As the clouds sprinkled rain over the University of Mississippi campus, tables and pamphlets were being set up inside to house over 400 high school journalists from around the state.
The Mississippi Scholastic Press Association hosted their annual Spring Convention on April 2. This year, students were able to get hands-on experience during their time on UM campus.
One of the hands-on sessions was the “Creating Hype Videos” by South Panola High School’s Tiger TV. This student-led session taught their peers about creating exciting hype videos. Gabbie Russo, sports media manager, and Alberto Diaz, staff reporter, led the session.
“It was the first time teaching something and I absolutely loved it and we got a lot of questions. A lot of people were really interacting, talking with us. When we actually made the hype video, a lot of people had good ideas that we were able to implement as well,” Gabbie Russo said.
“It was great. I was honestly nervous but I think we nailed it and a lot of people enjoyed it. We had a lot of questions, a lot of feedback,” Alberto Diaz said.
Another favorite session was ‘Play-by-Play: Announcing That Really Rocks’, which was taught by Russ Robinson of Friday Night Under the Lights. Students learned all about announcing sports events in this interactive session.
“My favorite session was the play-by-play because it was interactive. He actually interacted with us in that one,” Jasmine Jeffries, staff member of Center Hill High School’s MTV, said.
“The guy taught me a lot on how to announce the games better and that’s probably what I’m going to bring back,” Kaleb McAllister, sports team member for Center Hill High School’s MTV, said.
Another favorite was the ‘What TV Pros Want You to Know’ session, which was taught by the Mississippi Association of Broadcasters. This interactive session watched and critiqued students’ stories and students learned about broadcast journalism.
“My favorite session by far has been ‘What TV professionals want you to know.’ I just randomly did that one last year and they critiqued my first segment I ever made. I walked away [from] that with a lot of new insight and inspiration on just how to make stories that matter and things I need to work on personally. One of the professionals was so impressed with my segment and he gave me his business card and that was the motivation that I needed to know that I want to do this for the rest of my life,” Annalise Kirk, Sports producer of Madison Central High School’s Jaguar News Network, said.
“I loved that this year, they didn’t critique a segment that I made, but they still critiqued one from our publication. It was still really insightful to know how our leadership as producers has impacted our underclassmen and their storytelling and what professionals have to say about that,” Kirk said.
Students enjoyed learning from their peers about writing, editing, and covering issues around their community.
Anna Wolfe gave the Keynote, sharing her journey of investigative reporting at Mississippi Today that led to her winning the Pulitzer Prize. She shared advice to students on how to better their reporting and investigative skills that many were able to enjoy.
The day closed out with the MSPA Awards Ceremony which awarded Lafayette High School’s Sports Talk for Podcast of the Year, Madison Central’s Jaguar News Network for Newscast of the Year, and Tupelo High School’s the Hi-Times for News Publication of the Year.
A list of all winners and finalists from the spring convention can be found here.
