Media Personal Statement Example

I blinked awake one day to find myself in a virtual world, where we have been catapulted into a rapidly digitising society by the COVID-19 pandemic. This ignited my ambition to harness the business and social potential of digital culture. I witnessed the 2021 Academy Awards going online, university graduations taken virtual, and Elon Musk investing 1.5 billion USD in Bitcoin while Facebook took to the Metaverse.

I see the new world quickly becoming more connected, entering into the future of augmented reality, with cryptocurrency and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) defining much of the economy. Digital technology disruptions have created new media cultures, redefined governance, business transactions and social lives. News consumption is more convenient than ever with the proliferation of smart technologies, while the colossal business disruptions caused by Amazon, Uber, Airbnb, live streaming and Space tourism, all unimaginable a decade ago, are now a reality.

I am driven to capitalise the gains of digital culture by using media platforms as a marketplace and put this to practice in my IB CAS experience. My peers and I wanted to raise awareness on sustainable fashion to combat the massive amount of waste produced by fast fashion; thus, ‘The Tie-Dye Theory’ was born. In this project, we reworked old t-shirts into stylish tie-dye wears for young adults. Unable to sell with a shop front as planned due to COVID-19, we leveraged the popularity of social media channels such as Facebook and Instagram, researched and experimented with the digital algorithm features, and found the functions to best reach our target audience. This experience helped me to recognise how simple it is to utilise the business analytics tools built into these digital platforms to process big data into usable intelligence. With the value of the digital technology adoption spending forecast to grow to 28 trillion USD by 2025 (Statista), the time to learn about digital media is now.

As an economics student, I am interested in transnational agreements on capital injection for global digital infrastructures. A 2021 OECD report recommends investing in digital transformation to promote health infrastructures. I agree and believe that these changes should be facilitated especially for low socioeconomic regions to combat the pandemic. With this degree, I wish to explore what the digital world can offer. Media platforms have great untapped potential to fight for the visibility of climate change, gender-based violence, and poverty, issues I deeply hope to address. I aim to leverage my skills and acumen in the areas of language, communication and enterprise development to manage online campaigns that raise awareness and capital for social issues. At school, I have been actively involved with various NGOs supporting children born with cleft lip and cleft palate, abandoned street dogs and plastic recycling initiatives. These activities have suffered due to social restrictions, but the digital world is opening up new avenues for engagement and fundraising; I hope that this degree will help me to discover novel ways of taking my initiatives forward.

Partaking in these activities and spearheading projects such as ‘The Tie-Dye theory’ have allowed me to grow and develop communication skills, leadership qualities and competency in advocacy. As a boarding student studying in a foreign country, independence, resilience, and versatility are all qualities that I have gained over the years. I enjoy teamwork and the process of exchanging different ideas and viewpoints and am able to take charge and manage group-based challenges and situations. I look forward to a place in your university that encourages openness, dynamism and versatility to new ideas. I am eager to equip myself with the required knowledge in digital media and mass communication and thereafter venture into becoming an entrepreneur and an independent journalist to fulfil my goal of social advocacy.