MSU students participate in Mountain Workshops

The Morehead Conference Center displayed the work of over 90 visual artists who came to Rowan County to document the faces of Morehead, among them were three of Morehead State’s own students.  

The 42nd annual Mountain Workshops, hosted by Western Kentucky University, gave convergent media majors Addie Hogan, Jacob Lindberg and Julianna Leach the opportunity to work with fellow journalists on photo editing and data reporting.  

“We like to say there’s more to photojournalism than just taking a picture, the more depth and understanding you have about a community the better you can do,” John Flavell, journalism instructor at MSU said. “This is really in-depth stuff and it was really intense for them.”  

What started out as a class field trip over four decades ago grew into one of the nation’s largest one-week training camps for visual storytelling.  

Jacob Lindberg, a near-lifetime resident of Morehead, said the workshops were an interesting look at his hometown through several different pairs of eyes.

“It was intriguing to see how journalists from across the country (and beyond) saw my hometown and which people and places they would focus on.”

The workshops help develop skills of college students and mid-career professionals in photography, photo editing, visual storytelling and data visualization while also documenting a town, its people and the surrounding countryside.

“My experience with the Mountain Workshop was over all a very rewarding one, it gave me the opportunity to work with a bunch of amazing photographers as well as gain insight on how deep the world of documentary photography can go,” said Leach, photo editor at Mountain Workshops.

Addie Hogan, who worked with data visualization alongside Lindberg, expanded on many of her skills through the workshops. “It showed me a bunch of different aspects of journalism that I never really thought of before,” said Hogan.  

Convergent media is a combination of traditional journalism, broadcasting and audio/video production. Students are provided hands-on experience from the beginning.  

“I would describe convergent media as a melting pot of all types of media,” Leach said. “Convergent media really gives you a broad range of options, but you can focus yourself within that.”  

More information about the Mountain Workshops can be found at www.mountainworkshops.org.  

For more information about MSU's convergent media and other programs, visit www.moreheadstate.edu/cml.