On January 26, 2001, I woke up with a sudden jolt and shaking bed and my dad shouting ‘ Earthquake…Earthquake’. Minutes later, the entire news channels were showing how killer earthquake measuring 7. 9 on the Richter scale left over 30, 000 people dead and reduced parts of Gujarat into rubble. Incidents like war, emergency, and disasters have challenged the journalists and media globally over the time. How media and journalists over the world have faced those challenges to provide information to the world without thinking of the risks involved has been an inspiration for me to opt MA in Global Media and Communication studies.
The next thing that inspired and motivated me to pursue this course was Issues of Global Media subject which I studied in my last year of Bachelors of Mass Media. The subject taught me how the media industry works in different countries. What difficulties do the journalists and media personnel face in the world, what kind of situations do they have to work in, what kind of restrictions and bans they have to face, etc. Also, I got to know how different countries try to control the media for their own benefit and how the journalists tackle those situations. I got inspired by the dedication of the journalists who go beyond the lines to do their job and how seriously they take their responsibilities towards the society.
The Undergraduate degree in Bachelors of Mass Media under the prestigious BK Shroff College of Arts and MH Shroff College of Commerce has surely made me familiar with many different subjects out of which, the subjects I liked the most were Issues of Global Media, Press Laws and Ethics, News Reporting, News Editing, Contemporary Issues of Media, Mass Media Research. One more aspect which piqued my interest in choosing the 1-year course of Journalism was a seminar I attended which was scheduled by our college inside our college campus. The motive of the seminar was to give the students of BMM an insight about career options in the fields of Advertising and Journalism respectively. I got the idea of pursuing Sports Journalism as a career option after attending the seminar. So, I opted for Journalism in my third year of Bachelor of Mass Media.
I was involved in many interesting and challenging projects and assignments. The biggest challenge I faced was when I had to go on the field outside my college campus and in my locality for a project. We were told to take opinions of people in the society on a certain topic and film it on our phone or a camera as a project of Journalism and Public Opinion subject. The topic we chose was ‘ Does Bollywood films encourage eve teasing in real life?’ It was a two-member-group project. And we faced difficulties while talking to strangers on the streets. We saw that people were uncomfortable when asked to talk about a social problem and even more uncomfortable when we asked them if we could film it. I was also involved in making a documentary for Contemporary Issues of Media subject. It was a group project and we made a documentary on terrorism and I was involved in the research work. I researched about the terrorist attacks that took place in the recent years and how media managed to cover it and the challenges journalists faced while covering these attacks.
The most interesting project I did during my undergraduate program was Newspaper and Magazine Making. In which, we were given a 75 marks project where we had to make a 6-page tabloid, 6-page broadsheet and a 32-page magazine. In this project, we were told to make a tabloid, a broadsheet, and a magazine on a software called ‘ Quark Express’. It was an individual project and I made a 6-page Tabloid with a few news stories and more feature stories about Mumbai city and named it ‘ Bombay Chronicles’. A 6-page broadsheet made was named ‘ The Oracle’ which included metro, global, sports, and business related news stories and a 32-page sports magazine. It included all the latest news related to Cricket, Football, Basketball, Boxing, Badminton, Tennis, Kabaddi and Golf. The stories included in this project were not my original stories as the motive of the project was to check the creativity and the sense of news of the students. Also, we were given a project in Business and Magazine Journalism in which the whole class had to contribute in making original stories for the college newspaper and the best stories would be featured in it. I was thrilled to see 2 of my articles in the sports section of the newspaper. The articles were on a match review between two football clubs, and regarding an injury update of a player.
After completing my 3 years of Bachelors of Mass Media, I wanted to enhance my practical knowledge and learn
how things work in the media industry. In order to know what work am I most comfortable with and which area of duty is suitable for me, I started working as an intern in a company named Sportz Interactive situated in Jogeshwari East, Mumbai. I started the Internship in July 2018 and I am still working there as an intern. It is a company which covers stories about many different sports and does content and creative work for clients like Star Sports, GoSports Foundation, Premier Badminton League, Hockey India League and many more. I am working as aSocial Content Developer in the content management team. My duties involve making post copies for Premier Badminton League-India, GoSports Foundation. Also, providing live updates of the ongoing badminton matches on twitter, doing research on tournaments like the Asian Games. After working in this company working on content, I got to know how different social media platforms make their posts differently as per their tones. I got the experience to work under pressure such as submitting my work on given deadlines, making content which would satisfy the client’s needs, brainstorming new ideas for the content calendar every week.
University of Bridgeport offers the students an opportunity to work with the NGOs, prominent news agencies and media companies which would help me gain experience for the Professional level. Post MS, I would like to start my career in a news agency working as an associate news reporter and news editor in the Times Group. I will gain experience of covering news on the field, live reporting and news editing. After 3-5 years, I look forward to be working as a Chief News Editor in a prominent media group. My long term goal would be to start my own news agency which would focus on covering news stories related to sports around the world. I also wish to start an online news portal and focus more on connecting to the people through web and social media platforms.
University of Bridgeport is my choice for an MA in Global Media and Communication studies as it offers subjects like News Media and International Journalism, International Conflict and Negotiation, International Issues which fits in my interest. I am happy to read about Dr. Mohammed Al-Azdee and his analysis of American media coverage of the al-Qaeda Christmas Day Bombing Attempt. I also read about Thomas Ward who did pioneer writing and research on the political economy, featured in his book Development, Social Justice, and Civil Society: An Introduction to the Political Economy of NGOs. I am excited to study under such experienced and knowledgeable professor which will give me an insight about the whole media industry over the world. I will also get a chance to be a part of the college events where I’ll be able to contact with new people from all over the University. Also, the internship opportunity provided by University of Bridgeport would give me a kick start to boost up my writing skills and experience.
I carry with myself a good experience of subjects related to media, communication and the sense of team work and research through the projects made in the academic years. I also carry a little knowledge of the media industry after having done an internship in a media company having relevance of research and content management and therefore I will be to assimilate into the master’s program of University of Bridgeport. Given the opportunity, I assure you of putting the best foot forward in all events of my graduate studies.
