Herd Media
  • Opinion

    Op-Ed: How Lipscomb gave a sports broadcaster the fuel for his future

    If you had asked me to draw out how my Lipscomb career would look before I started college, I wouldn’t have it right by a mile. Lipscomb has provided me with career opportunities, internships and even external broadcasting experiences. Every aspiring sports broadcaster has a journey, and this is mine. I grew up about 30 minutes outside of Nashville, and I never wanted to be too far away from home. So, I knew Nashville was that sweet spot for being close to home, but still having a little bit of space. As it turned out, Lipscomb was the only school in the area that actually promised broadcasting opportunities to me.…

  • Opinion,  Sports

    Op-Ed: Nashville Soccer Club’s attendance shows a lack of interest in the sport

    When the United States was announced as a future World Cup host in 2018, there was a general expectation that it would be the final piece to the puzzle of American soccer. Not only would there be the big financial boom that would naturally come from the biggest sporting event in the world, but it could potentially boost the popularity of the sport in the American public. Especially since MLS, the professional soccer league in the US, lags far behind in popularity to the NFL, NBA and MLB. There was a real optimism about the opportunities on the horizon for American soccer. Moving forward, it’s now been 100 days since…

  • Opinion

    Op-Ed: The Underemphasis of Spiritual Depth on Halloween

    Every year around the end of October, a question arises anew within Christian circles: How should Christians think about Halloween?  Some argue that Halloween is a celebration of darkness and death, and thus should be avoided by Christians. Others hold that Halloween is not fundamentally immoral, and that Christians are therefore free to engage in the holiday’s traditions and practices. Although there are many people on both sides of the debate who have the best of intentions, I believe that the true balance lies somewhere in the middle. Halloween does indeed have dark roots, but there are distinctly Christian elements to the celebration as well. Discernment is key. My main…

  • Opinion

    Op-Ed: Which haunted attraction offers the best scares in Nashville?

    Halloween is a little over ten days away, which means we’re right in the middle of spooky season. To get into the Halloween mood, I decided to try out three of the most popular haunted attractions in the area to figure out which one is worth spending hard-earned money on. For this haunted tour of Nashville, the only rule I set was this: I’ll only be purchasing the base experience. Many of these houses offer add-ons to enhance the experience, but I wanted to experience them the way most people do. Devil’s Dungeon: Devil’s Dungeon is in Downtown Nashville. The cost is a locked $29.99 every night, with the option…

  • Campus Life,  Opinion,  Travel

    Perspective: Herd Media attends Society of Professional Journalists conference

    I and three other student journalists from Herd Media got to participate in the Society of Professional Journalists’ national conference from October 1-3. Student attendees included Editor-in-Chief Chrissy Julien, Sports Editor Harold Espinoza and writers Alyssa Breiner and me, Samuel Espinoza. The opportunity has allowed us at Herd Media to be united as a group. It also gave us plenty of ideas on how we can make our stories the best version they can be. The Society of Professional Journalists, also known as SPJ, has been around for 114 years. They’re a nonprofit focused on promoting ethical journalism, protecting the First Amendment and providing training resources for media professionals. SPJ’s…

  • Opinion

    Op-Ed: The cost of convenience and our digital future

    I, like many others, have dived headfirst into the digital-only world of media that we live in today. The days of waiting for the DVD logo to hit the corner of the screen are long gone. Can we really be blamed? Most televisions on the market come with their own user interface and the pre-downloaded streaming apps that we’ve all come to love and hate. As consumers, we’re incentivized to make streaming and digital purchases over buying physical versions of movies, games and music. Let’s take the newly released Toy Story 5 as an example. You could purchase its brand-new Blu-ray for $24.99 at your local retail store, which would…

  • Opinion

    Opinion: Before you vote, read the local news

    For the first time in eight years, Tennessee will vote on a new governor during the midterm election. The race has drawn national attention, as Memphis Democrat Jerri Green challenges famed Republican Marsha Blackburn for the seat.  Voters will also cast their ballots in all nine of the state’s congressional districts, as well as for a state senator. Other factors, such as the controversial redistricting of the state and Trump’s recent Tennessee appearances, have brought additional interest to this election. However, if 2026 is anything like the years before it, less than 35% of Tennessee voters age 18-29 will vote in this year’s midterm election. On college campuses, that number…

  • Arts and Entertainment,  Opinion

    Theatre Department’s The Giver asks hard questions of its audience

    The theatre department’s first play of the semester traded spotlights for graywash as it brought Lois Lowry’s “The Giver” to life. The show ran from Sept. 11-13 in Sewell’s Black Box Theater. Unlike other theaters, the venue does not feature a lifted stage. Instead, actors with pale-powdered faces and dyed dark hair stood an arm’s reach away from the audience as they told the story of Jonas, Sameness and a world without choice.  The play followed the main character, Jonas, as he’s assigned the role of Receiver of Memory in a world called the Sameness. In the Sameness, people have chosen to forget the past, in exchange for a painless…

  • Opinion

    Are Lipscomb RAs unfairly compensated?

    If you were to ask most students on Lipscomb’s campus what they think their resident assistants (RAs) are getting for their job, they’d probably guess free housing. But, unlike many other schools, that isn’t the case at Lipscomb. In fact, Lipscomb RAs often only get paid for some, not all, of the work they do. According to Ellie Heslon, a Johnson Hall RA in her first year, and Tyler Jorden, a second-year High Rise RA, they get just $9.50 an hour for a set 15 hours each week. However, RAs handle nearly everything involved with dorms, housing emergencies and residence life events. “My typical responsibilities include Wednesday Nights We Eat,…

  • Campus Life,  Opinion

    Six-ticket limit for graduation leaves some seniors scrambling

    Six tickets. That’s all Lipscomb seniors will receive for this year’s commencement ceremony, a number that has left some students choosing which family members get to witness one of the biggest moments of their lives. For Gabriela Barreto, a senior public relations major from São Paulo, Brazil, that meant telling relatives who had already booked flights. “My family all live in Brazil, and they are all booking flights and hotels over here,” Barreto said. “So they spent the money, and now some of them are coming, but they don’t have tickets. That’s the bad thing, I had to literally pick who I’m giving my six tickets.” Barreto said she learned…