How TV Influenced My Career Aspirations

My current field of study is Mass Communications: Broadcast Journalism. What inspired me to pursue a degree in my field of study began when I was in elementary school. I was always interested in the entertainment world; movies, TV shows, celebrities, and musicians have had my attention for as long as I can remember.

When other kids my age were joining Boys Scouts, playing sports, and being mischievous, I would come home from school, do my homework, and around 7pm I was looking forward to entertainment journalism shows like Access Hollywood, Extra, Entertainment Tonight, and Inside Edition. My grandmother would buy tabloids like National Enquirer and People Magazine at the grocery store once a week, she would tell me to wait until she was finished before I could put my child size fingers on the pages. Some days at recess, I’d find myself acting as a manager to a group of girls whom I convinced to perform Destiny’s Child’s first hit song on the schoolyard. One time in middle school I did a report on Diane Sawyer, this was before I knew I wanted to be a journalist, however the signs were always there. It wasn’t until after graduating high school, I knew exactly what in the Mass Communications field I wanted to do. For a while I was interested in Public Relations, I believed I wanted to be a publicist or manager to celebrities. Then I wanted to be the celebrity, so I auditioned for a performing arts school. It wasn’t until online magazines and pop culture blogs became popular when I realized just what my calling was.

I read the newspaper on a daily basis, I watch the news throughout the week, and stay aware of current events in all aspects of life. The feeling I receive when informing others on current events that they weren’t aware of, is what inspires me to want to be a broadcast journalist. I love to inform people on things they didn’t know, whether it’s about the latest community event or the recent Oscar winners. I have created a Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Blog via Google’s blogspot.com, dedicated to urban entertainment news, titled This Is Hip Hop Culture. A few times a week, I’ll post anything dealing with music, movies, TV, fashion, magazines, and celebrities. Awards season tends to garner the most visits to my blog, I created the Instagram account the night of this year’s Grammy’s, and already have close to 300 followers.

One TV show that has influenced me is Moesha, starring R&B singer Brandy. The lead character is a teenage advanced/honors student with dreams of becoming a writer for Vibe Magazine. Like myself, she has always been interested in history, art, culture, literature and other things most teens tend to overlook while in high school. Every episode was filled with positive morals and values important to teens growing up. I could relate to her character a lot, she helped me realize that just because you live in a lower class neighborhood, does not mean you have to keep a lower class mentality. I have lived in public housing before, and I currently have a 4.0 GPA, so it’s possible.