Journalism, Personal Statement Example

I have always been a critical thinker who is not afraid to do research to get at the core of the facts if something bothers me. This may be why I enjoy intelligent discussions and enjoy meeting people from different cultural and academic backgrounds because they help me expand my thinking horizon and worldview. My friends often tell me I enjoy discussions and am good at logical conclusions. Discussions with people from diversified backgrounds have convinced me that my personal interests and strengths are best suited to journalism as I am always interested in objective truths and try to keep my personal bias in check.

We live in exciting times and even journalism has changed in dramatic ways in the last few years due to the power of internet that has given birth to citizen journalism. There are both strengths and weaknesses to this emerging trend. The strengths are that citizens of the world have become unofficial journalists and are often a valuable source of inside information due to the anonymity and connectivity provided by the internet as we recently observed during the Arab rising. The weaknesses are that sometimes the opinions are masked as facts and the accountability for the accuracy of the facts that journalists usually assume do not apply to regular citizen journalists. Thus, journalists also have to evolve with changing times, brining more efficiency into our work and doing a better job of educating the public. This is why I want to pursue a career in journalism because I believe that to educate people about facts, we have to have a good knowledge of the personal values and biases that affect their way of thinking. This is why I believe I can meet the challenges faced by the profession of journalism because I am knowledgeable in a variety of academic fields including history, world affair, and human psychology that I have gained through both reading and discussions with people.

I did an internship at Shaanxi Daily Newspaper during summer 2010. My responsibilities included photo journalism due to my background in media and film education as well as writing investigative and personal interest articles. I really enjoyed the internship and learnt a lot because the experience exposed me to multiple aspects of journalism and allowed me to interact with the local citizens. I wrote on both and international issues and gained valuable insights through readers’ feedback. I also worked on a documentary as a student at City University of Hong Kong and my responsibilities included interviewing the subjects of the documentary as well as the final editing of the videotaped material. I interviewed both Chinese and native residents of Hong Kong and the difference in worldviews between the neighboring countries was eye-opening. Hong Kong is considered one of the world’s freest economies while in China, state does play in active role in economic management. Similarly, the media in both countries also take different perspectives on local and international affairs. I was surprised to find out that in some aspects, the people of Hong Kong think more like the West than their Chinese counterparts.

After completing my graduate education in Journalism, I plan to work for major newspapers in both the U.S. and Hong Kong and at the same time, also write freelance articles for international publications. The world is becoming one small global village and I believe it is important for journalists with good understanding of different global perspectives to take a leadership position. I am always looking for opportunities to improve myself and have learnt valuable lessons from my observation of internet journalism that I plan to use in my professional career.