Unit 11: Progression (Personal statement)

I have been studying Journalism Level 3 BTEC for two years. I chose this course from a writing and political perspective. Writing is something I find comes naturally, and politics is something I take deep interest in. Journalism seemed to be the ideal fit therefore: as well as being someone who reads the news, I also want to play a part in the way media is viewed. 

I feel a responsibility to educate fellow young people on current affairs, both local and global. I sometimes feel that my generation are disengaged from current affairs as they are not adequately catered for, leading to apathy. They need to be acknowledged by someone who understands their needs, and I plan to do just that. The news can have a way of captivating the public, stories that stick. My objective is to be one of the individuals to deliver stories that do that. I want to make a change in the world and feel that journalism allows me to do just that. I have also gained new skills since joining my course:  attention to detail, persistence, perseverance and sticking to a deadline.  

Throughout my BTEC I’ve learnt the importance of research and working with credible sources. This can be a long, tedious process, yet working with experts in their disciplines, and authentic contributors is an absolute necessity and one I now relish doing. My idea development and proposal proposition are things that have come to me easily throughout my journalism course, but I understand the nature of news and current affairs is that it is always changing, from people cancelling interviews to equipment breaking. This allows for constant dynamic idea development. 

  

During secondary school I was appointed Charity Leader as well as Deputy House Captain for three consecutive years. Throughout both roles I oversaw supporting the community well-being and enhancing the performance of student satisfaction. These two positions allowed me to grow as a person. I gained responsibility, empathy, and interpersonal skills. I have also taken it upon myself to enrol in one of the Open University's free courses for social psychology and politics. This consists of seven units including social identity, collective action, personality, and constructionism, which I have completed and received a participation certificate. This has allowed me to understand the roles of personality, groups and sociocultural context in political action. 

I have been employed as a retail assistant at Primark since August 2022. My specified role is the fitting rooms, although I have experience elsewhere in the shop. This role has proved difficult in some aspects such as customer relations yet I've learnt to persevere and to overcome difficult situations through a constructive and empathetic approach. My job has taught me how to multitask, but more importantly how to be controlled and relaxed in stressful situations. 

Throughout this course, I have gained endless amounts of professional experience such as recording podcasts in our professional podcasting studio to recording interviews in our professional TV studio with state-of-the-art 4K cameras, a TC2 vision mixer and radio mic solution, I am also able to edit both on professional software such as Adobe Audition, Premier Pro and social tools such as Instagram stories, Twitter, and CapCut in TikTok. I've also been encouraged to write professional pieces on issues such as articles on LGBTQ+ issues and feminism, as well as op-eds on men's mental and social health issues. 

When I graduate, I hope to become a magazine journalist and work for organisations such as Empire, Total Film, Cosmopolitan, Vogue, and GQ. These magazines each focus on certain aspects of my interests at this point in my life and career but are by no means an exhaustible list. I plan on using the knowledge and experience I gain from this course, its tutors and lecturers to research, write and edit stories, features and articles for all mediums.