Live from Your Newsroom

By: Alexa Ovington & Alonna Gibbs

One group of Georgia Southern students started an all student led newscast for students on campus in September called 'Your Newsroom'.

A team of 18 students, including Junior Journalism major, Andy Cole, came up with the idea to create a news cast and YouTube channel to give Georgia Southern students the opportunity to view news from a students standpoint.

Your Newsroom is a student led media outlet that was jumpstarted by The George-Anne Media Group. The award-winning show is focused on giving news to students through the medium of social media. Your Newsroom has been an 11-month process that came to life on September 1, according to Executive Producer and Chief Anchor Andy Cole.

Junior Multimedia Journalism major Andy Cole has known since he was in grade school that he wanted to be an television anchor. During the 11-month process that Cole and his team went through, they went through avenues to bring it to life.

Each Wednesday a 7-10 minute news story is published onto their Youtube channel. Erin Ware is a Junior Multimedia Journalism major and the Newsroom's Anchor and Scriptwriter alludes to the process of what it takes for the group to come up with news stories. "Each week we all pitch three stories and we all meet to pick the best ones out of the three to cover", said Ware.

With little to no help from faculty, these students solely produce their own daily content for their viewers. They write, interview, film, produce, and publish stories covering news around the Georgia Southern's campus and in surrounding areas. President Kyle Marrero fully supports what the students of Your Newsroom is doing for the campus.

Your Newsroom is currently in their first season of production and during the 11-month process of trying to jumpstart the program, they received full university funding in February of 2021. While speaking to the Executive Producer, "on record" he plans on passing the torch to future students who are seeking careers in multimedia journalism.

The success of the show has gained publicity quickly. The new media outlet has won first place for video newscast in the College Media Association Film and Audio awards for their first episode. They also received second place for best broadcast news program in the Associated Collegiate Press Best of Show Awards. Your Newsroom has gained recognition from members of the journalism industry that highlights the work that they have been doing.

Your Newsroom would like to highlight that they are nationally neck and neck with Baylor University's Journalism Program. The media outlet has gained recognition from two journalist that are in the industry. "The show that @imandycole has built out of Georgia Southern is impressive as a student production I have seen," said Royce Dickerson, Executive Producer for Madden Competitive Streaming.

The media outlet has gained recognition of an Augusta News Operation Manager. "I guess I should have been looking at The George-Anne media group for future news room professionals instead of through the actual communications department because y'all have it GOING ON", said News Operations Manager Kathy Wideman of WJBF-TV Augusta.

Both Ware and Cole both have plans to go into the broadcast news industry upon their respective graduation dates.

Despite their fairly recent beginning, they already have 586 followers on their Instagram account. Students, faculty, staff and community members can keep up with their productions through Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and the George-Anne.