The Media In Practice: My Chosen Career

For my Media in Practice module at university I have chosen to look in to becoming a Press Officer at a record label as my chosen media career.
I would like to work at a record label in particular as I have a great love of music and have always wanted to work in the record industry in some way. Most work in the media, and in the music industry in particular, requires starting at the bottom and working your way up which I will enjoy as it will hopefully give me a chance to get experience and spend some time working in various different jobs within a record label. The reason I would like to work in the Press department is that I have a keen interest in the way the music press works and the way in which bands/artists are promoted.
Whilst browsing online job sections for information on jobs within press departments at record labels I came across this description of the jobs a Press Officer performs on the website www.prospects.ac.uk:

"A Press Officer acts as the official media contact for a specific public or private organisation, handling all media interest.

Typical work activities include:

* Answering journalists' enquiries;
* Writing press releases and news articles;
* Liaising with the press and broadcast media on an everyday basis via telephone, email and networking;
* Monitoring press and broadcast coverage;
* Arranging press conferences, news briefings, media interviews, visits and public events;
* Attending committee meetings and debates;
* Keeping up to date with current issues and public opinions;
* Managing the press and media in a potential crisis situation."

(Job description found at: http://www.prospects.ac.uk/p/types_of_job/press_officer_job_description.jsp)

I already have a small amount of experience with writing press releases and news articles as these were some of the tasks I was required to do when I spent a week doing work experience with the website and record label Drowned In Sound.
I think becoming a Press Officer is definately something I would be capable of as I already have many of the skills necessary for the job. I make sure to keep up to date with any music news and public information in a number of ways; I check several music websites at regular intervals every day, I am an active member of several music forums and take part in many of the discussions regarding new music and the way it is promoted, and I keep a blog on which I voice my opinions on what's going on in the music world.
Some of the websites I often browse to keep up to date are:

NME.COM
drownedinsound.com
pitchfork.com
popjustice.com

And the main forums on which I participate in music related discussions are:

Popjustice Forums
Drowned In Sound Forums

The Media In Practice

As part of my course for this year one of the modules I am studying is The Media In Practice. This module involves identifying an area of employment within the media that interests me, then researching in to that career and the skills I might need to gain employment in this area.
As part of this module we also have guest speakers coming in to talk to the class about the areas they work in and answer any questions we might have regarding how they came to gain employment in that particular job and help us to discover what skills we will need if we are interested in that kind of work.
So far I know that I want to work in the music industry in some way, though I have yet to pinpoint a specifc area and will be exploring this more over the coming weeks and hopefully I will eventually have decided on what it is I'd like to do, and will begin to outline how I would go about getting the job I want.