THE STUDENT MEDIA CENTER SINCE 2009 WHERE THE REAL WORLD OF JOURNALISM MEETS THE CLASSROOM By Ronnie Agnew
T Lacey Russell, Daily Mississippian editorin-chief for 2014-2015, and DM news editor Logan Kirkland cover the destruction of a tornado in Tupelo, Mississippi, Tuesday, April 29, 2014. Photo by Mikki K. Harris
44 MEEK SCHOOL
he student journalists mobilized quickly when they received word of the tragedy. An elementary school principal and her young son had been killed in Oxford, and the police manhunt for the killer took them down an unlikely path. News teams from neighboring cities converged on Oxford, cranking out stories as details trickled in on the breaking story. Ultimately, the woman’s older son would be charged with the death of his mother and stepbrother. As news teams arrived from Memphis, Tupelo and Jackson, they were joined by another media group aggressively covering a violent tragedy more common in bigger towns far removed from bucolic Oxford. They were student journalists from Ole Miss’ Student Media
Center, placed in a situation where there was much more emphasis placed on their journalism than their status as students headed to English class. The story took them into the classroom of life, where the unexpected happens and journalists are compelled to be there to fill in the blanks for a public with around-the-clock expectations for news updates. The students working in the Meek School’s S. Gale Denley Student Media Center were ready: A story was first posted on thedmonline.com. A crew from NewsWatch 99 was dispatched to the scene. Rebel Radio on-air personalities gave constant updates. And The Daily Mississippian staff, with the story breaking off the printing cycle, delivered comprehensive coverage for the next print edition. It was the kind of story requiring the students to put into place all of the multimedia tools that have
