Parsing 外から観た自分をとらえ、それを「こう見てほしい」という自分の実像に近づけていくことだ


> 自分の聞いてもらいたいことを聞いてもらえるメディアになる。  
>  「メディア力を高める」とは、そういう意味だ。少し引いた目で、外から観た自分をとらえ、それを「こう見てほしい」という自分の実像に近づけていくことだ。

I wonder how I should parse this sentence

  * （外から観た）自分をとらえる: I take what I see from the outside **or**
  * （外から観た自分）をとらえ: To grasp what another people think about me from the outside

Should こう見てほしい という自分の実像に近づけていくことだ be translated as "I want to see this..." or
"I want to be seen like this (?) （こう見てほしい） which is almost similar to the real
image （自分の実像に近づけていくことだ）"




I will divide your question into two parts.

  1. 「外から観た自分をとらえ」

I think meaning of this part is ''to grasp what another people think about
me.''

To see a person from outside is inevitably by another people. So I think we do
not need to explicitly translate 観る as ''from the outsides.''

Japanese word 観る or 見る has really broad meaning. The root meaning is ''see''
with your eyes visually. But often we use as ''understand'' or ''think.'' In
this sentence, 観る is related to a public image of the media.

  2. 「それを『こう見てほしい』という自分の実像に近づけていくことだ」

それ means the public image of the media, and こと at the end is 「メディア力を高める」 in
the second sentence.

So, this means ''if you want to enhance メディア力, you should make your public
image close to what you really are.''

  3. misc.

〜〜力（りょく） in Japanese language has wide range of use.

For example, 体力（たいりょく） means physical strength, endurance, stamina.

女子力（じょしりょく） means ability of doing housework, skill of makeup, etc.

