IE Essay for Master's in Visual Media

Shirin Ghaffary Applicant for Master’s in Visual Media at

IE School of Communication

Essay Prompt

• Show us an activity you enjoy

doing. Tell us how you think it

contributes to your personal

and professional development.

Answer: Telling stories

Mediums:

• Photo

• Video

• Journalistic writing

Telling Stories: Photography

Published over 50 photographs for a newspaper with 42,000

daily readers and a circulation of 10,000

Examples of photography

Front-page story photo about the son of two women became the

first same-sex couple to legally marry in the state of California in

2013.

Photo Portfolio SamplesScene from the play,

“Directions” at UC

Berkeley.

Photo of eccentric,

abandoned junk yard in

the heart of wine-country

of Napa, California.

Photo Samples - continued

Landscape of San Francisco Bay Area in California at night

Photo Samples - continued

Front-cover photo from a student protest at UC Berkeley, published

in Daily Californian 2010.

Work Examples: Video• Producer of a popular tv show on technology

news website, TechCrunch called “TC Cribs”– Clip below

Work also published in the

pages of:

Work Examples: Digital

Journalism• Travel Blogging

– Italy, Spain, Morocco, Germany,

England,

Taiwan.http://shirintravels.wordpress.com

/

More Examples: Travel Blogging

Work Example: Digital Journalism

Wall Street Journal:

Digital Strategy Intern

Designed a protoype for

new digital products

including iphone + ipad

app, website, magazine

Conclusion

Photography – Captured a range of

visual stories from breaking news such as

protests to profiles of artists through

portraits

The activities I enjoy have helped me become a professional visual journalist

Videography – Learned how to

produce, film, and edit an online tv

show which attracted viewers and

advertisers.

Digital Journalism – Used extensive

knowledge of journalism articles to come up

with an iPhone app for the Wall Street

Journal.