Realizing the Power of Data
Experience Analyst
After discovering how data can be used to tell a story, Arika Ho’s studies altered course from journalism to data science.
Arika Ho (M.A.S. DSC ’21)Arika Ho says her career goals include becoming a successful data scientist in the domains of journalism, marketing/public relations, and public policy. Optimizing a recommendation system for news consumers to best fits their reading behavior has been a dream of hers, and she says she always wanted to master marketing mix modeling, which helps estimate the impact on return on investment of various marketing campaigns.
“My interest in social issues has evolved from my journalism study and being a student leader during Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protest era between 2013 and 2017.” Ho says. “I realized there are a lot of unheard or suppressed voices whose stories I would like to tell.”
Ho says she realized the power of data and wanted to develop a career with data after her first data analysis project, where the study outcome showed my company’s Facebook page did not perform as well as expected when the statistics included the data generated after sharing. This drove an executive board decision to adjust their strategy with the content team.
“Back then, I did not know data could be a medium to tell stories and truth, and even make change,” Ho says.