You may know that I grew up in Mississippi, but left the day after I got my political-science degree from Mississippi State University. I hightailed
“We were far luckier than some in our world because capital-area folks still liked the feel of newsprint in their hands, so the decline in print revenue was slower, giving us time to plan our next act,” Kimberly Griffin writes.
Mississippi Youth Media Project students are full-time, paid journalists working in their downtown Jackson, Miss., newsroom during the YMP summer programs. New Program Manager Melishia Grayson is an educator who came of age mentored by Dr. Bob Moses at Lanier High School to believe that young people can and need to use their own voices to shape new media narratives about themselves—and bring solutions to their communities. Enrollment for the 2023 summer programs is open now.
“Kimberly and I have assembled a team at the Mississippi Free Press who aren’t easily fooled, who believe in difficult proactive reporting, and who report causes and then solutions,” Donna Ladd writes. “Our team is not lured by the two-way horserace model that lets so much vital reporting slip through the cracks and helps ingrain the kinds of public and media ignorance that led us to this moment. We don’t bow to politicians or parties of any stripe, and we work to anticipate the story, not scramble to catch up later.
As someone told me last week in Los Angeles: ‘The MFP model must spread.'”
Mississippi Journalism and Education Group is a a 501(c)(3) nonprofit media organization (EIN 85-1403937) for the state, devoted to going beyond partisanship and publishing solutions journalism for the Magnolia State and all of its people.
125 S. Congress Street #1324
Jackson, MS 39201
info@mississippifreepress.org
tips@mississippifreepress.org
events@mississippifreepress.org
601-362-6121
The Mississippi Free Press is a project of the Mississippi Journalism and Education Group, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit journalism organization (EIN 85-1403937).
