How to succeed in Media Studies

王孔卓 李峥

With the development of media technology， an increasing amount of well-educated students are required to cater to the need of the situation. In order to satisfy the social needs， there are an increasing amount of graduates who choose media as their major. Therefore， Media Studies has become extensive among campuses. Under this circumstance， successful learning strategies of media studies are essential for those majoring in media. The most crucial learning strategies for success in media studies are goal-setting strategy， organization strategy and monitoring comprehension strategy.

The first learning strategy for success in media studies is goal-setting strategy， which helps students set a standard for their learning careers and plan for their future lives. Once students use this strategy effectively， they could not only find out the ultimate goal of their whole life， but also know what to do in the short term to make the goal achievable. For instance， some students dream to become a director in the future. Well-educated students will make a plan for their dreams； they write down the specific assignments for each week， each semester， each year， and even each decade. To accomplish them， they learn more specialized knowledge， watch movies as much as possible and analyze them in a professional sense. “Setting a goal is proactive and gives you a wonderful feeling of control over your life.” （Grunfeld， 2011） It shows that goal-setting makes people become the leader of their own lives， rather than being controlled by the social environment. Goal-setting strategy also has a significant effect on students future film careers. Once students start to work on their own， they make their own films at first to learn how to be a successful director. According to these experiences， they notice the shortcomings and then set a higher goal to improve themselves. After revising the goal over and over again， they accomplish the media tasks one by one and finally achieve their dreams to become an excellent director. All of these show that goal-setting strategy is the most vital point for success in media studies and media jobs.

The second learning strategy for success in media studies is organization strategy. It includes organizing both of the current assignments and the previous experiences. It is similarly as students use organization strategy for the current assignments. To accomplish an essay， students organize all the materials from the previous classes and categorize them for different paragraphs， which are of great help for media students to form a systematic thinking of the essay. Dong （2016） stated that organizing makes students efficient and they wont have hard time looking for the materials when they need them. It follows that organizational strategy is beneficial for media students to be successful in their studies. Organization strategy is also useful for media work. To be logical and rational， film-makers should organize all the issues for their work clearly. As for the film-makers， they organize the personal opinions of previous films and classify them into different genres then make them as a part of their portfolios. Such as the professional photographs， the personal project pages and the credentials also can be put in the portfolio after using organization strategy. “Your portfolio is essentially your calling card—the better it is， the juicier the role you could land.” （Jamieson， 2015） To be successful in media studies or to land the dream job of film-making， the advantages of using organization strategy cannot be ignored.

The third learning strategy for success in media studies is monitoring comprehension strategy. For example， media students learn some professional knowledge in class. They take targeted notes on the basis of their comprehension， and such a process is called self-explanation. They explain the new concepts with the old concepts to help themselves understand the new concepts clearly. Monitoring comprehension strategy is powerful for media industry as well. For example， an actor decides to play the role of a doctor because some unique insights. The actor uses monitoring comprehension strategy to explain every plot to himself and ask himself about which emotion should be used to express the role. Once he realizes he doesnt understand the roles behavior， he goes to the hospital and visits the real doctors to make himself comprehend well. This strategy helps the actor play the role better. In conclusion， comprehensive strategy is helpful for success in media studies and media jobs.

To sum up， this essay mentioned three effective learning strategies for success in media studies. The first one is goal-setting strategy， which helps people build up the connection between dream and life. The second one is organization strategy， which runs through the whole process of being successful. The last one is related to brain activities—monitoring comprehension strategy， helping people make sure they understand the knowledge well. All of these three learning strategies need to be valued. As the old saying goes， “God help those who help themselves.” For success in media studies， students still have a very long way to go.

Reference

Dong， J. （2016） How to develop your organization skills.

Grunfeld， N. （2011） 'Achieving career goals'. Creative and Cultural Skills. [Online] Accessed 3rd April 2016

Jamieson， P. （2015） '10 top tips for landing a creative job'. Creative and Cultural Skills. [Online] Accessed 3rd April 2016