Kensington Brandenburg. Communication: Broadcast and Digital Journalism

I originally chose B&DJ because I wanted to be just like Erin Andrew’s, a sideline reporter for the NFL. It wasn’t until she came to Starkville and talked about the job that I was completely turned off. She gave up her best friends weddings and having kids for the gig, and wasn’t anywhere near where she is now. I realized that our priorities were not the same, and I would never have the passion that she had for the job. Not to mention making packages in class become one of my least favorite things.

With that being said I had to make a new game plan. I kept the major and changed the career pursuit. Since the degree is overall communication that has a lot of job opportunities, right? I quickly learned that I didn’t enjoy the concentration. I struggled with using cameras and I dreaded finding stories to cover for assignments. I learned that I liked, however, the media side of things. Understanding consumer behavior and trends, editing clips and audio. With that in mind, I understood that social media marketing would be a much better option for me.

I did learn to like the writing side, my mom is a fiction author so it’s in my blood. I was thankful that my classes taught me to use Adobe services because even though I couldn’t figure out how to get it to click in my brain, I felt like it was necessary to know for future jobs. Now, I looks for jobs in digital strategy and media marketing. I want to do something beneficial to people, to make a difference in businesses and have a job that matters.

I am also minoring in Spanish and religion, which I feel will boost my resume. I love the religion side so much, that I am accepted to Liberty University online in the Fall to begin my Masters in Divinity. I’m not sure what I will do with that just yet but I do see myself in ministry one day. My favorite project from all of college was a paper I wrote about the importance and benefits of taking a sabbath.

I’m hoping that in my future career, it will involve ministry, but am choosing to continue my education in that because ultimately I want to have kids one day, and I want to be equipped to teach them about the Bible. It’s important for myself that I study Divinity and Theology, and I find the content very interesting.

Like I said before, I do like writing a lot. I work for The Reflector which I enjoy as well. I have some articles and pages that I am proud of. For my journalism and broadcasting classes, I really have no projects that I am proud of. I will probably never think twice about those, I am just glad to have the classes over with.

For multimedia journalism, I am looking forward to learning about adding writing and visual elements together. I think that in some way, shape, or form, it will help me with a future career in digital marketing. I think that the multimedia news stories we are reading are really interesting and I love the artistic and creative side of merging everything together. If I could go back to freshmen year, I would have picked marketing as my major or the PR concentration, but B&DJ is still fun. I am looking forward to learning in this class and seeing what new skills will benefit me in my future career.

While at Mississippi State, I have had the opportunity to do some fun things related to my concentration. Since I started out wanting to work in sports, I do work some games for the Reflector, and I did media strategy as an internship my sophomore year. I also interned for Sports Illustrated, writing and publishing articles for the FanNation website, and I interned for a company back home in Franklin, TN, doing social media marketing for a small apparel company.

Through having experimented with experience in multiple realms of media and B&DJ, I think my future career is not in the news. I do not want to be writing news stories or having to go film packages. I do not enjoy photography with complex cameras or filming with cameras. I do like capturing and sharing moments on my phone. Planning behind the scenes for marketing, and doing creative things to benefit other people.

Email me at khb133@msstate.edu with any questions