Tupelo High School’s Wave Media creates the print and online publications of Tupelo High School. This includes the yearbook THS Album, website called THS Current, the news magazine The Hi-Times, and the podcast The Wave Theory. The staff also runs the Wave Media social media.
The Multimedia Reporting and Yearbook classes produce the publications.
“The program is made up of two separate classes called Multimedia Reporting and Yearbook. The yearbook class works on the Album while the Multimedia class produces the THS Current, Hi-Times and both create content for social media and podcasts. For the Hi-Times, we take stories from our website to fit the theme of the magazine,” said Kara Graham, Senior Associate Editor and News Section Editor.
The staff has an editorial board that is made of editors for news, sports, features, opinions, and design. The editorial board oversees the publications and ensures the publications run smoothly.
“We try to have a day where we work together to come up with story ideas. We also encourage staff members as they walk across campus to try and come up with them and keep a look out across the community,” Graham said.
One of their stories titled “WTHS Adviser Named JEA Rising Star” was named a “Best of SNO” winner. Graham has been working for a Best of SNO award for years and has achieved that award.
“I have been working for a Best of SNO award since I began Wave Media in 10th grade. Only 10% of articles were chosen so it took a lot of patience and dedication. It was an honor writing about Mrs. Berry who has helped me grow so much as a journalist. I thank Mrs. Chumley for always pushing me to do my best and seeing my full potential as a writer, leader, and team member,” Graham said.
From doing activities together to traveling to journalism conventions, Wave Media staff members build memories and have a sense of community.
“My favorite memory from being on staff was the Easter egg activity, where instead of candy we hunted for story topics that were randomly distributed across campus, [and] the stories came from a brainstorming session. The activity was interactive and it was a time to build a class bond with our staff,” Chole Long, Social Media Manager, said.
“We love to travel as well. We attended the MSPA conventions and have attended national conventions,” Amedei Ratliff, Creative Director, said.
Students are able to gain life-long skills while being on the Wave Media staff that prepares them for their future careers. Graham wants to work in Integrated Marketing and Communications.
“I have learned to ask the hard-hitting questions. I also learned how to organize my articles to make them flow better. My dream career is to work in IMC and hopefully get a job as a writer at a small-town newspaper. Journalism is all about telling the stories of others and Wave Media has helped me do that,” Graham said.
The Wave Media staff aims to cover all of the student body and Tupelo community.
“One of my goals for the publication is to present Tupelo High School’s diversity within the student body, administrators, and faculty. We accomplish this by making sure that the content on our website and social media accounts is diverse and getting coverage on as much as we can,” Long said.
To keep up with Wave Media, you can follow them on Instagram @thswavemedia. The staff took over the MSPA Instagram on Tuesday, March 26 on the @MSPA_MS account!
