WISH-TV emphasizes ethics, passion and producing
By Katie Billman
Our mixed group of scholars visited the WISH-TV news station in downtown Indianapolis late Friday morning to learn more about broadcast journalism. The students were given a tour of the building’s three main parts before sitting in on a live broadcast with news anchor David Barras and meteorologist Randy Ollis.
Students were shown the main newsroom area at the start of the tour, which was described as “the nucleus of the station” by news director Steve Bray. He expressed the importance of being ethical in reporting the news and working hard to get the most out of internships.
“The more you put into it, the more you truly get out of it,” Bray said. “I’m constantly learning in this role. It never shuts down.”
Bray also advised the group to consider going into producing because producers are the most sought after people in the broadcast journalism industry today.
Students were later shown the control room, which is where these producers arrange news packages, put everything in order and develop shows. The producer on duty said that internships at WISH-TV involve going out with reporters in the field and gaining hands on experience, regardless of which sector of journalism the student is going into.
The last major stop of the tour was the room where the shows are actually filmed. WISH-TV now operates on a completely automated system, which means that the cameras are controlled by a person using a joystick instead of traditional camera operators moving them around.
Barras coincidentally reported on the IU versus Purdue basketball game from the night prior, and gave the IU journalists a special shoutout on-air. Ollis reported the weather right after and then came over and talked to the students about how a solid career is important, but that students should follow their passions, too.
This particular part of the trip to WISH-TV gave students a taste of broadcast journalism and showed them the different roles that they can aim to fill.
Read more individual reports from the Indianapolis media trip.