By Deepa SeetharamanThe Daily Northwestern

In eighth grade, Alex Driscoll first held a video camera, and fell in love with the world of film.

“Once I got the camera in my hand, it was just surreal,” said Driscoll, now a senior at Evanston Township High School. “Everything stopped.”

Driscoll’s passion for filming led her to broadcast journalism and a position as lead producer of KIT News, ETHS’s biweekly newscast. The broadcast, which is in its first year, already has enjoyed a positive response. School administrators have promised additional funding for cameras and a new studio next year, and last week, the group placed ninth out of more than 100 high school broadcast programs at a high school journalism conference in Nashville, Tenn.

ETHS might financially support the broadcast, but KIT News faculty advisor Todd Rubin insists that the organization’s objectivity is not compromised.

“Journalistically, I won’t allow that to happen,” said Rubin, who spent seven years as a sports reporter and anchor for TV stations throughout the Midwest. “The administrators are not telling us what to do.”

Rubin pointed to one story aired several weeks ago about the controversial “blue pass” teachers must give any student leaving the classroom, even for restroom trips. The broadcast featured students and teachers speaking out against the administration’s choice. Instead of becoming angry, administrators told Rubin they felt the report was very even-handed about the matter, he said.

Administrators do watch the broadcasts before they are aired, however, to make sure all students interviewed have signed release forms to be on air.

“So far, (administrators) been supportive,” he said.

The students at KIT News work in a microcosm of major newsrooms, grappling with objectivity and trying to make newscasts exciting and relevant. Reporters and editors work during school breaks, putting together complete broadcasts and struggling to keep track of both details and big-picture elements in each package.

Many dedicated contributing reporters and editors help each broadcast come together, but staff members said the work can be frustrating, especially when reporters file incomplete or substandard work.

Senior producers said they try to encourage quality by setting examples for younger staffers, and balancing high expectations with kind attitudes.

“From the first show until now, I think I’ve become a little more patient, a little more diplomatic,” Driscoll said. “Really when it comes down to it, it really falls on my shoulders.”

ETHS senior Nick Batlle was working on a story Wednesday about the ETHS girls’ basketball game this week. He scoured the tape but didn’t find any exciting highlights. Batlle fiddled with the tape, trying to present the story in a pleasing way.

“A lot of it has to do with my voiceover,” Batlle said. “What I try to do is go deeper in the story (of the players).”

Until KIT News, Batlle said he was considering studying medicine. His father is a director of nephrology at Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago.

“Medicine made sense to me,” said Batlle, who spent last summer doing hospital research. “(Broadcast journalism) was my passion.”

Batlle said he will focus on sports journalism and hopes to attend a journalism school in the fall. He said he has been watching ESPN since he was 5 years old, but KIT News has taught him how to see mistakes in even the best news anchors.

“Maybe that means I can do it too one day, ” he said.

Reach Deepa Seetharaman at [email protected].