From an early age, I have always wanted to become the “little man” in the television, such as a beautiful host on the stage, or a calm and objective anchor, or a reporter wearing a military coat holding the microphone and chatting with the farmer in a cold winter … It was these naive-sounding ideas that led me into the media major.
In the university, I strive to improve my theoretical knowledge through curriculum learning and extracurricular reading. Because of my passion for media, I won the second place of study in the class. Improvisational oral expression, reporting skills, television program hosting and other courses enable me the professional ability of being the journalists as well as a preliminary understanding of the industry’s work requirements.
At the same time, I also enjoy the news ethics and regulations, which commit the moral obligation to my memory: a professional media person should always adhere to the ethic line in whatever situation. What’s more, since the big data is one of the important development directions of media in the future, I get the skills of processing big data from the Data analysis courses, which is quite useful. A bunch of seemingly useless data may eventually get unexpected results and conclusions after being analyzed. In extracurricular time, I have read some media-related books, such as “The Disappearance of Childhood”, “Understanding the Media” and so on, which not only broaden my knowledge of the history of media development, but also give me a glimpse of the media essence.
As the saying goes, truth comes from practice which also applies for media. I began to specially hone my ability to fight in the media field since I was a freshman. I took part in the “Miss. & Mr. News”, a national competition sponsored by Wuhan University in 2017. From not knowing what social news is, or what the reporter needs to do, to successfully being the youngest competitor in the top 10% and reaching the semi-finals, I learned a lot through asking for the teacher’s guidance, practicing the basic skills of broadcasting, and repeating training in just ten days.
I regard the difficulties as challenges, and I learn as much as I can from them. I found that the most amazing thing about the media profession is that you can speak out by your own efforts, so that groups, news events, etc. that never get attention to get the help they deserve. And what it needs are not only the appearance of the host, but also sociology, psychology, communication skills, economic science and certain social experience. For me, there is still a long way to go.
While most of my classmates are still confused about their future choices, I have already tried to discover and pay attention to social issues, and make a little contribution for the community by using media. For more than a year, I did a social study on cold violence and mental health of youth on the campuses, which brought the issue to the attention and resolution of the regional government. Once in CCTV news, I was shocked to see that middle school students were suffering from mental illness because they were treated unfairly at school.
After extensive collection of information, I took the cold violence to the youth on campus as the research theme, and teamed with several other students to enter the middle schools to conduct questionnaires, and have face-to-face interviews. At last, we wrote a detailed report named “shush, he’s coming”, which combining social science with psychology, news communication and other professional knowledge, showing people the real life of teenagers on campus. The report has aroused social concern.
As a result, schools, education bureaus and other organizations joined together to improve the living environment of some students affected by the cold violence on campus. More importantly, this experience gave me a deep understanding of the power of the media. It makes more people pay attention to social issues, and solve the problems.
When I really learned about media, I realized that the media was not as simple as I thought it would be when I was a kid. The media is not just holding a microphone on the television to convey the message to the audience, it is a means of communication, a tool to promote the world’s communication, and social development. If the high school media learning is the result of curiosity, then the university study sparks my love for media. But it also makes me aware of the abilities that I lack. I hope that through graduate study, I can train myself in different social environments and become more professional.
I’ve always loved England. Because in middle school, I practiced English listening and speaking through BBC Radio, and the British news industry is full of curiosity and desire to me. The media industry in Britain is well developed, and the development of the media has promoted the progress of society.
