I look forward to decades to come giving my all to the promotion of objective news reporting – as distinguished from fake, false, and sensationalist news. An idealistic man, I cannot think of any higher calling or more noble aspiration than the promotion of truth in journalism, providing society with news that accurately describes what is going on, without any political or economic agenda, or any kind of propagandistic purpose, to the extent to which it is possible to do so.
Unfortunately, from my perspective, US society is steering a course increasingly divergent from conciliatory speech, attitude, or attempt to focus on unity and common ground rather than divisiveness. I see Proud Boys and Black Lives Matter as not entirely dissimilar incarnations of the same thing, two sides of the same coin.
While I recognize that no journalist can ever totally avoid coloring the story that they present to at least some degree, these days, misinformation is rapidly becoming the norm, unfortunately, and for many of those who articulate the news, this misinformation is increasingly intentional, conscious, even calculated. Too many in the public square have declared truth as either dead or irrelevant´´, simply abandoning it to try some other strategy to convince those who are listening and subject to being swayed to the interests of the speaker. Misinformation has infected both major – if not all – political parties in the USA. Indeed, for many it has come to be seen as a necessity to defend oneself or one’s party from vicious, fake news attacks from those parties seen as the adversary. Nowadays, it is increasingly common to just give up on congeniality and grace and adopt a strategy of stooping even lower than one’s political or ideological opponent, to beat them at their own game, or at the very least attempt to do so. This has led to great waste in public affairs and great embarrassment to American in international circles in the form of the currently outgoing President Trump.
Of course, there are appropriate times for opinion writing, but I think that this material should always be clearly identified as such, prefaced with a disclaimer. Those with liberal as well as conservative views need a place to give voice to their concerns without being targeted and labelled as racist, homophobic, deplorable, etc. For my part, I lament the fact that I have had no choice but to receive my own education so far in an America polarized as never before, with feelings running so high on both sides that it has made it very difficult to have meaningful and productive conversations in many cases.
I admit that I have daydreamed about becoming a legal commentator like Nancy Grace. I do admire her ability to explain the law in terms that most people are able to understand. Her show does serve an important social purpose as far as it helps ordinary individuals to be able to understand complicated legal issues. I admire Nancy Grace because I aspire to a career in journalism with an educational, human, and social purpose. If I could choose any professional position that I wanted, it would be a toss-up between being a news anchor for either Fox News or CNN. This speaks to the way in which I seek a professional center rather than a Left or Right slant. I see both networks as biased in their respective directions and aspire to engage in something more balanced.
A people person, I have a good relationship with everyone. Occasionally I even get loud because of my sheer enthusiasm. When I get interested in something, I get obsessed. I must watch every movie, read every book, every article etc. For example, I was so emotional about the Parkland school shooting in 2018. Glued to Fox News, as a father (who lost his daughter in the shooting) made a speech at the White House. I even reached out to the dad three times asking if I could get involved and he responded positively, going on to work with his wife on research regarding state and federal law concerning school safety. I also ran their social media accounts. Once the investigation into the shooting was over, it was apparent to all concerned that the Broward County School Board failed at their job by not taking seriously the warnings they got about the school shooter.
That following summer, I relocated to spend time in Parkland, Florida to work on a school board campaign for Richard Mendelson. I authored my thesis on threatened masculinity because it helps to account for why school shootings occur, taking a close look at the behavior of Nikolas Cruz in the days, weeks, months, and years leading up to the Parkland school shooting.
I already hold the JD but find Law much more exciting when combined somehow with journalism, which I hope to now accomplish by earning the MA in Journalism at _____ University, always in search of truth and as much persuasiveness as possible. Public policy and its relation to political decision-making stand at the center of my world. One highlight of my Law School days was my participation in the “Kid’s Court”, educating children and youth about investigative and judicial processes, utilizing a standardized, evidence-based curriculum to maintain the integrity of the legal process. We conducted ongoing research aimed at minimizing the potentially traumatic effects of the courtroom on children and creating a training program for best practices for educating children and youth about the judicial process.
MA Journalism Personal Statement Samples
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