April 14, 2008, Amherst MA – WFCR, NPR News and Music for Western New England announces that one of its news reporters, Karen Brown, has won four awards for her story, Love, War and PTSD. The story was about a local couple's struggle with post traumatic stress after the husband's return from serving in Iraq.
The awards come from four different national and regional organizations.
Brown received a regional Edward R. Murrow award from the Radio and Television News Directors Association. A Murrow award is a significant honor, indicating that the reporter has attained the highest journalistic standards. She won for Region 10, which includes Massachusetts, Maine, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Vermont and Rhode Island. The piece will now go on to compete for a national Murrow Award.
Brown also won the Massachusetts Associated Press's award for feature reporting.
The third organization recognizing Brown for her story, Love, War and PTSD is the Association of Health Care Journalists (AHCJ), which awarded the story third place for TV and Radio in the "Below Top 20 Markets" category. The ACHJ is an independent, nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing public understanding of health care issues nationally. Brown collected her award at a ceremony and conference in Washington at the end of March.
Finally, Brown won an honorable mention from the DartCenter for Journalism and Trauma in its contest for Excellence in Reporting on Trauma. The DartCenter is a global network of journalists, journalism educators and health professionals dedicated to improving media coverage of trauma, conflict and tragedy. The award ceremony takes place April 23 in New York City.