“There’s the old way of your being the bringer of the truth. You’re the one who said this is the way it is — whether you go on TV and say it or you write it,” says Glaser. “I think what’s happening now is it’s being democratized. The journalist has to think more like, ‘This is how I see it, this is what I’ve come up with, what do you think, what can you add to this?’ It’s more of a collaboration and less of ‘this is the answer.’ There are a lot of answers, and it’s about coming up with what the best one is. It’s kind of scary for a lot of people to deal with that.”

Glaser applauds Ball State but wonders if viewers actually prefer TV to be a one-way experience. Pollard doesn’t think they do. He was at CNN during what he calls its Chicken Little news days, “when no one knew what we were doing.” It simply wasn’t what everyone was used to.

None of this fazes the Ball State instructors. They have the blessing of their dean, Roger Lavery, who is overseeing a new $21 million facility that will expand the college’s reach. Lavery said having a product in hand is enough to douse doubters.

Watching as students buzzed around him during a visit to the TV studio, Bell looked both proud and perplexed.

“Frankly, this is way beyond me,” says Bell, who retired a few weeks after this interview. “I have no idea how it’s going to play out. The simple fact is, we can’t stop the viewer from being involved. It’s happening, whether we like it or not.”