The School of Journalism and Strategic Media has launched Middle Tennessee News (MTN) in order to bring an immersive, teaching hospital-style learning experience for students.
Aspiring journalists training for the multimedia and sports media fields are creating content and providing local news, sports, and educational programs for the middle Tennessee region.
Faculty advisors, including Dan Eschenfelder, Christine Eschenfelder, Keonte Coleman, and Chris Bacon, work with students in the MTN newsroom and the classroom. Student staffers participate by taking contributing classes, such as Video Journalism Practices, Video Reporting and Editing, and News Producing, as well as practicum courses.
Students report, produce, and anchor live-streaming newscasts at 5 p.m. on Mondays and Wednesdays, along with contributing to the website (middletennesseenews.net). “I get excited every Monday and Wednesday when I know that I am about to put together a newscast with an amazing crew,” said senior Kristi Jones, an MTN manager, anchor, reporter, producer, and assignment manager. “I love the people that I work with and the content that we are able to create in such a short amount of time. I cannot wait to use what I have learned in this newsroom in my future career.”
MTSU students with an interest in sports also produce a 30-minute weekly sports show, Blue Raider Extra Point, which airs on True Blue TV every Saturday in the fall semester at 10:30 a.m. In spring 2021, MTN sports journalists launched live streaming coverage and play-by-play of MTSU tennis and produced an interactive special when the Blue Raider men’s tennis team achieved an impressive streak of 25 home wins.
MTN News covered the 2020 election with three livestreaming news cut-ins and newscasts, paying special attention to local races in seven counties within a 40-mile radius. Students also produced a special report on the 100th anniversary of the first radio broadcast, which won a 2021 national award of excellence from the Broadcast Education Association and a silver in the Telly Awards, and an MTN special and website for the 75th anniversary of D-Day as part of a study abroad that won Best of Show at the 2019 Tennessee Student Associated Press awards.
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