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Daily Mississippian photo editor wins second place in Sports Action category of Atlanta Photojournalism Seminar contest

Posted on: January 4th, 2023 by ldrucker
HG Biggs in action photographing a sporting event.

HG Biggs in action photographing a sporting event. Submitted art. Photo by Thomas Graning.

The Daily Mississippian photo editor took home impressive honors in the Sports Action category of the Atlanta Photojournalism Seminar contest.

Jackson native Hannah Grace Biggs, 21, was named a second place winner competing against a pool of many professional photographers while attending the November event with Michael Fagans, a University of Mississippi School of Journalism and New Media assistant professor of journalism. Bigg’s winning photo was a shot of the women’s steeplechase taken at the SEC Track and Field Championships last spring.

“I was shocked that any of my work placed, because the majority of people who submit work for the competition are professional photojournalists,” Biggs said. “I was very honored because my work was placed alongside work by photographers for Getty Images and other news organizations.”

HG Biggs winning second place photo.

HG Biggs’ winning second place photo. Submitted art.

Biggs is a junior majoring in Chinese in the language flagship program and minoring in intelligence and security studies and chemistry. She is also an ambassador in the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College.

She said she became involved in photography after seeing a working photographer “in the wild” at her little brothers’ T-ball games in the early 2010s.

“Somewhere on an old computer hard drive are awful photos taken through a rusty chain link fence at youth baseball fields in Jackson,” she said. “My mom was gifted the camera by her parents to take photos of myself and my brothers, but she was never happy with her photos. So, I picked up the camera around fourth grade and started shooting photos.”

When Biggs enrolled in the University of Mississippi, she thought she might get lost in the crowd, but she reached out to then DM Photo Editor Billy Scheurman who hired her as a staff photographer.

“Spring semester of my freshman year, Billy told me that he was leaving The DM for an internship with Athletics and that he wanted me to take over his position,” she said. “I was shocked, but of course, I accepted the job, and here we are.”

HG Biggs with a group of other sports photographers.

HG Biggs with a group of sports photographers. Submitted art. Photo is courtesy Randy J. and features the photographers who shot the Egg Bowl last year.

The university’s Student Media Center (SMC) is open to all majors on campus and students who have a passion for photography or video, writing or audio storytelling, social media, design or sales are all welcome to check it out.

“I like to think of the SMC as the place where many of our students find their people. Tucked away in Bishop Hall is this spot where a very diverse group of students comes together to express their creativity and to share news and information that matters to the community,” said Dr. Deb Wenger, associate dean in the School of Journalism and New Media. “I hope someone reading this will decide to check it out and be a part of this wonderful student experience.”

Biggs said she faced challenges during her sophomore year, but found comfort in a group of sports photographers who became her friends and mentors.

“I will never forget leaving the Tulane game that season at 2 a.m. with (photographers) Thomas Graning and Rogelio Solis,” she said. “Rogelio looked me straight in the eyes and told me, ‘You’re one of us now,’ and that he and the other photographers had my back, should I ever need them.

HG Biggs stands on the field.

HG Biggs stands on the field. Submitted art. Photo by Logan Kirkland.

“Before that fall, no one had ever explicitly told me I belonged somewhere before, and I truly believe I owe my life to the photographers I saw (almost) every Saturday in the media workroom under Vaught-Hemingway (or whichever stadium to which the football team traveled).”

Biggs said she has never been great at expressing emotions through words, but realized she could put all the love she has for people into her photography.

“Much of my work for The Daily Mississippian has been sports-related,” she said, “but, as a result, I have been contacted for freelance work for various departments at the university and to shoot senior portraits. I really enjoy the opportunities photography gives me to connect with people, even if I am anxious about first approaching people as a journalist. As Professor Fagans and others have told me, ‘The camera is just an excuse to talk to people.'”

The Atlanta conference was one of the most valuable experiences of her college career, Biggs said.

“I had the opportunity to listen to, speak with, and be critiqued by some of the most incredible photojournalists and photo editors currently working in the field,” she said.

They included Marcus Yam, “who is known for his work covering wildfires in California and abroad in Afghanistan,” Biggs said.

She also met Paul Kitagaki Jr., “who spent years finding, speaking with, and photographing survivors of the World War II Japanese internment camps in the U.S.”

HG Biggs in action photographing a sporting event.

HG Biggs in action photographing a sporting event. Submitted art. Photo by Logan Kirkland.

Biggs said portfolio critiques were helpful.

“While hearing critiques is often difficult, I did feel validated that I have chosen the right career path,” she said. “I have reached a point where I can take and want strong critiques, and the seminar was the ideal place to find people willing to do so. It means more to students than I can describe that there are people in the field willing to take the time out of their busy schedules to mentor us and critique our portfolios.”

Biggs said she came back to the University of Mississippi with enthusiasm.

“I returned to Oxford feeling revitalized to study because I know I have chosen a career path into which I am willing to pour all of the love and passion I can,” she said.

This story was written by LaReeca Rucker.

Former CBS journalist to join University of Mississippi School of Journalism and New Media as visiting professor

Posted on: September 9th, 2021 by ldrucker

A veteran, award-winning journalist, who has worked as a White House correspondent for CBS and as a reporter in Mississippi and throughout the U. S., will soon join the University of Mississippi School of Journalism and New Media faculty as a visiting professor.

Randall Pinkston will teach a course in international reporting after his arrival in January.

“Prof. Pinkston will bring a level of expertise and experience to our school that only someone who has operated at the highest levels of the profession can contribute,” said Interim Dean Debora Wenger. “He has covered plane crashes and presidents, wars and severe weather — the skills he developed as a reporter and anchor — from Jackson, Mississippi to the CBS Evening News, Randall is just the guy that some of our most talented students need to learn from. We are delighted to have him in our classrooms.”

Pinkston was born in Yazoo County. He grew up in Jackson and attended public schools. He was also an active member of Mt. Helm Missionary Baptist Church in Jackson, and he participated in school organizations at Rowan Junior High and Lanier Senior High.

Randall Pinkston

Randall Pinkston

He attended Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut and transferred to Millsaps after the death of his father.

“I majored in history, intending to go to law school,” he said. “My father’s minister, the Rev. Wendell P. Taylor of Central United Methodist Church, suggested that I apply for a news trainee position at WLBT-TV. I was not accepted as a trainee, but did receive a job offer as a part-time announcer on WLBT’s sister station, WJDX-FM.”

Pinkston’s work at the radio station, while attending Millsaps, eventually led to a part-time job in the news department, as a weekend and 10 p.m. anchor and reporter.

After graduating from Millsaps, he attended a summer training program for minority journalists at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He later returned to Jackson and was promoted to 6 p.m. anchor at WLBT, becoming the first Black anchor of a major newscast at the #1 station in Mississippi

Today, Pinkston is a widely respected journalist who has worked in local and network news for more than four decades. He joined CBS as a White House correspondent and later was a general assignment reporter covering national and international stories. Along the way he also earned a J. D. from the University of Connecticut School of Law.

Since retiring, Pinkston has taught journalism at Stony Brook University in New York, City University of New York and Morgan State University in Maryland.

Pinkston has also taught classes at UM. Throughout his career as an educator, he has taught media performance, communications law and ethics, financial reporting and international reporting.

“As a journalist and a Mississippian, I consider it an honor and privilege to be invited to serve as a visiting professor at the state’s ‘premier university’,” he said. “Based on my professional background and my experience as an instructor, I think I can assist students in preparing for careers in journalism and related fields. My goal is to provide students with instruction and exercises that will give them tools they use on the job. Overall, I hope to enhance their educational experience.”

Pinkston will also serve as an advisor for NewsWatch Ole Miss, the student-run TV news program produced from the S. Gale Denley Student Media Center, and he has been named as a fellow in the Overby Center for Southern Journalism and Politics.

To learn more about the School of Journalism & New Media’s programs, please visit  jnm.olemiss.edu or email jour-imc@olemiss.edu

AP reporter Emily Wagster Pettus wins Silver Em award

Posted on: March 31st, 2019 by ldrucker

The Silver Em Awards Ceremony was held Wednesday, April 3, at the Inn at Ole Miss, the same evening dozens of journalism and integrated marketing communication students received awards for excellence.

Emily Wagster Pettus, who has been reporting on Mississippi government since 1994, was selected as the 2018 Silver Em winner.

As news staffs shrink across the country, state government reporters like Pettus have become an endangered species. Those who remain in the role understand the importance of their work in our democracy.

Emily Wagster Pettus

“When there are fewer news outlets sending local reporters to cover the state capitol, there is less coverage of local issues considered by the Legislature,” she said.

Pettus, who grew up in Texas, spent a year between high school and college as an exchange student in West Germany, then attended the University of Mississippi, majoring in journalism and German. She graduated in 1989 and worked for nearly a year at the Vicksburg Evening Post.

In May 1990, she began working for The Clarion-Ledger as the Rankin County reporter. Two years later, she moved to Ocean Springs in 1992 to work as the newspaper’s one-person Gulf Coast bureau reporter.

“It was a great job because my editors were hours away and they trusted me to cover the biggest stories in the region,” Pettus said.

During the fall of 1993, Pettus was on loan from The Clarion-Ledger to USA TODAY in Virginia, working as a copy editor for the international edition of USAT. In 1994, she was back in Jackson working as a legislative reporter for The Clarion-Ledger.

She began working for the Associated Press in January of 2001 covering mostly Mississippi politics. Pettus said she’s aware the job is particularly important during challenging times for news organizations.

The latest Pew Research Center study about statehouse reporters found that there were around 1,500 U.S. journalists who work to inform the public about the actions and issues of state government. Of those, nearly half do it full time, averaging 15 full-time reporters per state, even though numbers vary per state, often depending on population.

Emily Wagster Pettus during a recent Overby Center program about Mississippi Politics.

“I always think it’s better having more reporters covering state government, obviously, to hold the government accountable to the general public,” Pettus said. “In Mississippi, we used to have a full-time press corps of eight people. That declined a while, but it has actually gone back up in the last couple of years.”

Pettus estimates the number of Mississippi statehouse reporters is equal to the Pew Research Center study’s national average of 15 per state.

The Pew study also reported:

  • Fewer than a third of U.S. newspapers assign any kind of reporter – full time or part time – to the statehouse.
  • A majority of local TV news stations – 86 percent – do not assign even one reporter – full or part time – to the statehouse.
  • About one in six, or 16 percent, of all statehouse reporters work for nontraditional outlets, such as digital-only sites and non-profit organizations.
  • Students account for 14 percent of statehouse reporters.
  • Around 9 percent of all state legislative reporters work for wire services like Pettus. The majority of wire service reporters work for the AP.

While her main responsibility has been covering Mississippi government – (you can read her observations in real time at the hashtag #msleg on Twitter) – Pettus said she has covered a variety of stories.

“One of the greatest things about having a general assignment job is I’ve gotten to cover some interesting civil rights stories,” she said. “In 2005, I covered the trial of Edgar Ray Killen, who was convicted for the 1964 killings of civil rights activists James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner in Neshoba County. In 2007, I covered the federal trial of (Ku Klux Klan member) James Ford Seale, who was convicted in the kidnapping that led to the death of two young black men, Charles Eddie Moore and Henry Hezekiah Dee, in Southwest Mississippi, also in 1964.”

Pettus said she is honored to be among other Silver Em award winners and proud she spent part of her career working for UM’s campus newspaper The Daily Mississippian and The Oxford Eagle.

Will Norton, Ph.D., dean of the UM School of Journalism and New Media, said Pettus is smart, a hard worker, and a terrific reporter.

“She has more than a quarter of a century experience,” Norton said. “She has devoted herself to covering Mississippi. She has reported in-depth, on deadline and always accurately . . . Emily is a person of integrity. She can be trusted.”

Curtis Wilkie, Overby Fellow and assistant professor of journalism, agrees that Pettus has earned the trust of her readers.

“She is one of the best reporters around and has been for as long as she has been reporting, quickly and reliably, all the news out of Mississippi for the Associated Press,” he said.

The Silver Em award dates to 1958, and recipients must be Mississippians with notable journalism careers or journalists with notable careers in Mississippi.

This article was written by LaReeca Rucker. For more information about the University of Mississippi School of Journalism and New Media’s programs, email jour-imc@olemiss.edu.