You know the voices, and you know the stories. But behind every story on WGLT is a person who calls this community home just like you do.
The Meet the Newsroom series pulls back the curtain to introduce you to the team that makes WGLT possible. The series continues with digital content director Emily Bollinger.
“Last year, I made WGLT's first documentary, Frozen and Forgotten: An Unhoused Winter in Bloomington-Normal, and it was a video documentary about homelessness around town,” Bollinger said. “And when we did the screening for the documentary, the community really showed up for it. I saw community leaders there. I saw a lot of partners there, like community partners who care for the homeless, and I saw just a lot of random community members there who wanted to learn more about homelessness in the community. And that's what really got me thinking, what we do matters.”
“The people are watching what we're doing, they're reading what we're doing and they want to know more about the community that they live in,” Bollinger added.
WGLT: Your job title here is digital content director. Can you explain what that means and what you do every day?
Emily: So as the digital content director, I'm in charge of all things digital. Pretty much everything you see on our social media, video, photos, any digital content, that's all me. The newsletters that are sent out, I oversee those. The top three news stories on the homepage of the website, I rotate those out manually, and I even do some reporting when needed.
And Emily, why do you work in journalism, and what things do you like about it?
Emily: So I work in journalism kind of by accident. I was a Creative Technologies major and a percussion performance minor in college. And I responded to an internship posting that WGLT did, saying that they needed a photographer, and this was back in 2020 when the news was very exciting, and there wasn't a lot of photography opportunities in 2020 so I decided to take it, and the rest is history.
Now, is there specific interaction with a listener that reminded you why public media matters?
Emily: Yeah, so not a listener specifically, but last year, I made WGLT's first documentary, Frozen and Forgotten: An unhoused winter in Bloomington-Normal, and it was a video documentary about homelessness around town. And when we did the screening for the documentary, the community really showed up for it. I saw community leaders there. I saw a lot of partners there, like community partners who care for the homeless, and I saw just a lot of random community members there who wanted to learn more about homelessness in the community. And that's what really got me thinking, what we do matters. The people are watching what we're doing, they're reading what we're doing, and they want to know more about the community that they live in.
If you could force everyone in Bloomington-Normal to listen or read just one story that we've produced in this last year, which one would it be, and why?
Emily: I couldn't think of one story specifically, but I settled on a topic because it's what I cover, and that's homelessness. I would recommend everyone go through our tag [webpage] called The Bridge, and read every story about that, because I'm still shocked when people have no idea what it is. Because to me, this is my life. This is what I cover all the time. I am an expert on The Bridge, which is the shelter village in Bloomington, and I just, I don't know how people don't know what it is to this day. So I suggest that people pick any story about The Bridge and start reading it.
And what is one thing about your daily job that would most surprise a reader or listener who only hears the finished product?
Emily: Probably all of the editing. There's so much editing behind the scenes that people don't see. So for example, the documentary that I made — that was a 31-minute documentary. There was about 45 hours of footage for that documentary. Or even for a typical news story, an interview can be anywhere from 20 to 30 minutes, and we have to edit it down to four minutes and 30 seconds. So there's just so much editing that goes on behind the scenes, and even every single photo takes a minute or even several minutes to edit. So everything you're seeing is just a smaller portion of the big picture.
And this is WGLT's 60th anniversary. So let's do a prediction. What do you think news media will look like in 60 years? The year 2086.
Emily: Oh boy, I'm gonna be 87 years old, so I hope it's nothing crazy, but I think it'll be mostly social media based. And I don't know if I love that or I hate that. I love that because that's my job here. So I don't think I'm ever gonna be out of a job, but I hate that, because I feel like traditional news sources are going to go away. I think in another 60 years, we're not going to see newspapers, we're not going to see radios, we might not even see TV. I think it's all going to be streaming services, and it's all going to be on social media.
When you aren't at the station, where are we most likely to find you? And what are you doing to unplug?
Emily: People can normally see me at, honestly, any community event. I love doing stuff around the community. I'm always checking the Normal Public Library's events page to see if they have anything going on. I go to a lot of markets around town, and I also go to a lot of concerts. You could probably find me at The Castle, at The Coffeehouse, at a house show, any concert around town.
Let's wrap it up with the speed round to get to know you a little better. What's the last good book you've read?
Emily: The last good book I read was called My Murder. I don't remember who the author is. It was recommended to me by someone at Bobzbay. They have amazing recommendations there.
What's the movie you've seen the most?
Emily: Mean Girls, best movie ever created.
Who's your favorite NPR host or reporter?
Emily: My favorite host is Steve Inskeep.
Let's say you've got out-of-town relatives coming to visit you in Bloomington-Normal, you've got one day to show them around, where do you take them to show off the town?
Emily: So I do have relatives who live outside Bloomington-Normal, and where I always take them is Downtown Bloomington and Uptown Normal. I try to make sure they come on a farmers market day or a day where an event's happening around town, like the Sweet Corn Circus or the Sugar Creek Arts Festival. So anywhere Downtown or Uptown is perfect.
