Delta College has a student-run media group called Fierce Mustang Media (FMM). FMM was founded two years ago. FMM specializes in digital media, marketing and public relations.
“What we really hope is that with Fierce Mustang Media, our students are going to be able to get portfolio work, they are going to get an opportunity to have their first jobs in their community in a way that is flexible for them to be able to continue work, and school, and their other obligations” said Adriana Brogger, lead faculty advisor for FMM.
Students from Delta’s Multimedia discipline are chosen as semesterly interns for the media group. Currently, the group currently employs eight interns, largely from the Journalism and Digital Media areas.
Current interns will get offboarded in May, and new and returning interns will get onboarded in July and August.
“I’d like to see more interdisciplinary action between the multimedia areas, so graphic arts, photography and then journalism and digital media are doing that right now. I think there’s opportunities for pulling people in from public relations, which is also part of the journalism program, and I think there are opportunities for pulling people in from business,” said Tara Cuslidge-Staiano, lead faculty advisor for FMM.
Students in the group are proficient in areas such as video and audio production, graphic design, photography, social media, content creation and journalism.
“They may be defined majors as either Journalism or Digital Media there’s cross-pollination as students are taking all those classes, they may not have been a photography major, but they have taken Photo 1A, they may not be a PR major, but they’ve taken a public relations course,” said Brogger.
The program is grant-funded. Brogger and Cuslidge-Staiano have applied for and been granted $213,000 to fund the program, with more than $180,000 going to student pay or stipends. Other grant money is funding the group’s Media Decoded initiative, which is a media and information literacy project for the community.
While FMM specializes in storytelling, the group doesn’t do anything considered marketing for Delta.
“There are limitations about what we can do when we went into this project. The administration made it clear we weren’t supposed to do Delta College marketing, so we don’t do broader Delta College marketing,” said Cuslidge-Staiano.
FMM works largely with external groups because of the grant funding. It is written into the grants that the group will engage outside small businesses and nonprofits. Some of the groups they have worked with include Skin & Shades Studios, a local business. Recently, the group finished a partnership with Stocktonia and the Pulitzer Prizes for Pulitzer on the Road. FMM has also completed projects with San Joaquin County.
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