Meek School Professor Spends Summer Learning

Ole Miss intern Taylor Leatherwood of Long Beach and Dr. Nancy Dupont in the WLOX newsroom.

Professor Nancy Dupont spent part of her summer immersing herself in TV news as part of a Mississippi Association of Broadcasters Faculty Fellowship at WLOX in Biloxi.

She spent a week in the newsroom, sharpening her skills in writing, reporting and videography.”It was great to be at WLOX because that’s where I began my professional career 40 years ago, and some of my coworkers are still working there.  But the most valuable part of the fellowship was meeting the young journalists who’ve agreed to help Meek students succeed,” Professor Dupont said.  “These young people are thriving in a challenging new media environment our students will face in a few years.”

Some of the journalists agreed to come to Oxford to speak to classes, while others offered to do live internet video conferences in the coming semesters.  Christina Garcia is the new 6 and 10 o’clock primary anchor at WLOX-TV in Biloxi, but her path to an on-air job is somewhat unusual.  The way she did it may be the best example of what is required for success in a 21st century newsroom.

She studied print journalism at the University of South Alabama, interned at WKRG in Mobile and was hired as an online producer at WLOX in 2011.  Since then, she learned every job in the newsroom by any means possible, making herself an extremely valuable employee.  Her advice to students is as unique as her career.

Christina is so busy that we had to talk to her while she was putting on makeup for the 6’clock show with Meteorologist Mike Reader.

–Meek School of Journalism and New Media