WTIU Pressroom

May The Force Be With WTIU Members

Posted Tuesday October 13, 2009

WTIU will air STAR WARS IN CONCERT (a behind-the-scenes look at the Star Wars in Concert experience) Wednesday, December 2 at 11:30pm; Thursday, December 3 at 1pm; and Saturday, December 5 at 9pm. These airings will include a special ticket offer to an Indianapolis concert event while tickets last. Tickets are available through WTIU now, no need to wait for the program to air!

* Date: Saturday, December 12, 2009 (tickets go on sale to the public 10/16/09, but WTIU has prime seats available now);
* Location: Conseco Fieldhouse, Indianapolis, IN;
* Spectacular live multimedia event;
* Narrated live by Anthony Daniels;
* Full symphony orchestra and choir;
* Specially edited footage on 3-story, high-def, LED super screen;
* Exclusive exhibit of costumes, props, artifacts, and several new and never-before-seen items.

Your $100 contribution to WTIU Public Television includes 1 prime seat, early admission to the traveling museum, WTIU (2-for-1 discount) MemberCard, and 12 months of the WTIU Viewing Guide, 15% discount to WTIU DVD productions and a 15% discount on DVD purchases through pbs.org, as well as federal and state tax benefits.

Each additional prime ticket requested will also be at the $100 level and will include early Museum entrance and its own MemberCard.

Tickets to this event in Indianapolis will run upwards of $76.60 each ($65 ticket plus $11.60 handling fees plus shipping). Consider pledging your support to WTIU and save your valuable time by not having to stand in line and not having to take your chances online. WTIU has prime seats right now. Call 800-662-3311 or (812) 855-6114 and pledge by credit card.

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WTIU Wins PBS Development Award for Excellence

Posted Sunday October 4, 2009

WTIU, the public television station based at Indiana University Bloomington, has received a 2009 PBS Development Award for its efforts.

"The passion, commitment and innovation demonstrated by the development teams have benefited their stations and their communities. We are pleased to recognize their accomplishments and share their stories," said Beth Suarez, vice president of development at PBS.

The award to WTIU is one of three given nationwide and will be presented formally at an annual meeting in the spring.

WTIU General Manager Perry Metz explained that the award recognizes the efforts of the station's membership, corporate development and grants offices. Their efforts were especially notable because they were achieved during Indiana's economic downturn, Metz said, adding that the troubled economy has compounded the challenges traditional media already were facing.

"What makes the PBS Development Awards such an honor is that they are judged by our peers among other PBS station fundraising professionals," said station manager Phil Meyer. "Although WTIU has won these awards for individual giving and on-air fundraising in the past, this is the first time we have received recognition for our overall development efforts."

In 2002, WTIU won a Cultivation & Stewardship Development Award and an Overall Membership Certificate of Achievement. In 2007, the station won an On-Air Achievement Award for Excellence (best of category) and another Overall Membership Certificate of Achievement.

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PBS Receives 5 Parents' Choice Awards for Websites

Posted Friday September 11, 2009

PBS programs also honored with Parents' Choice Awards for DVDs

The 2009 Parents' Choice Award winners for Websites have been announced and PBS received a total of 5 awards, including two Gold Awards for PBS Parents and for PBS KIDS Island. PBS received 2 Gold Awards, 1 Silver Award, 1 Recommended seal and 1 Approved seal. The PBS winners as listed by the Parents' Choice Foundation are below.

Gold Award:
PBS Parents

PBS KIDS Island

Silver Award:
Dragonfly TV

Recommended Seal:
CYBERCHASE

Approved Seal:
Sid the Science Kid

The 2009 Parents' Choice Awards for DVDs have also been announced. The following DVDs from PBS programs won awards: "Sesame Street: Elmo Loves You" and "Sid the Science Kid: Change Happens."

The Parents' Choice Awards recognize quality children's media. The Parents' Choice Awards for Television are awarded in the spring.

The full list of winners is available online here.

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Poll Ranks PBS #1 in Public Trust for 6th Straight Year

Posted Tuesday April 28, 2009

For the sixth consecutive year, a GfK Roper Public Affairs & Media poll shows Americans consider PBS the nation's most trusted institution among nationally-known organizations and the best choice in children's programming for ages 2-8.

Additional survey highlights:

• PBS remains #1 in public trust, with 49% trusting PBS a great deal. Second in trust are "courts of law," which are trusted a great deal by 27%.
• Among those polled, 18% found PBS to be an "excellent" use of tax dollars, second only to military defense, which garnered 23%.
• Americans stated that they are the most satisfied with programs found on PBS compared to cable and commercial broadcast. Thirty-five percent stated they were "very satisfied" with PBS programs; compared to cable's 22% and commercial broadcasting's 16%.
• The poll found that Americans are "most satisfied" with PBS' children's programming, (ages 2-8), which garnered 48% of parents, while cable and broadcast networks lagged behind at 30% and 16% respectively.
• PBS remains the network with the most trusted news and public affairs programs, with 43% trusting its programs a "great deal." CNN came in second with 28% and FOX News third at 27%.
• Forty-three percent of Americans rated the news coverage, investigations and discussions of major issues on PBS programs as "mostly fair." CNN and CBS tied for second at 32%.
• The majority of Americans believe the federal funding PBS receives is insufficient. When informed that public broadcasting receives 15% of its funding from the government, and that this amount translates to about one dollar per person per year of government support, 48% believe this amount is "too little," 38% say it's "about right" and only 9% state that it's "too much."

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Be More Awards Presented

Posted Wednesday April 22, 2009

On April 21st, WTIU -- in conjunction with the City of Bloomington Volunteer Network, the Community Foundation of Bloomington and Monroe County, and the United Way of Monroe County -- presented the Be More Awards at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater. The following volunteers were celebrated:

Cathi Eagan
Cathi Eagan, founder and chief volunteer at CanINE Express, a transport for adoptable animals from Indiana to shelters in Cleveland and New England was honored with the Be More Sustainable Award for animal welfare or environmental volunteers.

Arletha Dabney
Arletha Dabney received the Be More Knowledgable Award for her passion and dedication to the American Cancer Society's Body and Soul program that promotes cancer education and prevention in the African American churches through healthy living and eating.

Michelle Davenport
Michelle Davenport, an IU student studying theater and therapeutic recreation, was presented the Be More Creative Award for her work creating the I AM YOU Monologue Performance featuring clients from Stone Belt, an agency providing innovative support for individuals with developmental disabilities.

Bella (Peach) Caruso
Bella Caruso, age seven, received the Be More Energized Award for youth age 17 or under, for organizing a program at her school called Templeton Kids Fighting Cancer, which raises money for Camp Kesem, a free week-long camp for children of cancer patients.

Dr. Eric Bannec
Dr. Eric Bannec was awarded the Be More Phenomenal Award in the board member category for his work with the Volunteers in Medicine Clinic of Monroe County. Dr. Bannec was recognized as a motivating force in the clinic's creation and for his vision, compassion and endless enthusiasm in all that he does.

Pat & Dottie Riggins
Pat and Dottie Riggins were awarded the Be More Dedicated Award for their lifetime of service to several organizations in the community, including Teachers Warehouse, the First Presbyterian Church's service club "Koininia Circle," Meals on Wheels, Area 10 Agency on Aging, the American Red Cross, Golden Age Radio, and the Psi Iota Xi Bloomington Thrift Shop.

IU Kelley School of Business Civic Leadership Development Program
The IU Kelley Civic Leadership Development program received the Be More Involved Award honoring college students for their dedicated service to Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS). In addition to volunteering, administrative interning and recruitment, the group raised over $14,000 in the first quarter of 2009 to support BBBS programs.

Hand in Hand, a Stone Belt Project
The Hand in Hand Project was awarded the Be More Collaborative Award (the group/family award), for the impact their volunteers, who are Stone Belt clients with developmental disabilities, have on the Community Kitchen of Monroe County. In 2008 alone, these special volunteers collected almost 10,000 food items from throughout the community accounting for 16% of Community Kitchen's in-kind food donations.

Pat Wilson
Pat Wilson was presented the Be More Bloomington Award for her volunteer work with the Bloomington High School North chapter of Habitat for Humanity. Since 1998, Pat has been the faculty sponsor for the chapter which has become the most active Habitat youth chapter in the nation with eight houses sponsored and built in the past eight years.

Honorable Mention Awards
Volunteers receiving Honorable Mention for their service included Carolyn VandeWiele for WFHB Community Radio, Natalie Cabanaw for Third Thursday's at Nick's (a grassroots fundraising effort for many community organizations) and Harold "Hal" Taylor for his work with New Leaf New Life.

BE MORE is a registered trademark of the Public Broadcasting Service and is used with permission.

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PBS.org #1 Broadcast Network TV Web Site In 2008

Posted Wednesday January 7, 2009

Traffic Highs for Both PBS.org and PBSKIDS.org Cap a Record-Setting Year

Arlington, VA; Jan. 7, 2009 -- PBS.org surged significantly ahead of the six leading commercial broadcast network Web sites in 2008, according to newly released data from Internet measurement service Hitwise. Using Hitwise's weekly traffic data from the entire year, PBS.org received a larger percentage share of U.S. visits more often than any commercial broadcast network Web site, ranking #1 amongst those sites for 19 weeks in 2008, with the CBS and NBC sites ranking first for 12 weeks (details below*).

The Hitwise weekly data also show PBS.org was either in first or second place among the broadcast network sites for 35 weeks in 2008 -- more than half the year - and 11 weeks ahead of NBC, the closest commercial network.

In addition, PBS.org and PBSKIDS.org broke a number of their all-time traffic records in 2008:

• PBS.org (www.pbs.org) set a single-day traffic record on September 22, with more than two million visits (Source: Google Analytics). During the 2007-2008 TV season, PBS.org's market share of visits among the six broadcast networks increased 25 percent over the previous season. (Source: Hitwise)
• The new PBS KIDS GO! video player (pbskids.org/go/video/) is streaming nearly one million video clips a week, and has generated more than 13 million video streams since its soft launch last fall. The new player features advertising-free, streaming video, including hundreds of video clips and dozens of full-length episodes of favorite PBS children's programs. (Source: thePlatform)
• PBS.org received more than 20 million unique visitors in October, setting a new monthly traffic record. (Source: Google Analytics)
• PBSKIDS.org also broke new monthly traffic records, consecutively, in September, October, and November. In November, PBSKIDS.org had more than nine million visitors (Source: Google Analytics). According to Hitwise, PBSKIDS.org surpassed Disney Online and Nickelodeon in share of visits to children's sites in October.
• PBS's YouTube channel (youtube.com/pbs) has recorded more than 14 million video views, while traffic coming to pbs.org from YouTube has increased more than 190 percent since last year.

The dramatic 2008 increases in traffic to PBS.org, which was already one of the most trafficked dot org sites on the Web, indicate that PBS is serving not only larger audiences than ever online, but younger audiences as well. Forty-six percent of the PBS.org audience is under 35. (Source:Comscore MediaMetrix, November 2008.)

"We're incredibly proud of the remarkable growth PBS Interactive has achieved, leveraging the investment that PBS and our local stations have made in this area," said Paula Kerger, PBS' President and CEO.

John Boland, PBS' Chief Content Officer, added, "As the media environment is rapidly transforming, this news about PBS.org and PBSKIDS.org in 2008 shows that PBS and our local stations are not only remaining nimble, but also relevant and significantly valuable to audiences -- where, when and, importantly, how they want it."

Jason Seiken, Senior Vice President, PBS Interactive, said the traffic gains were driven by search engine optimization and the launch of new products.

"Last year was just the beginning of our major drive to attract new audiences," Seiken said. "Starting in early 2009, we'll launch a series of exciting initiatives, including a complete redesign of pbs.org, a new video player with full episodes from across our programming universe, as well as major product launches on pbskids.org and pbsparents.org."

• 2008 Weekly Traffic Data From Hitwise

Weeks at #1
ABC 6
CBS 12
FOX 3
NBC 12
PBS 19

Weeks at #2
ABC 13
CBS 4
FOX 7
NBC 12
PBS 16

Weeks at #3
ABC 19
CBS 12
FOX 4
NBC 8
PBS 9

Weeks at #4
ABC 8
CBS 24
FOX 9
NBC 3
PBS 8

* Source: The rankings are based on the market share of U.S. visits, not viewing, among a custom category of commercial broadcast networks websites (ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, The CW and MyNetwork) and PBS for 52 weeks of 2008 (Sunday - Saturday) from the Hitwise sample of 10 million U.S. Internet users. Includes traffic aggregated from standalone websites americanidol.com, amw.com, familyguy.com, cops.com, thelot.com and thesimpsons.com.

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Ducette presents at national conference

Posted Wednesday April 23, 2008

Mary Ducette, WTIU’s educational services coordinator, recently attended and was a speaker at a national conference in Seattle. Mary was one of five people from throughout the country who participate in Ready to Learn programs asked to make a presentation at the “Seeds of Compassion” event in Seattle. Organizers said they found Mary’s work throughout the state as something very “powerful, rare and special.”

Parenting Counts is a program to educate thousands of parents on early infant brain development and good parenting practices. Ducette regularly leads workshops on parenting and has trained coordinators around the state to lead the sessions. She also is the co-director of the WTIU For the Love of Kids Positive, Practical Parenting Conference.

The keynote speaker at the Seattle conference was His Holiness the Dalai Lama. The conference purpose was to “engage the hearts and minds of our community by highlighting the vision, science, and programs of early social, emotional, and cognitive learning.”

Each of the five days of the event provided parents, educators, business and community leaders with an opportunity to better understand the real benefits of compassion, and concrete steps on how to bring compassion into their lives.

Granted, the Dalai Lama was undoubtedly the most prestigious person in attendance but he was not the only reason for any of us being there. The 150,000 people in attendance included medical doctors, neuroscientists, social workers, researchers, religious figures, educators, parents, students and other people from all walks of life. They all joined together on this momentous occasion to kick off the first ever, worldwide Seeds of Compassion Campaign, Ducette said.

"From all different paths of life, people came to share their knowledge and expertise about the importance of raising happy healthy children. They also came to celebrate and affirm a shared belief that by teaching compassion to the children we can create a better world. It has become common knowledge that children who grow up in healthy, happy and peaceful environments with secure emotional ties are better able to communicate with others and to explore their world, both of which lead to success in learning," she said.

As the Dalai Lama said, "I am just one man among 6 billion people on Earth; and I am a 73-year old man who is about to say bye-bye to this life. You are all just one person among 6 billion people on Earth, it is up to you to be the difference the world so desperately needs."

Ducette also said, "It was the most inspiring conference I have been to in ages. Yes, the Dalai Lama was there to share thoughtful insights and words of wisdom in his quiet non-assuming joyful way, but also every time I sat down the person next to me ended up being someone highly educated in their field of study, someone that impressed me to no end. Funny thing about that was, those people were just as excited to hear my story as I was to hear theirs. We were all there for one common purpose, which was to affirm our commitment to ensuring that the current generation of young people will be able to live in a world filled with peace and caring for one another."

WTIU’s Ready To Learn Service teaches children and their grown ups to be wise media consumers via the Learning Triangle (View, Read, Do). Articles that miss the point of an historic gathering such as this conference are the very reason we at Ready To Learn teach children to question everything they see and hear in the media with an analytical mind.

After the Seattle conference, Ducette returned to participate in a week of sessions with the Indiana Association of the Education of Young Children conference in Indianapolis.

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IU and Sony Electronics announce strategic alliance for HD production projects

Posted Thursday December 20, 2007

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. and PARK RIDGE, N.J. -- Indiana University and Sony Electronics have formed a strategic alliance to explore new applications for high-definition broadcast and media production technologies in higher education, and collaborate on projects that support digital workflows and lifestyles.

Potential research activities to be conducted by Sony and Indiana University include immersive technologies such as virtual reality, 3-D video and 3-D animation, as well as the development of new communications tools to engage teachers and students. Opportunities will exist for faculty and scholarly research, greater insight into students' increasingly digital lifestyles, and for IU student internships.

"Indiana University is pleased to enter into this alliance with an organization such as Sony," said IU President Michael A. McRobbie. "In the rapidly changing, highly digital and interconnected world of technology, partnerships such as these allow for an exciting collaboration of creative and forward-thinking minds -- those who study how today's technology is used and think about innovative ways in which it may be applied, and those with the capabilities and resources to make the myriad of possibilities reality. The opportunities this collaboration allows for Sony and Indiana University are vast."

Sony and IU will explore academic uses of current and new Sony products, and also will consider developing new products to meet specific needs. Technologies involved in this non-exclusive alliance will include Sony's full line of HD broadcast and production products, such as studio and field cameras, the XDCAM HD line of optical disc-based camcorders and decks, and more.

"There are tremendous opportunities in education for applications of Sony technologies, and we are excited to be exploring them with Indiana University," said John Scarcella, president of Sony Electronics' Broadcast and Business Solutions Company. "Their expertise in higher education and technology implementation is a perfect complement to our resources. Through this alliance, we can hopefully expose other schools to new ways of working with technology, and also build new customer relationships in other markets."

The agreement also will benefit students, faculty and staff on all IU campuses, as well as alumni, as Sony will be offering special prices on select Sony consumer electronics products.

Brad Wheeler, IU vice president for information technology and CIO, said, "I am delighted that IU and Sony have engaged in this alliance. It covers critical areas of technology and media upgrades, and more importantly, it brings together the capabilities of two incredible organizations."

Departments across the university will transition to high definition media in the near future.

"The alliance is a dramatic opportunity to improve service to our viewers," said Perry Metz, executive director of IU Radio and Television Services. "It already has paid dividends through our recent purchase of quality high-def equipment for WTIU. We're indebted to Jay Kincaid for his original idea of a broad IU academic alliance with Sony Electronics. As a WTIU director with years of national and Olympics experience, he envisioned a series of ways IU faculty and staff could work cooperatively with Sony Electronics."

Bloomington Herald-Times coverage here.

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IU Center’s Virtual Congress Wins Grant from CPB’s American History and Civics Initiative

Posted Tuesday August 7, 2007

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) has awarded the Center on Congress at Indiana University a $445,000 grant to support design work on Virtual Congress, an innovative online learning environment that aims to give students an insider's view of representative democracy and help them understand their role as citizens.

"For too long, young people's knowledge of American history and civics has been on the decline," said CPB President and CEO Patricia Harrison. "Public broadcasting is in a unique position, along with our partners, to reach this audience through their cell phones, TVs, iPods, computers or other technologies to deliver meaningful, educational content they will use throughout their lives."

The grant is a component of CPB's American History and Civics Initiative, which calls on public television managers, film makers and content developers -- especially in the high technology and interactive media sector -- to join educators in creating groundbreaking media projects and methods that measurably improve the learning of American history and civics by middle and high school students.

Virtual Congress, an educational multiplayer online role-play game, will function much like the real Congress, with committees, floor action, amendments, back-and-forth discussions, input from constituents and random events that can influence the legislative agenda.

"We are excited about the potential for Virtual Congress to let students experience how Congress really works," said Center Director Lee H. Hamilton. "Combining the online role-play game format with serious and substantive educational content about Congress is a promising new way to get young people engaged and informed."

"Lee Hamilton and the Center on Congress are to be commended for this innovative approach to understanding all of the factors that go into the legislative process at the Congressional level," said Indiana University President Michael McRobbie. "This significant grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in support of the Center's pioneering work to develop civic education tools for a generation of internet-savvy students is an impressive confirmation of the quality of the work Lee and the Center have done up to this point, and it will provide important resources for the further development of this project. Indiana University is proud to be associated with this impressive new tool for understanding Congress."

In Virtual Congress, students from across the country will assume the roles of members of the House and Senate, lobbyists, journalists and constituents. As legislators in this virtual government, they will introduce bills and work to try to move their proposals through the various stages of the legislative process. They will receive opinions and requests from every direction: constituents, colleagues and members of the press. All this will take place in an online world that vividly re-creates the House and Senate floors, committee rooms, legislative offices and public meeting spaces.

Students in Virtual Congress will learn the mechanics of the legislative process, and they also will learn that successful legislating requires listening to different opinions and working out acceptable compromises among multiple viewpoints.

Further, they will learn that the essence of a successful representative democracy is communication. Because electronic communication has become a primary means for students to obtain and exchange information, it is a logical environment for them to practice the tools and rules of American democracy.

The center is conferring with experts in social studies education to ensure that Virtual Congress meets learning objectives, and to get help with curriculum integration plans, outreach to underserved populations, standards-based assessment methods and formative evaluation.

Partners and collaborators in Virtual Congress include WTIU, the National Education Association, the Close Up Foundation, the National Council for the Social Studies and the departments of Telecommunications and Learning Sciences at Indiana University.

Virtual Congress also has received grant support from the MacArthur Foundation, the AT&T Foundation and the Paul Ogle Foundation of Indiana.

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