Steve Bell is a Professor of Telecommunications and Endowed Chair Emeritus at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana.  He is active as a public speaker, panelist and writer, and in special projects for television and radio.

Bell's prestigious network and local news career made him an eyewitness to many historic events.  From 1967-1986 he was a correspondent for ABC News.  Bell was familiar to millions of Americans as news anchorman for ABC's "Good Morning America."  He regularly interviewed newsmakers and reported from the scene of major news events, election campaigns and overseas Presidential trips. 

After joining ABC News in 1967, Bell covered the social upheavals then reshaping the nation, including the Newark and East Harlem riots and anti-war protests in Washington. His reports from Newark were described in Variety as "one of the most moving and chilling examples yet of on-the-scene reporting."  He also covered the assassination and funeral of Dr. Martin Luther King, Junior, and was on the scene when Senator Robert Kennedy was shot in 1968.

Beginning as a war correspondent, Bell has reported extensively from Vietnam and Indo-china.  In Cambodia in 1970, he and his camera crew were captured by the Viet Cong.  While held briefly at gunpoint, he managed to record the incident.  Bell also served as ABC News Bureau Chief in Hong Kong and has reported extensively from the People's Republic of China.   In 1973 he and Ted Koppel wrote and co-anchored ABC's first documentary from the People's Republic of China.  He also served as a White House correspondent during Watergate and the Ford Administration.

Since coming to Ball State, Bell has moderated national and international conferences and teleconferences.  He has presented papers in the U.S., China and Korea.  In 1996 he wrote and produced a Vietnam documentary syndicated by PBS based on a Ball State study abroad trip.  In 2005 he produced and reported an ABC News Nightline program, revisiting several of the people he and Koppel had featured in their 1972 documentary.  Since 1998 he has served as faculty director for Seminars on "Politics and the Media" for the Washington Center for Internships and Academic seminars. 

Steve Bell has received several Emmy awards, an Overseas Press Club award and a Headliner's Award.  A native of Oskaloosa, Iowa, he has a B.A. degree from Central College in Iowa and an M.S. in Journalism from Northwestern University.  His wife, Joyce is an accomplished musician and vocalist who has taught voice at Ball State.