Journalism and PR Personal Statement Example

Today journalism is such a persuasive factor in opinion building that no person, group or business can claim immunity or afford to under-estimate the ability of the fourth estate to affect their fortunes, either for better or for worse (Gigi Van Der Reit 1998)

What has always intrigued me is how the media and PR industry manage to influence the way people think. Getting your message across by using just words is something that doesn't come easily to everyone but is a trait a journalist must possess. Journalism is not about how much you say: it is about what you say and imply. It can sometimes be misconstrued as negative journalism when freedom of press is used to its fullest. Being a true media person would mean
me to be morally, socially legally and ethically aware, keeping in mind that journalism is not Fiction. The publishing course I have studied has taught me to work as a professional and keep in mind plagiarism and the laws associated with journalism such as libel, defamation,copyright etc. Good PR can change our perspective of the past, influence events in the present and help change the future of a company, industry, government or individual. PR is about
planning, strategising and identifying your audience. The writing, interviewing, researching skills that I have acquired on this diploma at college would help me excel in a journalism degree at your university.

I am ambitious and experimental at writing features as it is important to open up to different journalistic genres such as hard and soft news stories, reviews, holiday reviews,investigative journalism and find out where you're best suited to write for.My dream would be to write feature articles and reviews for newspapers like the Sun, The Daily Mirror, The Times, and The Guardian. Working in a community support organisation Stand guide helped build
my communicative skills as it required me to interact with people of different ethnicities and religion.It is essential to have determination, discipline and dedication to pursue a career as a journalist.Filming and working towards deadlines have taught me to be more organised.

Apart from being well organised and completely devoted to journalism I pride myself in being thorough with my research, a unit where we explore primary and secondary resources and qualitative and quantitative data were taught to us at college.This has helped me realise that detailed research is an important criteria of being a good journalist.The interview techniques for broadcasting unit helped me learn about interviewing skills and taught me to put others at
ease.The Writing Editing and Copy unit helped my perception making it easier for me to write without a bias thus making me an eligible candidate to train as a journalist.The course helped build my overall skills in various areas therefore opening me up to different areas of media like the units on Photography, Digital Graphics for Print and Graphic Narrative helped improve
my creative skills.

A keen interest in various cultures would motivate me to learn more about the world around us.I enjoy reading about news from across the world.I like surfing the web and listening to music in my spare time.I read books and keep up with current affairs.I also read magazines and newspapers like the Sun,the Mirror, the Guardian and websites.

I truly believe I would be an excellent candidate to pursue a journalism course at your university as I possess all the right skills and am extremely passionate about making a future of it.