STARKVILLE — The Mississippi State University Television Center won big at the Southeastern Emmy Awards, bringing home eight Emmys for their productions over the last year. The center was nominated for 15 awards and won eight of them. This is the second consecutive year of regional Emmy wins for the center.
The University Television Center provides production services to the MSU community as well as clients across the country. The documentary work they have produced and received multiple awards for in recent years is part of a creative storytelling initiative called MSU Films.
“We realized that there were stories at Mississippi State and in Mississippi that are interesting to a general audience, and can be told in something longer than 90 seconds in a social media piece or on YouTube,” said David Garraway, UTC director. “And so we really wanted to explore, ‘Can we tell quality stories that take their time to develop and develop those stories in a way that’s of interest to the general population?’”
Since 2019, the center has produced a variety of compelling content from a 10-minute film about the burning of Old Main Dormitory to pieces on natural resource conservation in coastal Mississippi. This year, they received awards in a variety of categories, including two awards for their flagship documentary series “The Hungriest State.”
“We wanted to take a look at the different types of food insecurity and how Mississippi is working to overcome those on a daily basis. And what we found is there’s no one cause of food insecurity. There’s no silver bullet solution,” Garraway said. “Instead, it’s a lot of different people working in different ways every day doing what they can to try to make their neighborhoods and their communities better for everyone.”
Alongside two awards for “The Hungriest State,” UTC received two awards for their series “On the Farm.” MSU Extension Service contracts with the center to produce the series, which examines sources of farm stress and opioid abuse in agriculture.
Garraway and Hal Teaser, creative manager, earned individual Emmy Awards and James Parker, senior documentary and special projects producer earned two individual Emmy Awards.
Wildly successful, Garraway credits support from the top, a team effort on the ground and a collective recognition of the value of good storytelling.
“We have 11 dedicated staff here at the TV center, and every one of them has a role in making this place what it is today. These are team wins,” Garraway said.
“And it all comes back to MSU President Mark Keenum, Chief Communications Officer Sid Salter for their value of quality storytelling. We couldn’t do it without the support that we’ve received from the very top. We’re so appreciative of that.”
In addition to the eight Emmys earned this year and the four that the center earned last year, the center has received numerous other awards and recognitions. It won a regional Edward R. Murrow Award and was nominated for the prestigious national James Beard Media Award and a number of awards from the Mississippi Association of Broadcasters.
“As envisioned by MSU President Mark Keenum as he facilitated the growth and sophistication of this unit, the University Television Center staff is an integral part of Mississippi State’s storytelling apparatus,” said Sid Salter, MSU’s chief communications officer and director of the MSU Office of Public Affairs, which administers UTC. “David Garraway, James Parker, Hal Teasler, and the rest of the University Television Center are producing unique films that enable MSU to share our research and service missions with the world. These multiple Regional Emmy awards and other nominations represent professional recognition that is richly deserved. The best is yet to come.”
Looking ahead, Garraway and the UTC team will stay busy with more than 20 projects on the docket for the next year. They will continue to produce compelling stories, including a continuation of “The Hungriest State.”
“I think it’s important that Mississippians tell Mississippi’s stories. We’re not coming down from out of state to spend a week here and to tell what we think the story is. We live here. We have a vested interest in making the state a better place,” Garraway said. “And I think to do that, you have to be able to tell the stories accurately and fairly and in a way that allows people to understand who we are and where we come from.”
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