From a young age, Karmen Morrison was not set on what she wanted her career to look like. From athletics to advocacy to journalism, and now to a mix of all three, there is a lot to Morrison. Her advocacy for gender equality started in high school when her school’s football team would receive free shirts, but her successful women’s basketball team did not.
“So we had a pretty good football team when I was there, and they would always get free shirts,” Morrison said. “We were district champs year after year after year, and I’m like, why we don’t get free shirts? What’s going on?”
Morrison grew up in Jacksonville, Florida. Throughout high school, she played a number of sports. Specifically, she played basketball, volleyball and flag football, but found her passion for journalism through experiences with interviews. She then went to college at FSU where she acquired a bachelor’s in communications and media studies. Later, she came to UGA for her master’s, where she acquired an arts degree in mass communication and journalism.
Morrison’s time playing high school sports influenced her desire to advocate for women’s sports and today she uses social media as a platform for her advocacy.
“When I say advocating, that’s what I’m sort of speaking to, collegiate and professional,” Morrison said. “Regardless of gender, there are younger people and obviously you can advocate for them too. I don’t think there’s a difference, really.”
During her time in high school, Morrison was interviewed for her success in athletics, and her enjoyment for these interviews led her to finding the career path of choice.
“Well, when I was in high school, I was asked to do a lot of interviews about school and sports. I was in an early college program, so people were asking me a lot about that,” Morrison said. “I was the interviewee, obviously, but I enjoyed it. It was a couple radio station interviews, things like that. And I was like, I think I could do this. So that’s probably where I got my start.”
After high school, Morrison went to FSU for her bachelor’s degree. As part of her sports media journey, she interviewed Lonnie Alameda about a late game the team had, which gave her some insight about advocacy.
“I got to talk to Lonnie Alameda. She’s their head softball coach, very, very renowned women’s softball coach, ” Morrison said. “They had a really late game. I think the game ended at like two in the morning or something like that, and she was very open, honest, blunt about it. It’s probably one of my favorite interviews I’ve done, and she spoke about a lot of the things that could change with the Women’s College World Series.”
Morrison explained that this is the route she sees herself going on right now, using her sports media expertise to draw attention to women’s sports at the collegiate and professional level, but also for younger girls. She talked about how tennis was the only sport where both the men’s and women’s divisions get paid the same in Grand Slams like the US Open, so advocating for equal pay is a good starting point.
In her love for journalism, Morrison highlighted her interest for multimedia journalism because she did not have a specific favorite style in high school. “I was being asked to do a lot of different interviews for my education and for sports at the time, and some were print, some were video, some were radio. It didn’t matter what it was, I kind of just liked it. I liked the environment, and I just felt like I could do the same thing.”
Morrison liked interviews and video more, compared to her colleague and the other Summer Academy camp instructor, Joe Dennis, who is “a print guy.”
“This is a print guy over here, but I like video. So definitely the interviews,” Morrison said. “I just like talking, like I’m not going to write a story if I’m not interested in it. So I just like talking to whoever it is I’m interviewing at the time.”
Morrison is now back at Grady helping with the Summer Academy, Multimedia Journalism Camp. This is her second year teaching, and she helps out because she wishes she had a camp like this while she was growing up.
“Last year was my first time helping out with this camp, but I think for me, if I had the opportunity to go to a camp like this, I would have. I’m a rookie, but obviously I have a little bit more knowledge than you guys. So for me, it’s just like sharing what I know to you guys, because y’all should want to be better than we are.”
Rock Star Writers Blog 