How To Become A Media Assistant: What It Is and Career Path

What is a media assistant and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted expert

Steve Boddy

A Media assistant provides administrative assistance to a media team or media department of an organization. They perform tasks such as obtaining media and analyzing them. They also help to keep track of the performance of a media team and may be in charge of interactions between the media department and clients and media outlets. This may involve making appointments and confirming media placement. Media assistants also monitor media ad campaigns and perform a wide range of other administrative duties involved in the implementation, troubleshooting, or monitoring of media projects.

A minimum qualification of a bachelor's degree in marketing, communication, and other related fields may be required for this position. Skills needed to perform well as a media assistant may also include creativity and an ability to present ideas clearly and effectively. Excellent organizational and communication skills may also be needed.

The average annual income of a media assistant is $32,500.

What general advice would you give to a media assistant?

Steve Boddy

Content Director, WorldatWork

Graduates should expect fewer full-time employment opportunities. In some cases these opportunities will be accompanied by enhanced well-being benefits but lower salaries. There may be more contract and seasonal opportunities in the short term, which typically will not offer highly valued benefits like health insurance, retirement, and paid time off.

Full-time employment opportunities and competitive hiring wages are expected in high growth industries like technology, health care, logistics and distribution, and other essential jobs. These are most often accompanied with full benefits, which most recently has included increased offerings in well-being, remote work opportunities, and flexible schedules. However, most other organizations will offer fewer full time employment opportunities and potentially lower wages in job offers (due to supply of jobs and abundance of grads). Other reasons for downward pressure on salaries may include the graduates willingness to accept lower rates in favor of the option to work from home or desired geography. Lastly, more college grads are taking seasonal/contract roles, and may miss out on critical benefit offerings that are reserved for employees only (which often account for ~25 - 35% of their total rewards package).

So why does it matter? In all likelihood, new graduates may not start on the career path they envisioned for themselves, and will likely see slower wage growth over time. According to the WorldatWork 2020-2021 Salary Budget Survey released in August of this year, "The national total salary budget increase average fell this year - dropping to 2.9% - notably sudden, and somewhat expected, due to economic uncertainty. This decline represents a pronounced departure from the anticipated increase to 3.3% projected for 2020 a year ago." This is a tough time to be entering the workforce. The key is to be flexible in their job search. Graduates may have to sacrifice some benefits like healthcare and retirement in order to get "their foot in the door." The current reality is new college graduates are facing the worst job market in over a decade with more competition and lower salaries.

ScoreMedia AssistantUS Average

Salary

2.9

Avg. Salary $37,287

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

7.3

Growth rate 8%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

6.6

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.59%

Asian 5.29%

Black or African American 10.01%

Hispanic or Latino 11.90%

Unknown 5.08%

White 67.13%

Gender

female 61.34%

male 38.66%

Age - 40

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 40

Stress level

7.3

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.8

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

3.8

Work life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a media assistant

Explore media assistant education requirements

Most common media assistant degrees

Bachelor's

76.4 %

Associate

11.5 %

Master's

5.4 %

Start to develop specific media assistant skills

Skills	Percentages
Video Production	19.83%
Audio Equipment	5.63%
Visual Equipment	5.63%
Photography	4.96%
Press Releases	4.62%

Complete relevant media assistant training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-3 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New media assistants learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a media assistant based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real media assistant resumes.

Research media assistant duties and responsibilities

Manage a budget to purchase equipment and software for multimedia development and campus audio/visual needs.
Alter the style of animations and video material for company's YouTube channel and website.
Edit game footage to produce highlights that are publish on the WatchND website and WatchND YouTube account.
Maintain and update project checklists and PowerPoint presentations.

Prepare your media assistant resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your media assistant resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a media assistant resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable media assistant resume templates

Build a professional media assistant resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your media assistant resume.