MSU students get opportunity to meet media professionals

Mississippi State University held its annual Mississippi Association of Broadcasters Day on Thursday, a day that is designed for students who are looking for a little guidance regarding their future in broadcast and digital journalism.

MSU students in the Department of Communication were given the opportunity to network with professionals from various media entities around the state and talk with them about jobs, internships.

The media professionals who were there also shared their experiences in the work field in a panel discussion and talked about what they are looking for in respective employees.

MSU Department of Communication Associate Professor Philip Poe organized the MAB Day activities for the students in the department to have the opportunity to network with the media professional who they may be working for one day.

“MAB Day is something that we have done for 15 years; I have been in charge of it for the past four or five years, and there are a couple of reasons that we think it is important to put together. The first is that it’s an obvious benefit to students for them to get to meet

with professionals, because we have lots of networking time and every student that comes through there can speak to as many professionals as they want,” said Poe. “They can get resume reviews, they can get reel reviews, it’s just really a unique opportunity to have some oneon-one time with people who are really busy. It’s really difficult to get 12 to 13 media professionals in a room at the same time, because everybody’s schedule is crazy. During the panel discussion, to hear their stories, what their advice is, and best practices, dos and don’ts, all that stuff that we certainly address in the classroom. But I believe it has a bigger impact actually doing it.”

Another reason Poe thinks it is important to have media professionals come to campus to interact with the department is that it not only builds relationships for the students but also for the instructors.

“The other reason that it’s important is really for us as a department, it keeps us connected to a network of professionals. It is sort of keeping up with the Joneses, if you will,” said Poe. “We know that this is something that other universities are doing, and it’s important for us to stay in that rotation, see and be seen as a department that puts out students with professional aspirations and students who have the skills and the knowhow and, really, the ambition to go out and work in the field. I think it’s part of our job as faculty, particularly in the broadcast and digital journalism concentration, to make those professional connections, because we’re teaching skills classes trying to set students up for success once they move out into their first jobs, and we have to walk the walk as well. If we’re talking about how important it is to network and how important it is to meet whoever you can meet, we have to model that behavior and it may be really just be an opportunity to check both of those boxes.”

In the world we live in today, a college degree is just not enough to guarantee a job right out of college. Internships and experience have become more important than ever, and Poe believes it 100 percent.

“One of our panelists said something that struck me; this person said, ‘We don’t care what your degree is, we don’t even care if you have a degree. We want to see that you can work.’ They were talking about that in terms of resume building, particularly as a student. Anyway, that you can do write something, somewhere, for someone as many times as you can, it’s those little things that sort of set you apart because, guess what? Everybody’s got a degree; it’s not the barrier to entry as it used to be.”