Two MU journalism students, Katy Bergen and Brian Nordli, wrote enterprise reporting articles that placed in the top 10 of the Hearst Journalism Awards Program. Although 53 universities participated in the competition, MU was the only school to have two articles in the top 10 category.

Katy Bergen’s article, “Pro-life: The new face of the modern movement,” centers around the shifting strategies of abortion-rights opponents in mid-Missouri. It won fourth place in the competition, and she was awarded a $1,000 scholarship for placing in the top five.

Bergen’s article describes a recent trend in the anti-abortion rights movement that features visibility, not policy change, as its main tactic. An MU senior majoring in print and digital journalism, Bergen said the story began as a school project.

“I pitched the story as my semester project for Jacqui Banaszynski’s Intermediate Writing class last spring,” Bergen said in an email. “I was curious about the people I saw praying and standing outside Planned Parenthood in Columbia.”

Bergen focused on the more subtle and personal aspects of the campaign to reverse Roe v. Wade. The article features multiple profiles of women active in the anti-abortion campaign.

“My goal was to experience an immersion piece, so I spent a lot of time outside Planned Parenthood talking to sources,” Bergen said. “I showed up to pro-life workshops and Jefferson City lobby events. I also needed to do background research to be able to put my story in a national context.”

The article features multiple profiles of women active in the anti-abortion campaign. It also follows the evolution of the abortion-rights opposition, from the creation of Margaret Sanger’s birth control centers through today’s debate over graphic images of aborted fetuses on highway signs.

With such a broad and controversial subject, Bergen said she encountered both editing and ethical challenges while writing the article.

“I had to condense a lot of information,” Bergen said. “My story came in way over 10,000 words and it needed to be trimmed down to around 4,000. I also had many ethical issues I had to deal with while reporting the story that I had to figure out before it could run in print.”

Brian Nordli, a 2011 MU graduate, won sixth place in the Hearst Journalism Awards Programs. His article, “Elk return to Missouri,” is about the difficulties faced by conservation workers in their efforts to reintroduce elk to the state of Missouri. Both Nordli and Bergen’s articles were published in the Columbia Missourian.

Bergen said the process of writing her article was worth more to her than the honor of winning a prize, even a Hearst Journalism Award.

“It’s always nice to be recognized by other journalists for your work, so that part is exciting,” Bergen said. “But of course I would have valued the experience whether I won an award or not.”