Texas State students discuss campus media experience

(L-R) Derick Garcia, Anyssa Bohanan, Lindsay Medina. Photo by Myriann Harden

By Myriann Harden

Three students discussed the many campus media outlets at Texas State University, Tuesday afternoon in Old Main.

Derick Garcia, Anyssa Bohanan and Lindsay Medina, discussed how they got involved in campus media, and how working with campus media will help them with future careers.

Garcia works with KTSW, the student radio station at Texas State. He got involved with KTSW after transferring to Texas State from The University of Texas at Brownsville. He wanted to come to Texas State after hearing about the Mass Communication department. When he first started at the station he worked in every department, including: production, promotion, on air staff and news reporting.

“It was a good experience, because I was able to find out what I really want to do, and where I excel at best,” said Garcia.

Bohanan works with Bobcat Update and KTSW. She interned at The University Star her first semester at Texas State and became a reporter the next. After working at the Star, Bohanan got involved with KTSW. She currently co-hosts a radio program once-a-week on KTSW. Bohanan also works at Bobcat Update. Bohanan said she gives her director story ideas and if he approves one, she immediately goes out with a photographer and films the story.

“Working at Bobcat Update is like working in a baby newsroom,” said Bohanan

Medina started working at The University Star when she first started at Texas State. She worked as a news reporter. Medina said that she wanted to come to Texas State since she was in high school. She worked at her high school newspaper and has always enjoyed journalism. Medina feels like working in campus media is really beneficial because it gives students more experience than their competitors.

“It is nice to have the upper hand,” said Medina.

All three panelists said that working in campus media helped them in their internships. They were able to handle all the work involved in their internships because of what they learned working in campus media.

“It has been like a parallel universe all semester, I feel like what I learned at Bobcat Update, I use at my internship,” said Bohanan.

Reyna Caraveo, a electronic media major, said this panel was very helpful to her, even though she already is part of campus media at KTSW. She said she learned more about Bobcat Update that she did not know before.

“I am going to have to do Bobcat Update next semester so I learned more about that and how it helps you grow,” said Caraveo.

All the panelist agreed that their experience with campus media helped them with not only getting internships, but also with confidence in reporting, dealing with criticism, and having experience working with people in general.