Colorado Mesa University celebrated its 27th Annual Media Day last Monday. Media Day was planned over the course of two months by the Public Relations Club. This day was planned by the three members of the PR club: Ciera Colson, Alexis Dymek and Sienna Shupe.
Late Sunday night, Colson and Megan Fromm, the advisors of the club, were still working on last minute preparations for the event. There were many barriers these women went through in the last week, such as having to find last minute replacements for guest speakers who couldn’t make it.
Media Day began with registration around 8 a.m. for 10 schools from all around the Western Slope. Media Day’s purpose is to help students understand media at a collegiate level. It is also designed to give school newspapers feedback for their work. After registration, the event began with a Twitter game that consisted of the PR team asking questions and the students tweeting the answers to Colson. Each student who answered correctly got a prize that represented CMU. Shortly after the game, the information sessions began, along with a tour of the campus and the mass communication equipment available for students. The event ended with a short ceremony after lunch.
“It’s definitely been one of the greatest experiences that I’ve had at CMU. Being involved in an institutional event I think has given me more practice as to what I want to do in the future,” Colson said. “I would say media day ended up being very successful.”
The PR team looked forward to this event for months and had hoped to have a bigger turnout than in the past years. In order to accomplish this, they had a lot of planning to do. They had to utilize their social media and website to more effectively reach out to schools and students.
“It was really stressful to make sure that everything that was in plan was set forth, but I think that everything I have learned this far in terms of being a student at CMU has really applied to everything it took to plan media day,” Dymek said
Media Day is not only an opportunity for high school students to learn about media at a collegiate level, but also for CMU students to put all their skills into play. From here on out, Colson would like the PR club to have more interaction within their social media in order to reach other audiences beyond CMU students.
“It was hectic for the last two weeks as we got closer, but It was amazing. What I gained from it was a more real world application of everything that we learned in class with our degree. We got to incorporate design, public relations, social media and other things like that. We got to really apply what we’ve learned,” Shupe said.
Students got to tour the campus and, after touring, some students stated more interest in media and CMU. The biggest impact during the tour was Escalante Building because of the mass communication equipment.
“I feel like Bryce [Reedy] and Joe [Azar] were essential to this media day. I think they kind of volunteered their time and we didn’t ask them to. I asked them to join us in a session, but they took their own time and gave more in depth tours to the local high school students, and I feel like that should definitely be a requirement that both give tours,” Colson said.
The awards ceremony, which consisted of lots of different categories, such as best yearbook and best newspaper/magazine, was a way for the students to get a praise for their work. Many schools walked away with a certificate. However, Montrose High School walked away with first place in the best newspaper/magazine category, and Montezuma Cortez High School won best yearbook.
“Media day has expanded my views of media in higher education, and it has opened my eyes within journalism and photojournalism,” Cody Cass, a junior from Palisade High School, said.
Colson, Dymek and Shupe are very happy Media Day is over, but are pleased with the turnout at the event. They have many plans to improve next year’s Media Day. The PR club will also be hosting a few more events before the end of the semester.
