MURFREESBORO — A class of MTSU mass
communication students unveiled their newest media entity Tuesday when they
announced plans for the upcoming Bragg Innovative News Network, which is set to
go live on Dec. 2.
Members of the
Advanced Multimedia Journalism class taught by assistant professor Robert Jasso
announced the media project, which will focus on long-form journalism and
combine news from existing MTSU student media — Sidelines, MT10 TV and WMTS
88.3 FM — into a single format.
Named by the class
for the late state Rep. John Bragg, a publisher for whom the Bragg Mass
Communication Building also was named, the network christening was attended by
one of Bragg's sons, Circuit Judge David Bragg, and other campus dignitaries.
The late legislator’s other son, Murfreesboro Mayor Tommy Bragg, had a schedule
conflict and couldn’t attend.
“This is a very
impressive operation,” David Bragg said after observing a preview of the Bragg
Innovative News Network website with Emily West, editor-in-chief of Sidelines
and one of the organizing students, in the College of Mass Communication’s
Center for Innovation in Media.
“I know my father
would be proud to see what’s being done here in this building for news and the
great use of space.”
Jasso, who teaches
in the college’s Department of Electronic Media Communication, noted that it’s
“very unusual to have a class project bubble up to something like this. We not
only wanted to nurture it but promote it, too.”
The nine students —
Rafferty Cleary, Chris Davis, Alex Erkkila, Kailey Jackson, Kelsey Lebechuck,
Matt Parker, Quint Qualls, Jordan Taylor and West — came up with what they’re
calling “BINN” to create a new type of news format and distribution within the
College of Mass Communication.
Cleary, Erkkila,
Jackson, Lebechuck, Parker and Taylor all are senior EMC majors. Davis is a
junior majoring in electronic media communication, while juniors Qualls and
West both are journalism majors.
Explaining that the
“cross-platform class” combines the separate journalism and electronic media
communication programs into one operation, West told Bragg and the other guests
that the plan lets students “knock down the traditional foundations of a
journalism education.”
Students created the
website, reported for video packages and print articles and collected audio to
generate in-depth audio pieces.
Their work will be
broadcast Dec. 2 as part of a television show airing locally on Comcast Channel
10 on the student TV station, MT10, and radio segments on WMTS. The stories
also will be part of the final fall 2013 edition of Sidelines Dec. 4.
Ken Paulson, dean of
the college, praised the group for their plan.
“What we have here
is students generating concepts to serve the public today as well as in the
future,” he said. “Our Center for Innovation in Media can set a foundation for
journalism education across the country where students are full partners in
their education.”
You can get a
preview of the Bragg Innovative News Network at the class Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Bragg-Innovative-News-Network/408074215989110.
When the site goes live on Dec. 2, the URL will be http://www.itsinthebinn.com.
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