Barney McCoy teaches multimedia, broadcast news, journalism, documentary, and depth reporting courses at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Before arriving at UNL in 2006, McCoy was a full-time journalist for 27 years.

McCoy has been honored with six Emmy awards and numerous other citations for journalistic excellence. In 2022, he was honored with the Eric Sevareid Award for his hard feature radio report "80-Years Later: Pearl Harbor's Unknowns Come Home." 

In 2018, McCoy's television documentary "Black Jack Pershing: Love and War" was a recipient of a national Sigma Delta Chi Award from the Society of Professional Journalists, an Award of Excellence Special Mention from the Accolade Global Film Competition, an Award of Excellence from the Impact DOCS Global Documentary Competition, an Award of Excellence from the Broadcast Education Association, and an Eric Sevareid Award from the Midwest Broadcast Journalists Association.

The McCoy documentary, "They Could Really Play the Game: Reloaded," was a 2015 Canada International Film Festival Award winner. 

In 2021, McCoy conducted and published a national research project on student perceptions of remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. McCoy has co-authored a book chapter on mixed methods research in documentary filmmaking. His scholarly research involving his multi-phased national surveys on digital distractions in the classroom has been widely cited. It has been downloaded more than 62,000 times by some 3,900 institutions in 181 countries. 

McCoy holds a master's degree in telecommunications management from Michigan State University. He holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Kansas.

He has taught multimedia reporting courses at the Kosovo Institute of Journalism and Mass Communication in Pristina, Kosovo and produced and advised on five award-winning documentaries at UNL.

McCoy has worked as a documentary director and producer, television and print news reporter, photographer, news producer, and anchor. He has been employed by WIBW-TV, Topeka, KS., KCTV, Kansas City, MO, WKBD-TV, Detroit, MI., WILX-TV, Lansing, MI. and WBNS-TV, Columbus, OH.

McCoy has also contributed reporting for The Columbus Dispatch, The Kansas City Star, Associated Press, USA Today, CBS, CNN, Nebraska Public Media, WTTW Public Media, Chicago, Illinois, WOSU Public Media, Columbus, Ohio, WOUB Public Media, Athens, Ohio, and the Ohio News Network.

Curriculum Vitae

Remote Learning Research:

In the Trenches: College Student Online/Remote Learning Experiences during the COVID-19 Pandemic July, 2021

Documentaries:

2017-18, "Black Jack Pershing: Love and War”

2013, They Could Really Play the Game: Reloaded,

2008, They Could Really Play the Game

2008, Exploring the Wild Kingdom,

Television projects:

2019, NET, Nebraska Public Telecommunications, Nebraska Stories| D-Day and the Oldfield Effect,  

2016, NET, Nebraska Public Television, The Legacy of John J. Pershing. 

2011, Catastrophe on the Skywalks: 30 Years After the Fall,

Web-based projects:

2018, “Black Jack Pershing: Love and War,” PBS Learning Media. 

2018, “Multimedia Countdown: 100 days to the 100^th Anniversary of the WWI Armistice”

Long-form radio reporting projects:

2021, “Unidentified Remains of U.S. Service Members Reinterred in Hawaii as Offutt Project Winds Down”

2021,   "The "Pleasant Valley Gang" Paved the Way for Today's Live-Streaming Concerts"

2021,  "Pandemic Porch Concerts Use Music to Chronicle Highs and Lows"

2021, Navy Sailor Louis Tushla Brought Home to Nebraska”

2015, WWI General John Pershing’s Nebraska connection. 

2013, Free Press Challenges Turkish Journalists Face  and  interview

2013, 50^th anniversary of Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom program

2011, Squaw Creek Wildlife Refuge  

2010, Kosovo Elections: Democracy in Transition