Collectors: A Perilous Job In The Time of Ebola
2015: First Place, News Story
David Gilkey, Nurith Aizenman, Nicole Beemsterboer, Ben de la Cruz

Awards for NPR's coverage of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa include a First Place prize in the Multimedia News category for the video "They Are The Body Collectors: A Perilous Job In The Time Of Ebola." The video was shot during the height of the Ebola outbreak in Monrovia, Liberia, and follows a small team of body collectors as they perform the critical task of removing the bodies of those who died from the disease.

The Mystery Of The Missing Martins
2015: First Place, Feature Story
Adam Cole, Maggie Starbard, Alison Richards, Ben de la Cruz

"The Mystery Of The Missing Martins" also earned a First Prize in the Multimedia Feature category. The video chronicles the search by Adam Cole for half a million songbirds that didn't show up at their usual roosting spot in the summer. The judges were impressed by Adam's abilities as a host and the effortless storytelling.

More Awards

Society for News Design

2014
Individual Portfolio (Gold Medal)
Danny DeBelius

Features, Single Subject (Gold Medal)
Demolished

Features, Single Subject (Silver Medal)
Songs We Love 2014

Portfolio: Organization (Silver Metal)
NPR Visuals Team

Special Events (Silver Medal)
Election Party!