Letter of motivation for a Master's Programme in Digital Media and Society

Hello all,
glad to become a part of this amazing community!

I would be very thankful for your comments on my letter of motivation for a Master's Programme in Digital Media and Society

reasons for having interest in the Master's programme

The requirements are:
A letter of motivation (maximum two pages) in English, giving reasons for having a particular interest in the Master's programme "Digital Media and Society".

- Description of the desired vocational orientation.

Like a flow, I was gradually moving in a digital direction. On my path to maturity in a datafied society, I wish to approach the challenge of mediatisation and to orchestrate flows of data. Therefore, I wish to be admitted to the Master's programme "Digital Media and Society". I unlocked experiences to flow into my life studying communications at the Higher School of Economics. As a sophomore, I acquired sound foundations of mass communications theory and distinguished its social and political discourse. I felt a desire for academic engagement but my particular interest was yet to be found. Back then, I had a minor in cinema studies and expanded my expertise in audio-visual culture during my semester abroad in Spain. Inspired by art-movies, I was keen to explore. My first ever research was a netnography of cinema-lovers communities on Facebook. In the digital environment, I was a native explorer. Digital data revealed to me as a powerful source of illustrative insights about society. I have further chosen a major in Digital Communications and flowed closer to my vision.

Being in the environment of National Research University, full of people with lateral thinking, is a life booster. I had a remarkable professor for the Media Consumption seminar. The debates on the essence of post-truth that he moderated were so vivid, that they often continued out of the classroom. Concerned about the impact of digital media in my country, I devoted the next research to coverage of the concept of feminism in the Russian-language online media and performed a сontent analysis of 120 publications. As a result, my first public presentation at a conference opened to me the pleasure of sharing the knowledge.

My enthusiasm for digital environment motivated me to work in this field. As a communication internat a digital marketing agency, I was assessing the reputational risks of the brand via social media. I did not limit my social listening techniques to publicly available software tools but also applied basics of python learned in class. By the end of my internship, having improved the effectiveness of media planning by 20 %, I was offered a job at the PR department. Conscious about personal contribution to the influence of datafication on business, I have eventually flown to my passion. Thus, I aim at shaping the digital transformations of tomorrow in the next stage of my studies.

Like a flow, the Master's programme "Digital Media and Society" is an ideal continuation of my diverse academic and professional background. The purpose of my planned study project at the University of Bremen has three dimensions: theoretical, empirical, and practical. First and foremost, I am interested in the Digital Literacy course, particularly tailored for in-depth theoretical understanding of the digital media practice. Moreover, I wish to take my empirical research skills to the next level. This would be largely facilitated by communication with Prof. *** during the seminars on Methods of Digital Media Research and Media Ethnography. At the same time, aimed at upgrading my expertise in data analysis and visualisation, I hope to benefit from the classes in Media Informatics. Finally, I would appreciate cross-disciplinary Media Practice electives. Particularly, the seminar "Cinema Dead or Alive? The Future of the Bremen Cinema City 46" classified into the field of audience research admire me the most. The wide range of subjects offered by the "Digital Media and Society" programme fits with my bachelor's major and perfectly meets my expectations for future studies.

I would like to comprehend the flow of digital society. The research on digital media is the fastest to reflect on ever-changing digitization, which makes me excited about academic engagement in this field. However, digital methods escalate the question of triangulation design and ethical issues. Therefore, I find the colloquium of the Center for Media, Communication and Information Research (ZeMKI) especially attractive and see it as a platform for enhancing methodological proficiency through cooperation of intercultural academic competencies. The community I want to be a part of when studying patterns of digital media usage. Moreover, my personal academic interest is closely related with the focus of the Lab "Digital Communication and Information Diversity" under the guidance of Prof. *** with expertise in automated content analysis. I would like to contribute to work of the lab, since generating knowledge is equally important to me as gaining.

The flow of energy follows intention. I deepened understanding of data and digitalization in a Summer School at the University of Potsdam, Germany. The visit of the Federal Data Protection Commissioner who described the adoption of the General Data Protection Regulation inspired me the most. Personally, I am concerned about data protection as a fundamental right that protects your private sphere, while in Russia this concept is applied selectively. In turn, my special attention to digital ethics and privacy will be fully consistent with the digital environment in Bremen.

The flow of inspiration brings people together. As a part of my exchange with the Cologne School of Journalism, I got familiar with the German media system and visited several German businesses, such as Deutsche Welle und Deutschlandfunk. Afterwards I was invited to cooperate in writing an article which was recently published in a German newspaper. Being excited about the future cooperation, I would benefit a lot from the media-practice internship offered by the Master's programme in Digital Media and Society. I want to experience what it takes to win in the digital age.

On my way to winning, I wish to pursue a career in developing digital communication strategy, either a corporation or of an NGO. Today, no brilliant ideas put into practice without the right online positioning. My goal is becoming an expert who encourages the brilliant ideas. In turn, not limited to programming, communication in the digital dimension approaches a more complex conceptual language I want to be fluent in. Speaking in a datafied society requires a clear understanding of the both opportunities and consequences of the never-ending flow of data. I want to bring sense and structure out of it and be heard.

The advanced practical knowledge require mastering in the interdisciplinary academic environment. I will do my best to achieve outstanding academic performance, drive media-project improvements, and contribute to the reputation of the university of Bremen. Obtaining a master's degree "Digital Media and Society" at the University of Bremen means I listen to my flow rhythm.

Do not keep using "flow" to kick off your paragraphs. It is not a topic sentence and the repeated use eventually becomes tiresome, boring, and irrelevant to your discussion. You must rephrase the paragraphs to be interesting in terms of hooking the reader. Using the same term several times at the start of a paragraph does exactly the opposite. You are not being creative, you are being redundant to the point where the reviewer could lose interest in your work.

Did you really meant to use the term internat? That means international. I think you were trying to describe your office title but made a mistake in term usage? Perhaps you meant to say intern? I am not sure why you kept using "flow" in the statement either. What did you mean by "Like a flow"? Flow of what energy? Flowing to where? The word does not really tie the presentation thought together. You may want to really rethink your frequent usage of that word in the essay. It doesn't work. It doesn't feel like a natural part of the written presentation. What was your flow rhythm in the first place?

You are trying to be too imaginative, dramatic, and exaggerated in your presentation. You are too focused on the drama and not enough on the clarity of the content. This may end up working against your application as the reviewers only have a limited amount of time to review application essays and your essay takes too much time to read completely. In fact, I lost interest in your words by the third paragraph. Which means the reviewer will lose interest in your work by the end of the second paragraph. If he even gets that far into reading your paper. That is not good for your application.

Be more direct to the point, Offer a clear response to every question, Leave the flair for dramatics in your creative writing class. It has no place in an application essay. Use simple words. Make the discussion flow naturally. Do not over complicate things to the point where the reviewer may need to pull out a dictionary just to figure out what you are actually trying to say in the sentence. Keep it simple, keep it clear, keep it responsive. This is more academic than creative and dramatic in presentation. The less the reviewer has to read to get your responses to the questions, the better for your application.