Indiana Broadcast History Archive

Gerry Lanosga has been a part of the Indiana media industry since 1989. He spent 8 years with the Indianapolis News, 9 years at WTHR-TV, and has been teching at Indiana University for more than a decade. Throughout his journalism career, he consistently created stories that provoked change and left an everlasting impact on his audience.  

Early Journalism Career

Lanosga was four years old when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon.  He recalls watching the mission launch with his family and understanding that there was a big event happening on television. It was July 20, 1969, and Lanosga had just experienced his first encounter with broadcast journalism.  

As Lanosga grew older, he developed a love for writing. He attended Mitchell High School in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and was enrolled in various writing courses. He served as the copy editor of his high school paper, The Echelon, and continued his journalism career in college. At the University of Redlands, he gradually worked his way up to become the editor-in-chief for the student-run newspaper.  

The small college in California had less than 2,000 students in their student body, so The Bulldog Weekly did not have a large circulation. Lanosga says it was a small paper focused on small things, but they made a lot of big splashes.  

One notable occasion was the campus-wide controversy regarding the full-page Bud Light advertisement featured on the backside of the paper. Lanosga knew the newspaper needed extra funding, so he made it his goal to sell advertisements.  

Despite Lanosga’s strong contributions to the world of journalism, he graduated from The University of Redlands with a history degree.  

Print Career

After college, Lanosga sent his resume all over the west coast in hopes of finding a job close to home. When he didn’t get any offers, he decided to follow his future wife, Michelle, to Indianapolis where she would be starting law school.  With $500 and all his possessions packed into his car, Lanosga headed to Indiana for the first time ever. A few weeks after the big move, Lanosga landed a job at The Daily Journal in Johnson County.  

The Daily Journal was a small local paper with only four reporters. For 11 months, he covered the county government, the police records and court vitals.  Lanosga found value in working for a small newspaper because he got to learn how to do journalism. Since he was not a journalism major in college, he says he learned most of what he knows on the job.  

At the small paper, he was able to try various types of writing and cover different beats. He gained experience covering crime, writing feature stories and trying investigative reporting in a short amount of time.  

About a year after his move to Indiana, Lanosga transitioned to a new job at Indianapolis News. He worked at Indianapolis News for eight years, one of his roles including a weekly columnist.  

One of the most memorable pieces Lanosga wrote at Indianapolis News was a column about the Crown Hill Cemetery.  He wrote a story about the paupers’ graves at the cemetery. In the article, he describes a shed at the cemetery that contains shelves of unclaimed ashes. 

A few days after the column was published, a reader called Lanosga and told him that she thinks one of those unclaimed ashes was her baby. The baby was born out of wedlock and died shortly after birth.  The baby’s cremated ashes were taken away and the family never spoke about the baby again.  

Lanosga’s column allowed the woman to reconnect with her child and give her baby a proper goodbye. He said being able to impact a reader in such a profound way was one of the highlights of his career. 

Broadcast Career

Near the end of his time at Indianapolis News, Lanosga and his co-worker, Kathleen Johnston, heard that there were openings at WTHR-TV. Lanosga and Johnston felt ready to try something new, and in 1997, they joined the investigative team for Channel 13.  

As an investigative producer, Lanosga’s workload shifted to long-term projects. WTHR used the engaging investigative pieces to encourage more viewers to watch the station. Lanosga said this was beneficial for the investigative team because they had more time to create really important pieces.  

An investigative piece that stands out to Lanosga is one centered around Ruth Lilly. Ruth Lilly was the heirloom of Eli Lilly Pharmaceuticals and resided in Indiana.  

Journalists knew that Lilly regularly donated her money to philanthropies and politicians, but the investigative team received a tip that Lily was being exploited.  

Lanosga and his crew looked into the claim, and discovered that under Lily’s conservatorship, the people around her were taking advantage of her and her money.  

After a year of interviews, looking into public records, and undercover work, WTHR-TV created a piece that evoked change. The court ordered for the bank and attorney to pay hefty fees and new guidelines were put in place to protect Lily.  

Professor of Journalism

After nearly a decade in broadcast journalism, Lanosga felt that he was ready for a change. In 2010, he earned his Ph.D in mass communications at Indiana University and taught journalism for three years at Ball State University as an assistant professor. In 2012, he returned to Indiana University to teach as a journalism professor.   

At Indiana University, he teaches future journalists the ethics behind the media industry. He also teaches investigative journalism and other courses.

Lanosga enjoys teaching History of Journalism, a course focused on the timeline of American journalism. The curriculum emphasizes the importance of oral histories which Lanosga deems as extremely valuable. He says that oral histories collect a perspective of journalism that cannot be told through artifacts.  

Lanaosga is a professor because he wants to prepare the next generation of journalists. He says despite it being a challenge to teach journalism courses while the business is dealing with hostility from the public, artificial intelligence, and economic contraction, it does keep the course interesting.   

Lanosga is has a national reputation for his research of journalism history, especially the in the area of investigative journalism. 

In May 2023, Lanosga won the History Division Covert Award from the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. He earned this award for the article he wrote that discusses how investigative journalism dates back to the 1830s when abolitionists used public documentaries to demonstrate the abuses of slavery. 

Lanosga currently serves as the Director of Journalism for the Media School.

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By Marnie Sara  

Edited by Jack Lindner 

For more information on the life and career of Gerry Lanosga, watch his entire oral history interview.  

Last Edit: March 1st, 2024