Ivy Rose Ball. Communication: Print and Digital Journalism

Hello! My name is Ivy Rose. I am a 5th-year senior majoring in communication and concentrating in print and digital journalism. I have been a photography intern for Mississippi State Athletics since August 2022, and I have been the editor-in-chief of the Reflector, MSU’s student newspaper, since April 2024.

I love the print and digital journalism concentration because of the depth and flexibility it offers. Unlike broadcast journalism, print and digital journalism often allows for more context, nuance and time to explore complex issues. I enjoy the process of digging deeper into a subject and writing stories that give readers a fuller understanding of the people and issues involved.

One of my favorite projects is a feature I wrote for the Reflector on former MSU professor Brent Funderburk, who received the Governor’s Art Award for Excellence in Visual Arts and Education in 2024. When I interviewed and wrote about him, it didn’t feel like work at all, and I was able to learn a lot and see how passionate he truly is about art. I also felt like the photos I took to go alongside that feature perfectly captured his spirit.

I also enjoy writing hard news. Working at the Reflector places me in a unique position to report on national, state and local issues through the lens of Mississippi State students.

In November, I was able to write about a lawsuit that Mississippi State University’s Fostering LGBTQ+ Advocacy, Resources, and Environments (F.L.A.R.E.) joined as plaintiffs. In talking with the club’s president and its advisor, I was able to understand and communicate the practical impact that DEI laws are having on individuals and their organizations.

While I enjoy writing, photography and photojournalism is my favorite form of media and the field that I hope to go into when I graduate. With photography, I feel I am able to capture the raw beauty of everyday, candid moments in a way that I can not with words.

I got my first camera when I was in high school, and became a staff photographer for the Reflector in 2021, during my freshman year. Since then, I have grown in both skill and love for the craft, particularly through my work at Mississippi State Athletics.

Working as a sports photographer has allowed me more access to candid, emotional moments than I could find in almost any other field. The skills I have learned through doing sports, like adaptability, have also helped me improve my non-sports photography.

Through this multimedia journalism class, I hope to learn how to combine different elements of media to tell more complete stories. I think that each form of media is able to capture elements that the others are not, and I am excited to practice combining them. I also hope to learn some more of the coding aspects that we see in multimedia stories that have scroll effects. I think even the way information is presented as a page online can impact how the reader processes it, and I enjoy looking at some of the award-winning web stories from the Society of News Design.

After college, I hope to continue doing photography at the university level, either for a university’s public affairs office or through another athletic department. I also want to continue writing and doing photojournalism on the side.

Email me at irb38@msstate.edu with any questions