Personal Statement
Program Applied¹: Media Studies

As the merger² of media operations of J. Walter Thompson Advertising³ and Ogilvy & Mather Advertising, MindShare plays a paramount⁴ role in the area of media communication the world over. It is very fortunate that I, a female who has graduated from the School of Journalism⁵ and Communication of Peking University, have been qualified⁶ to work at its Beijing Office. On account of my professional dedication⁷, my academic background and solid knowledge in media communication, I have now become the youngest media planner in the IBM Team, the elite⁸ team in the Mindshare’s Beijing Office. As media planner, I have been responsible for taking care of one of the most important parts of the entire advertising business of IBM Company in China—eServer. Specifically, I am in charge of formulating⁹ all the media advertising campaigns for IBM eServer product in mainland China.

This major responsibility is as challenging as it is exciting to me. This is because IBM’s advertising campaign covers a wide range of media channels, ranging from the conventional media of TV, Print, and Outdoor to new forms of media such as Internet, plus the creation and adoption¹¹ of Creative Media. On the other hand, the media market in China is both immature¹² and complicated, with very different characteristics of media consumption on the part of the general public throughout the nation on account of cultural, economic and geographical¹³ differences. To grasp the rapidly changing circumstances in this fickle¹⁴ market, to understand precisely¹⁵ the complicated media consumption habits and the psychology¹⁶ of the audience, and to come up with corresponding plans within the shortest time possible, it requires tremendous market sensitivity, business courage, as well as very professional and specialized¹⁷ knowledge background. I congratulate myself that I have proved myself very competent for this challenging job because I have taken a series of concrete steps. I have tried consciously to exercise my rich media knowledge that I learned from my undergraduate program. I have tried to bring the experience I acquired from my undergraduate internship²⁰ to bear on my present work. I have tried to following developments of the media market closely by doing a lot of research on a daily basis. Specifically, I carry out survey studies of the main media forms including TV, Print, Internet and analyze²¹ target audience’s habit of media consumption, and the advertising campaigns undertaken by IBM’s main competitors. In this way I try to find out the most effective approach of conveying our advertising message to our target audience. By applying the media analysis software developed by ACNielsen Company, I obtain a wealth of statistical²² data. I also study IBM’s target media consumption by employing the highly object-oriented Gallup Software developed by IBM itself. With my dedicated²³ efforts, the eServer advertising of IBM has achieved very encouraging headway. Apart from giving me a strong sense of pride and achievement, this initial success has also considerably²⁴ strengthened my confidence in performing successful research work in my future media studies.

As a novice²⁵ who has just been initiated²⁶ into a major multinational²⁷ company, the fact that I have performed so well in its elite team is totally inseparable from my well-preparedness—prior to my employment, I had the experience of doing nearly one years’ internship at Ogilvy & Mather Advertising (O&M) Beijing office. As the Top 1 advertising company in China, O&M offers undergraduates very limited opportunities for internship and potential interns¹⁹ must compete against each other fiercely to win the opportunity. As a junior, I passed several rounds of competitive screening tests and became the only student in my class to be accepted by O&M as an intern¹⁰. My internship was conducted at O & M’s Knowledge Center, an individual department responsible for providing best practice and market research to support the whole O&M Group—including advertising, public relations, interactive²⁸, direct marketing²⁹ and promotion³⁰. My responsibilities is to collect and summarized the market information of specific industries such as e-business and FMCG. By exchanging with various departments of my company, I developed a comprehensive understanding of each step in the integrated marketing communication. Meanwhile, I also improved my ability of communication with the staff of the Customers Service Department. I came to be seriously interested in the psychology of target audience and the consumption differences determined³¹ by cultural and economic differences. In order to probe into how advertising appeals to the inner impulse of the recipient³², I made extensive research concerning the consumption behavior by using P & G as a case study. With the support of extensive research, I carried out special case study concerning the website construction of P & G and my research findings became a standard part of O & M’s training program. They also provided information support for O & M’s Interactivity³³ Department when constructing the Unilever Website.

It can be asserted that in terms of my employment I have been doing some relatively³⁴ successful work, especially in view of the fact that it has not been long since I graduated. But this tentative success can by no means serve as a basis for self-complacency. As a result of my nearly one year’s internship at a major international advertising company and nearly one year’s work experience at a major international media company, I have evolved new and more profound understandings of the art of advertising and the science of communications. In addition, I have started to develop a serious research interest in the specialty³⁵ of my undergraduate program.

My experience of media work has clearly shown me that, apart from a good idea, a successful advertisement cannot be separated from a well-coordinated advertising campaign. With the development of media mix and the popularization of Integrated marketing communication，the science of advertising is growing into an applied science. This poses increasingly high requirements on the advertising people in terms of their knowledge and research capacity. To be specific, with the revolution in information technology and the development of interactive function of the Internet, the mode of communication has been dramatically changed, which has created new approaches for the effective expression and communication of information. This subject itself constitutes a new field of research. On the other hand, the recipient, surround by media, becomes increasingly dependent on media information. Therefore, mass media bears the responsibility of influencing a society’s value, providing cultural guidance, and strengthening people’s faith. The extensive survey concerning media effect I have carried out has aroused my serious scholarly interest in focusing on media effect as my research field. I am interested in studying how to influence the target audience most effectively through scientific methods so that positive impacts can be produced on social development and people’s ideas. In China where mass communication is under strict government control, the research of mass communication is rather limited, lagging seriously behind the rapid development of mass media and the important role it is to play in the social life under the context of globalization. Motivated by this, I am convinced that a Ph. D. program in IMC is the best way for me to develop in an accomplished³⁶ research in media studies.

To undertake a more advanced program in Communications concentrated in Media Studies (including media effect and target audience psychology) at your esteemed³⁷ university is undoubtedly³⁸ an important extension of my undergraduate program. I think that academically, I will be fully³⁹ qualified for your challenging program the same way that I proved myself successful in my undergraduate program at Peking University. In that program, my average score for all the courses in my specialty reaches 3.808 and I was listed in the top 1 ranking of my class. In doing my coursework, I did not confine myself to what was taught by my teachers in class. Instead I did voluminous extracurricular readings of books on advertising and communications in the library to enrich my ken¹⁸ of knowledge. Ever since I was a sophomore⁴⁰, I started reading western English classics on advertising and communications. They included Mass Communications by Wilbur Schramm, The Dynamics⁴¹ of Mass Communication (fifth edition) by Joseph R.Dominick (Univ. of Georgia,Athens), and Annual Editions - Mass Media, etc. In addition, I would spend the entire weekend in LongMei Advertisers’ Bookstore, the only bookstore in Beijing that exclusively caters⁴² advertising books. As the books are all imported from Taiwan, HongKong and overseas, they are too expensive for me to afford. What I could do was reading in the bookstore all day long.

I realized during my undergraduate program that communication was more of an applied rather than a theoretical discipline. Therefore, apart from the O & M internship, I purposely involved myself in extracurricular activities related to my specialty. As chairman of the Student Union of the School, I organized Peking University’s First Festival of Advertising Culture which created a campus sensation, attracting the participation⁴³ by leading scholars, advertising companies (including 4A Advertising and Grey Advertising) and TV media both in and outside Beijing. I also organized the Peking University’s advertising contest and Japan Print Advertisement Retrospective Show sponsored by Japan’s Dentsu Advertising. I attended the Prize-winning Advertisement Show of Cannes Advertising Festival and the Prize-winning Advertisement Show of Asian-Pacific Times. Additionally, I have a solid foundation in art design as I started practice painting and calligraphy⁴⁴ since 3 years old—I am good at sketch⁴⁵, watercolor, portrait, and traditional Chinese painting. This artistic⁴⁶ temperament⁴⁷ will also be helpful to a career in media and communications.

“We don't believe in shoving students into a mold.” This creed⁴⁸ is what draws me to Cornell University’s Department of Communication. With few or none required courses and allowing student to design a rigorous program that fits his or her goals under the guidance of an advisory⁴⁹ committee, as well as focusing on social science, such a flexible curriculum permits much room for my own initiatives, enabling me to receive interdisciplinary trainings that will help me cope with the changing situations of my potential profession. Cornell’s communication program concentrates in non-traditional areas such as social psychology of communication, uses and effects of media, and development communication. It perfectly⁵⁰ matches my interests.

My academic background, my internship, and my work experience are three key factors that make me confident in my ability to be a worthy⁵¹ candidate for your program. Perhaps, the most important factor is my enthusiasm for communication that borders on a passion. I believe this field is the realm that I am most talented for and it would be so fulfilling when I see my talents fully developed and exploited.