Cronkite NewsWatch

Mark Lodato (far left) supervises students in the Cronkite NewsWatch control room as they produce a show.

Cronkite NewsWatch is the award-winning 30-minute newscast produced by advanced broadcast students in the Cronkite School.

At the height of the semester Cronkite NewsWatch is produced live three times each week and is viewed in hundreds of thousands of Arizona homes via KAET-Eight Digital, ASUtv and Tempe and Mesa Cable 11. A Spanish-language version airs twice a month on KFPH-Channel 35, Cox Cable-Channel 54 and DIRECT-TV-Channel 13.

NewsWatch regularly wins national awards. In 2008-09 NewsWatch students led the Cronkite School to second place nationally in the prestigious Hearst Journalism Awards competition. The school finished first in 2006-07 and second the previous two years.

The Broadcast Education Association recognized Cronkite NewsWatch as the Best News Team in the nation for 2007-08, and in 2006-07 the Society of Professional Journalists named the production the top collegiate television newscast in the nation.

NewsWatch reporters cover stories affecting metro Phoenix and all of Arizona. They have reported live on the 2008 presidential elections, traveled to Southern California to cover wildfires, and filed live breaking news stories from the Border Governor’s Conference in Puerto Penasco, Mexico, and from sites around Arizona.

More than 15 NewsWatch reporters appeared live on MSNBC’s “On Campus” program to discuss stories they’ve covered in Arizona. And as a CNN affiliate, NewsWatch reporters have fed video or reported live from CNN bureaus in Mexico City, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.

Cronkite NewsWatch students report live on election night, November 2008.

KAET/Eight, Arizona’s public television station, began airing the newscast last year, giving it a prime-time slot on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays during the school year. It can be seen both on KAET digital (Cox Cable Channel 88) and over the air on digital channel 8.3 at 9 p.m. from early February until daylight savings time starts in March, when it moves to 8 p.m. It is extremely rare for student productions to air in a major media market such as Phoenix, which is the nation’s 12th largest television market.

In addition, Many Cronkite NewsWatch pieces are fed to network affiliates throughout the state via the Cronkite News Service.

Students began producing a Spanish-language newscast, NewsWatch Espanol, in 2008. It is aired twice a month on Saturdays on KFPH-Channel 35, Cox Cable-Channel 54 and DIRECTV-Channel 13.

NewsWatch students are selected in a competitive process and work two to four days a week in a variety of roles, ranging from reporting to producing. Students work in a state-of-the-art television facility on the sixth floor of the Cronkite building and have access to the latest in news-gathering technology. Reporters and photographers shoot on Sony HD digital cameras, edit on Apple Final Cut Pro and write and produce their stories using the Associated Press ENPS newsroom computer system. Students have access to The Associated Press wire service and CNN video feeds via the state-of-the-art Pathfire distribution system.

Cronkite NewsWatch is directed by Mark Lodato, who joined the Cronkite School in 2006 after working for 16 years as a television reporter and anchor for television stations in Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Phoenix and Ft. Myers, Fla. He also served as news director at the University of Maryland’s Phillip Merrill College of Journalism.

For more information about the program, contact Lodato at mark.lodato@asu.edu or 602.496.9415.