Clay Jackson. Communication: Broadcast and Digital Journalism

My name is Clay Jackson and I’m a Senior at Mississippi State. I’m a communication major with a focus in Broadcasting and Digital Journalism. The decision for me to choose this major was simple because I wanted to do something in sports. I thought this would be one of the best ways for me to get into that field. Although I’ve always known my career would be in sports someway, it was quite the journey to get here.

Here’s a little background of myself that will help with understanding what I meant by quite the journey. I graduated high school in 2014 with no idea of what I wanted to study, so I decided to go the junior college route. During my two years there I took some business classes because there was nothing I wanted to take there and couldn’t continue taking “the basics.” I left there without a degree and still no idea what I was going to do. In the fall of 2016, I transferred to another community college where I graduated in a year and a half with an associate degree in business management technology.

I finally thought I knew what I wanted to do but also knew it wasn’t something I was loving but I was good at it. From there I transferred to Mississippi University for Women. I was there for one and a half years, and I was one semester, two classes, away from graduating. That’s when I realized I hated what I was doing and could not see myself doing that for my career. That was in the spring semester of 2018, it was at that point where I chose to work instead of finishing school. I was promoted to full time Assistant Pro at the golf course I was working at, and school was not something on my mind ever and I never considered even going back to finish. I was really happy, and I had a job I loved. Those were some of the best times of my life. It was in fall of 2021 that I decided to go back to school.

I won’t go into detail about what made me want to go back to school and get my degree. I enrolled that next spring semester and have loved almost every minute of it since. Going back and pursing this degree has been one of the best things I’ve ever done. In doing so, I have finally found what I want to do with my career. I have learned many things that I many things that I can use not only in my work life but also in my personal life.

There are a few things in this concentration that I have grown to love to do. Learning how to use video cameras, shooting videos and editing videos are by far my most favorite thing I have learned. There is so much that goes into those things that before school I had no idea and took for granted. I have come to appreciate those things much more

Another thing I really liked to learn about was photography and editing pictures. That was something I was very unsure of and uncomfortable with doing. After taking that class I take my camera everywhere I go. Now I am always editing pictures and playing around with edits in my spare time. That was something I never thought I would like to do or wanted to learn to do.

There have been quite a few projects I have had to do that I have really enjoyed. It is hard to just pick one project, but I enjoyed having to do local stories and shoot, film and edit everything together. My favorite story I have done so far would be the story I did on the Starkville cross being built. That was by far the most stressful one I had to do too. From having two other stories cancel on me to staying up until three in the morning to getting it done before the deadline at nine that morning, it was super stressful but is something I’m super proud of.

If I had to choose which I liked the most between writing, photography or video, then I would choose video. Although I like all of them, video is what I have had the most fun doing. There are countless videos I have made during my time at Mississippi State and I don’t think that is something I will ever get tired of doing. Writing might be my next favorite, learning how to write scripts has been very challenging but has also been one of my favorite things I have learned about of.

When asked about my career plans I now know exactly what I want that to look like. While going to school I have also been working for HailState Productions, doing live sports. That is what I want to continue to do once I graduate. There is still much I want to learn working with them but now know that I want to direct and produce live sports.

Email me at cmj313@msstate.edu with any questions