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This story originally appeared in the Jackson Free Press. It was added to the Mississippi Free Press website in 2025.
Note that any opinions expressed in legacy Jackson Free Press stories do not reflect a position of the Mississippi Free Press or necessarily of its staff and board members.

Previous Comments

Yay to YMP! The first video is online (above). Great work, guys. Watch for more soon!


Fabulous! I love it!


Our summer college intern class helped them, too, as did filmmaker Jef Judin, JAHSPA member (and now new JFP assistant editor) Lacey McLaughlin and others. But they did most of this themselves, led by Treshika Melvin, who just graduated from Jim Hill. They are so inspiring! We plan to continue the project year-round should any of you know young people who would like to be involved. Open to any teen in Jackson who is willing to roll up their sleeves and get involved. Long live the YMP! Their blog here: http://www.youthmediaproject.com


i’ve been showing the webisode to everyone. i get tingly every time it switches from stills to video clips. you all are awesome.


Hey all you aspiring filmmakers, I’m a journalism student from Syracuse University, and we’re offering $2,000 in prizes for webisodes exploring young people’s relationship to technology. Check it out: www.thewirelesscontest.com All you have to do is make a 2-3 minute soap-opera style video on how technology has impacted your life, and upload it to http://www.youtube.com/group/youngandthewireless before December 31st, 2009. Thanks for spreading the word, Jennifer

Mississippi native Donna Ladd and partner Todd Stauffer founded the Jackson Free Press in 2002 in the capital city. The heavily awarded local newspaper did many investigations heralded across the state and nation and served as a paper of record due to its diversity, inclusion, in-depth reporting and deep connection to readers and dedication to narrative change in and about Mississippi. In 2022, the nonprofit Mississippi Free Press, founded by Ladd and JFP Associate Publisher Kimberly Griffin in 2020, purchased the journalism assets and archives of the Jackson Free Press. A Google grant through AAN Publishers enabled Newspack's integration of the JFP archives into the Mississippi Free Press website to become part of a more searchable archive of recent Mississippi history and essential journalism.