As the holidays and the end of the year approaches, I always enjoy looking back at the stories our newsroom has covered.
In 2024, we delivered on our promise to meet our audience on whatever platform they use to get their news and information. Our reporters provided 24/7 coverage from the scene of protests and arrests at Indiana University’s Dunn Meadow. Then, we followed up with thorough reporting on IU’s policies.
I rarely get to report, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to tell the story of a 93-year-old man from Evansville who has the largest collection of sports broadcasts in the world! Archiving Airwaves: The Miley Collection documentary premiered on WFIU and WTIU, and now it is enjoying another life online, and on PBS and NPR stations across the country.
Thank you for following our coverage. I am proud of the work our team has accomplished this year, and I'm looking forward to what I know will be an exciting 2025. (Spoiler: look for a bonus episode of Rush to Kill coming soon!)
Here are some of our most-viewed stories this year.
Indiana State Police Superintendent Doug Carter spoke with WFIU/WTIU News’ Ethan Sandweiss on his department’s response to protests at Indiana University.
“Dunn Meadow, in retrospect, felt like it had been kind of building up for a while,” Sandweiss said.
Readers collectively spent more than 19,800 minutes on this story. (That’s over 13 days of non-stop reading!)
Our newsroom followed many contentious decisions at IU Bloomington, including:
“I think after these massive controversial events, President Whitten, Provost Rahul Shrivastav, and even some of the trustees have made a point to pledge to work more with faculty, to listen to students, to listen to community members,” higher education reporter Aubrey Wright said. “I think there is still a decent chunk of faculty who just don't believe it, and who continue to push back and protest, and still call for Whitten and Shrivastav to resign. I don't imagine these feelings melting away anytime soon.”
Eclipse crowds pale against estimates
As Ethan Sandweiss and Isabella Vesperini reported, up to 300,000 people were estimated to visit Monroe County for the eclipse. As it turned out, crowds were far smaller than anticipated. Nevertheless, nature still gave us a spectacular show.
“I remember it being really sunny and nice outside, and I went to Lake Monroe with our videographer, Devan, and we had a great time,” Sandweiss said.
Readers collectively spent nearly 19,900 minutes engaging with this story.
Professors said students camped out for the IU-Washington game were in violation of university policy, which does not allow assembly between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m., as Aubrey Wright reported.
“There has been a lot of confusion, particularly intersecting with the Hoosier football teams, historic year,” Wright said. “ESPN Game Day program came to campus, and so students and fans — they were camping out all night. They were singing. They brought their own signs, partying. They were pumped. So the protesters were like, ‘They’re doing the exact same things as us, but they're not in trouble.’ So that's where that confusion came in, because they didn't understand how this content-neutral policy could not have been enforced against those fans.”
“Some people felt like it was overdue, that there is a big disparity between some of their schools and that there hasn't been any kind of redistricting for MCCSC in a long time, and that's why some of these schools are so unbalanced in terms of socio-economic status,” reporter Bente Bouthier said. “But then there were some people who said that it was being done in a rushed way and that it needed to be slowed down.”
A population study commissioned by the Monroe County Community School Corp. board recommends closing elementary schools. In their final meeting of the year, Monroe school board trustees said they’re excited to move forward with a comprehensive redistricting study.
Mellencamp madness: IU unveiled a new statue this year dedicated to musician and Seymour native John Mellencamp.
“It was very fun,” Bouthier said about reporting the story. “I got to hear a little mini concert, which I just wasn't really anticipating for the day.”
What stories did you love this year? What are you looking forward to reading about in the new year? What do you want more coverage of? Send your ideas in to news@indianapublicmedia.org.
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