BHSU will host a Media Blitz day March 28 for students of all ages

The BHSU Media Blitz will be held March 28 on campus in Spearfish. The event helps middle and high school students learn about new communication outlets through hands-on projects.

Area middle and high school students will learn about the latest developments in media literacy and entrepreneurship during the Black Hills State University Media Blitz on campus in Spearfish March 28.

BHSU mass communication students and business students affiliated student organization Enactus will help lead the event mentoring students about successful communication and media strategies.

Students will also hear from keynote speakers from the Black Hills Pioneer including Mark Watson, editor and BHSU alum, and Letti Lister, publisher.

BHSU will welcome 4H Club members from Belle Fourche, Spearfish and Sturgis, as well as   students from Porcupine Middle School and   students from Newell High School to the one-day event where students will get hands-on experience with publishing software, television and radio technologies while also learning how to write press releases, slogans, and TV and radio scripts to promote causes important to youth.

The Media Blitz began four years ago when three BHSU professors began organizing a series of project-based, one-day experiments on the BHSU campus. . Dr. Mary Caton-Rosser, associate professor of mass communication, Dr. Mitch Hopewell, instructor of instructional technology, and Dr. Bobbi Looney, assistant professor of management, collaborated   and received a faculty grant to conduct research on media literacy and connections to entrepreneurship.

The Media Blitz event, held annually, has been open to small businesses as well as teachers and students from regional after-school programs, middle schools and high schools. In past years students have worked with media professional partners from the Black Hills Pioneer and Seaton Publishing, South Dakota Public Broadcasting, KEVN Black Hills Fox, and faculty and students from the BHSU mass communication program.  

Caton-Rosser says the Media Blitz has helped to build a network of sustained partnerships in community informatics systems that empower and enable people to accomplish project and entrepreneurship goals through mediated interaction and outreach.

The BHSU faculty will share the results of their work, "Exploring Connections between Media Literacy and Entrepreneurship among Rural Youth in South Dakota," during the 2017 National Association for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE) Conference to be held in Chicago in June.