My work has been broadcast on national and international media, including National Public Radio, British Broadcasting Corporation, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and Public Radio International. I have also contributed to local public radio stations including WBUR in Boston, WNYC in New York and Nebraska Public Media in Lincoln, Neb. My print work has appeared in USA Today, PRI’s The World, Johannesburg’s Business Day, Omaha Magazine, The Reader, Pride of Place and Medill Reports: Chicago.
CBC: World at Six: Nelson Mandela mourned in South Africa
PRI: A nation says its final goodbyes to Nelson Mandela
Photo: Robyn Murray/PRI’s The World
By the time Nelson Mandela’s body was laid to rest in his childhood village of Qunu, South Africa, much of the celebratory mood surrounding his funeral had waned.
As his coffin made its way to the final burial ground, the sound of cannons booming in a military salute, thousands of mourners who flooded the remote area to pay their last respects felt a sense of closure.
Business Day: Informal settlements give ‘rural poor a foothold’ in urban centres
Photo: Robyn Murray/Business Day
In a quiet neighbourhood near Johannesburg, a haphazard collection of shacks sits squeezed beneath the towering brick walls of two gated communities. Wedged in on a red dirt road that forms an alleyway between the secured developments, the settlements are held together by sheets of plywood, black garbage bags and a sky-blue tarp with small, plastic windows — a shelter for about half a dozen residents seated around a makeshift card table.
Stray dogs scrounge around their feet for scraps and two toddlers wander through piles of trash, coils of barbed wire and discarded cement blocks.
It is a singularly South African sight, but the problem behind it — rapid urbanisation and inadequate housing — is far more common globally.
NPR: Native American Tribe’s Battle Over Beer Brews
Photo credit: Hilary Stohs-Krause/NET News
Lying on sidewalks in Whiteclay, passed out against storefronts day and night, are some Native Americans who come here every day to drink. The town has just one central road, a grocery, a couple of abandoned buildings and four liquor stores. Each year, those four stores sell what amounts to 4 million cans of beer.
USA TODAY: Nebraska’s Women of the Century
Throughout Nebraska’s history, women have forged its course, shaped its identity and recorded its stories. The women who have inspired and led, fought and transformed have come from every corner of the state, and they represent the vastness of Nebraska. Its sprawling geography — from the sparse, open Plains to the undulating Sandhills and bustling cities. Its diversity — from the early pioneers who brought their varied European cultures and languages to the immigrant stockyard workers and African Americans who moved north and settled along the Missouri River.
NPR: Joplin Debris ‘Reborn’ in Kansas City Art Project
Photo credit: Leedy-Voulkos Art Center
Pieces of twisted metal and scrap wood left behind by a massive tornado that tore through Joplin, Mo., are now sitting in a gallery in Kansas City. The sculptures and paintings from the wreckage are to be sold at auction.
NPR: Flooding Won’t Overcome Nuclear Plants, Officials Say
Photo provided by Omaha Public Power District
Two nuclear power plants in Nebraska, 100 miles apart, are completely surrounded by water. The head of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission visited each Monday for a firsthand inspection. While officials at both plants assure area residents they are safe, critics point to a history of problems and wonder if the facilities are prepared for Missouri floodwaters that have not yet peaked.
WBUR: Ambitious UNO leaps to Division I
Photo credit: Joe Shearer/The Gateway
The University of Nebraska Omaha becomes one of the newest members of Division I this fall. The emotional decision eliminated UNO’s 100-year-old football program and the wrestling team that has won six of the last eight Division II national championships. The move also came with a hefty price tag.
Nebraska Public Media: Obama’s Backdrop Of Economic Success Has A Flip Side In Omaha
Photo: Robyn Murray/KVNO News
The atmosphere at Baxter Arena was electric. Close to 11,000 people packed into the University of Nebraska at Omaha’s brand new home for hockey and basketball. “It still has that new arena smell,” the president joked. To cheers, applause and shouts of “We love you!” Obama thanked the crowd and told them, “I love you back, Omaha!
KVNO: Child Welfare, Navigating a Fractured System
Photo: Robyn Murray/KVNO News
* Winner of four Northwest Broadcast News Association Eric Sevareid Awards for Excellence in Journalism *
The child welfare system in Nebraska is incredibly complex. But for the families in the system, it’s incredibly personal. In part one of our series: Child Welfare: Navigating a Fractured System, we examine why child welfare in the state has been so notoriously splintered, and how some families feel lost in it.
MEDILL: Altgeld Gardens: Turning Poverty into Possibility
On a late afternoon in Altgeld Gardens, the neighborhood is quiet and still.
Snow-packed sidewalks muffle the air as one of Chicago’s major snowstorms of the season gets underway. The snow keeps falling as students enter a classroom at Larry Hawkins, a charter school that is the only high school in this Far South Side community. Altgeld Gardens is a sprawling public housing complex – hemmed in by the polluted Calumet River and a sewage treatment plant, in which the average income is less than $10,000 per year.
MEDILL: Living in “Constant Chaos” on Chicago’s South Side; Teens Try to Manage Through Poetry
The school bell at Julian High School sounds more like a fire alarm. It floods the air with sound, drowning out the bustle of students as they file out of class, laughing, talking and slamming their locker doors. Inside Julian’s creative writing class, a dozen students are staying late, rehearsing their poetry lines and scribbling on notebooks in relative quiet.
Robyn Murray 