Kellen Walker Communication: Broadcast and Digital Journalism

My name is Kellen Walker and I am a 21-year-old senior at Mississippi State University. I am majoring in Communication with a concentration in Broadcast Journalism. I was born in Starkville and have lived here my entire life, so attending Mississippi State was always in the back of my mind.

As I applied for college and was accepted, my original choice of concentration was Public Relations within the Communication department. However, as I got halfway through my degree, I realized that PR wasn’t what I was looking for as far as a degree. I concluded that I was much more interested in the broadcasting and writing side of the media.

Over the last two years, I have overall loved my decision to change my concentration to Broadcast Journalism. I learned how to code in Digital Communication, how to use a Canon camera in Photographic Communication, and how to film and produce news packages in TV Production. These classes have opened my eyes to a side of media that I wasn’t fully aware that I was interested in.

My favorite project I have worked on in college was in Advanced TV Production, where my group was assigned to produce a full 15-minute news block to air for the teacher in the Take 30 News studio. I was assigned a role in the control room, helping make sure the broadcast ran smoothly behind the scenes. It was then that I realized that I genuinely enjoyed working in the control room.

I also really liked building my own website in Digital Communication. Learning code was something I never really thought about prior to attending the class, but I ended up enjoying it a lot. While it isn’t something that I have thought about pursuing a career in, coding is a valuable skill that can be plugged into a potential career in the future.

Another project I really enjoyed was filming a music video for Music Video Production. We traveled to several different locations to get B-roll and different shots of the artist, Lauren Lindsay, reciting her song, “Feather”. After the footage was gathered and uploaded to the hard drive, everyone in the class put together their own edits for her music video. I was proud of what I produced in the end and was able to get a positive review of my initial edit.

Out of writing, photography, and video, I would say my favorite is writing. I am currently a student writer with Mississippi State Athletics and have covered just about every sport. While I have learned how to film and take pictures on camera, I have developed more writing skills than anything else, and it is what I am mostly comfortable with.

In this class, I am interested in learning about all different facets of the media. I would like to become more proficient at Photoshop and Dreamweaver. While I have used them in the past, I want to become more comfortable with using both in the projects we have this semester.

As far as a potential career, I have been leaning towards the sports media field. As I grew up, I wanted to be a sports commentator, but over the years I’ve learned that there’s many other options that interest me. While being a commentator one day does seem to be my ultimate goal, there are other potential paths that could be taken.

Recently, I toured WCBI in Columbus with Broadcast Capstone, and we got to witness a live show. While it was all cool, my favorite part of it all was the control room. The behind-the-scenes of the broadcast really caught my attention, and I can see myself working in a control room in the future, whether that be for the news or for something else. Overall, I am very excited to see what the future has in store for me after I graduate from Mississippi State.

Email me at kww95@msstate.edu with any questions