MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — Six students from Middle Tennessee State University’s School of Journalism and Strategic Media were selected to participate in the Potter Digital Ambassadors program, working with newspapers across the state to offer hands-on digital training.

With help from the Tennessee Press Association, the six partnered with community newspapers across Tennessee from Jan. 5-9, helping the media outlets with social media, analytics, and web strategy.

The students selected for the digital ambassadors program include:

• Brett Walker, a journalism major from Alexandria, Tennessee.
• Brianna Sorrell, a journalism major from Memphis.
• Jaeda Jackson, a journalism major from Chattanooga.
• Bailey Lowe, a journalism major from Abingdon, Virginia.  
• Willie Phaler, a journalism major from Deer Lodge, Tennessee.  
• Callie Welch, an interactive media major from Mooresburg, Tennessee.

Mark Milsap, executive director of the Tennessee Press Association, visited campus earlier in the semester to discuss the Potter Digital Ambassadors program, which is the first time the program has been offered in Tennessee, with interested students.

“I want the students to have a good experience and understand what it really takes to put out a newspaper, content and update the website every day,” Milsap said. “I want them to have that real-life experience, and I want my newspaper members to understand there are other things they could be doing for engagement and to grow their audience, and the students can help them with that.”

To qualify, students went through an interview process with Katie Foss, director of Journalism and Strategic Media, and assistant professor Matthew Leimkuehler.  

“I want to create lasting, impactful real-world experience for students,” Leimkuehler said. “I want to get students who are passionate, who are dedicated and help get them on the frontline.”

For sophomore Jaeda Jackson, the experience is one she hopes to use in the future when she embarks on her own journalism career.

“I was excited to be part of the first cohort from Tennessee. The Potter Ambassadorship is doing what I want to do in the long term. I’d love to run social media accounts for newspapers one day,” Jackson said. “For newspapers to be successful, they’re going to have to adapt, and I know that’s something I can do and help with. I can definitely see myself doing that in the future.”

Ahead of the weeklong program, students worked on a community audit for the newspaper they would be working with. In the audit, they focused on factors such as population demographics and who is subscribing to and reading the media outlet’s content.

“We used the knowledge we already had from the settings we’re in at MTSU and helped these normally smaller papers in rural areas,” said Jackson.

Welch said her opportunity with The Citizen Tribune in Morristown was a great experience and a resume builder.

“My favorite part of the experience was figuring everything out,” she said. “They gave me a list of things they wanted help with and asked me to present them with my ideas at the end of the week. None of the platforms they used were ones I was familiar with, so being thrown in blind with five days to figure everything out was a new challenge that I really enjoyed.” 

In addition to The Citizen Tribune, the other Tennessee newspapers that hosted MTSU’s journalism students included: Bolivar Bulletin Times in Bolivar; The Tennessee Tribune in Nashville; The Bledsonian Banner in Pikeville; The Murfreesboro Post in Smyrna; Lewis County Herald in Hohenwald.

The Potter Digital Ambassadors program originated at the University of Missouri, where alumnus Walt Potter Jr. partnered with his alma mater to provide digital training to local news outlets on how to optimize and utilize social media.

MTSU’s School of Journalism and Strategic Media is part of the Scott Borchetta College of Media and Entertainment. Learn more about the school’s programs at https://journalism.mtsu.edu.

— DeAnn Hays (deann.hays@mtsu.edu)