International Reporting students have been nominated for 2 Emmy Awards for the PBS Frontline/World documentary, Ghana: Digital Dumping Ground, while their professor, Peter Klein, has been nominated for a 3rd Emmy for Over a Barrel: The Truth About Oil.
Ten students from UBC’s Graduate School of Journalism’s International Reporting class, led by former 60 Minutes producer and UBC Associate Professor Peter Klein, with assistance from Adjunct Professors Dan McKinney and Sarah Carter, have been nominated for two Emmy Awards.
This is the first time students at a Canadian university have been nominated for an Emmy in a news category, chosen by the U.S. National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
The International Reporting class’s news documentary Ghana: Digital Dumping Ground, which aired on the PBS documentary series FRONTLINE/World last year, has been nominated in two categories: Outstanding Investigative Journalism and Outstanding Research.
Klein has also been nominated for a third Emmy Award in the category of Outstanding Business or Economic Reporting (Longform) for his ABC News documentary Over a Barrel: The Truth About Oil, which was produced with help from several former UBC journalism students.
“It is a tremendous honour for a new, innovative Canadian journalism program to be recognized for journalism excellence by both faculty and students,” said Graduate School of Journalism Director and Assoc. Prof. Mary Lynn Young.
For Digital Dumping Ground, students traced the path of electronic waste around the globe, to Ghana, China and India, and discovered public health, human rights and national security concerns. The documentary also received the prestigious Sigma Delta Chi Award for best documentary of the year from the Society for Professional Journalists earlier this year, and it was nominated for another U.S. prize, the Livingston Award for Young Journalists.
“People work their entire careers to get any of these awards,” said Prof. Klein, “so it’s pretty special that our students achieved this recognition for the great work they’ve done so early in their careers.”
The documentary project was part of a course funded by a $1 million gift from Mindset Social Innovation Foundation, led by Executive Director Alison Lawton. The foundation provides opportunities for graduate students to study international reporting techniques in the field and to produce professional journalism on under-covered global issues.
The 10 nominated students are:
Heba Abou Elasaad – Kuwait City, Kuwait
Shira Bick – Vancouver, B.C.
Ian Bickis – Ottawa, Ontario
Krysia Collyer – Greely, Ontario
Allison Cross – Nanaimo, B.C.
Daniel Haves – London, Ontario
Doerthe Keilholz – Karlsruhe, Germany
Jodie Martinson – Calgary, Alberta
Blake Sifton – St. Thomas, Ontario
Leslie Young – Kanata, Ontario
View Clips from Ghana: Digital Dumping Ground
Learn more about the documentary project
<a href=”http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=8113439&page=1%3E” title=”View clips of Over a Barrel: The Truth About Oil
“>View clips of Over a Barrel: The Truth About Oil
