UNL broadcast student reporting for Nikewomen.com worldwide

As Nike's first field reporter for the Nikewomen.com Web site, University of Nebraska-Lincoln senior Brittany Jones-Cooper has already traveled the country and interviewed sports legends like Magic Johnson, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Julius Erving and Picabo Street.

And over the summer months she'll get to know even more athletes, interviewing them for online video "field reports" for the world-famous athletic shoe and apparel company.

Jones-Cooper, a Papillion-LaVista graduate, won a national competition to become the online field reporter by submitting a 2-minute audition tape, surviving a phone interview and face-to-face meetings in New York City, and she found out in December that she was selected based on her talent and attitude about how she would challenge female athletes.

"It's a brand new program and it's great," Jones-Cooper said. "They have done a great job with it on the Web site. I'll be traveling a lot, interviewing professional male and female athletes and it's been amazing." So far she has interviewed Street, WNBA star Lindsey Harding, traveled to New Orleans in February for the NBA All-Star weekend and to Austin, Texas, for the South By Southwest indie music series (Jones-Cooper explained that the music world has interest and influence in Nike fashions with "funky, colorful Nikes").

Her job is to do interviews and "standup" reports on video that are incorporated into the Nike Women Web site as field reports. She gets to challenge her famous interviewees to fun activities like playing air hockey against Street and playing in a mock soccer game with the women's national soccer team in Los Angeles.

Along the way she's learning a lot about the hands-on and behind-the-scenes production of news and promotional video and Web sites, working with production staff, executive producer, and content managers to post a blog and pictures to the Nike.com site.

Her role is to be the voice for the teenage female audience and to connect them to the brand.

"Primarily the focus of nikewomen.com is to be accessible to the teenage athlete, and I can serve as a middleperson between these girls and their idols," she said. "I'm only 22 myself, and if I get a little geeky or excited on the videos, it's genuine and we keep that part of it."

Her contract with Nike continues through Aug. 1 with a full slate of activities this summer when she's not as busy with classes. But there's some hope that she may be able to cover the Olympics in August.

"On a personal level this couldn't be more amazing, with the huge celebrity names that I'm getting to meet. My idol has been Jackie Joyner-Kersee and I remember her in the long jump at the '96 Olympics. When I met her I got all excited and had a little 'fan moment' and then I was over it and went on with the interview but I was just thinking she was the nicest person."

Jones-Cooper is not new to meeting famous people -- she interned at CBS last summer working with Katie Couric. She said her "dream job" is being a network correspondent and the Nike.com experience is definitely helping get her experience and exposure.

"I've learned a lot with news, even though I'm able to do retakes, when I'm on assignment trying to hit it the first time so we're not wasting tape and time," she said. "This has really taught to really think on my toes, think on my feet. Sometimes if I mess up it's still natural and we'll use it."

The link below is to a screen shot of the Nikewomen.com Web site featuring Jones-Cooper.