Abbie is an enrolled student in the journalism program at Indiana University. She volunteered at WNIN-FM in the summer of 2016. The work in this entry was all produced and aired by WNIN-FM between May and September of 2016.
Abbie represents the best of the next generation of journalists. Her aggressive curiosity, thorough research and attention to detail are evident in her work. She is committed to furthering the ethical ideals of journalism on all distribution platforms, those here now and those yet to be imagined.
What is perhaps most interesting to anyone listening to this entry is that prior to last summer, Abbie had very little audio or broadcast training. Her main track of study at IU is print journalism. Listening to the progression of her work over the summer, the continual improvement is evident and even amazing.
Abbie also worked with our local government reporter, attending city council meetings and reporting on them. She proved fearless in interviewing newsmakers (even getting one that I have trouble getting to comment). Her eye for the unusual is obvious, going beyond simply reporting on the discussion and votes and looking for the impact, such as her piece on MASK.
But simple reporting does not define Abigail Gipson’s contribution to our profession. While here, she took a leadership role in working with our radio reporters to adopt video as one of our primary newsgathering tools. That video and still image work also helped WNIN land a major development grant for our bilingual podcast, Que Pasa Midwest, with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Abbie worked closely with producer Paola Marizan, shooting much of the video used to create the podcast.