As week 12 was used by Jason to gain feedback on the subject and the digital communication field in general.

My suggestion for the digital communications major would have to be a clearer structure and a specific explanation of its relevance to particular jobs. i.e. what jobs we can expect to be eligible for? This question has been asked in different classes and digc subjects but I still feel it is yet to be addressed properly and has been answered in a vague way. A common question I am asked when I tell people that I am studying digc is “what jobs can you get when you graduate then?”. At the moment, I can’t answer that!

Overall I felt that our groups presentation (myself, Dane and Ellen) went fairly well. I was quite happy with how the VUE software worked, although it didn’t go quite as well as it was advertised, as to me it seemed primarily like a slideshow (but less user friendly to create). I have to give major props to Dane, who did most of the hard yards in putting together the presentation

One of the major criticisms that we faced was integrating academic sources into what we were arguing. We did our best to rectify this for our final report, and I think we made a pretty solid effort of it, however as Dane has already mentioned, finding academic resources that directly referenced Obama were difficult to find because his election  was so recent. Instead we integrated sources that commented primarily on the way new media is shaping and will shape the political process in the future

have to say I was quite worried after seeing everyone elses presentations. The Film voir presentation blew me away, especially due to the amount of effort put in and the diffferent media platforms covered. The use of Tiny Chat by Vince and the boys was a clever way to present in a different but effective way- and definitely less complicated than their original idea. The YouTube video was really well put together, and Wills experience in this field certainely became clear- it was awesome.

Overall good times had by all:)

Electronic Frontiers Australia is currently running a campaign against the proposed internet filter in Australia. Coming mostly from the left wing (through idea’s of freedom of political expression and information), it argues that the plan will waste tens of millions of taxpayer dollars and slow down Internet access for no good reason. It has been universally condemned by the public, ISPs, State Governments, Media and censorship experts. Furthermore, those who wish to access illegal material will be able to easily bypass the filter, therefore punishing only innocent internet users.

EFA does not ask for any donations. Instead, It asks users to sign an online petition, as well as providing a letter template and contact details for Senator Steven Conroy (minister for broadband, digital economy). EFA encourages users to send this letter to Senator Controy as well as their local Member of Paliament to raise their concerns and put pressure on this policy. Users are provided url’s for ‘stop the clean feed’ widgets to place on their blogs and social networking pages. They are also encouraged to use the #nocleanfeed hashtag on twitter to stimulate discussion and debate amongst the broader community.

This campaign is fairly broad in nature, in that it will affect all internet users, but is particularly focussed towards the technical savvy, as they will have the most to lose from such a filter being implemented.

The site is fairly interactive, as it encourages users to give feedback to their plans of action, as well as providing action paths through the above listed forms of political action.

The websites design is quite minimalistic in its design, which involves a black background and white font. Large red colouring for the heading “NO CLEAN FEED” emphasises the urgency and dire nature of tghe situation. Through such a simple design, attention is focussed on the message EFA is providing, thus ensuring maximum impact.

look at online campaign from ngo on any issue, can be left wing or right wing. Analyse it: what is it asking: Donate, sign a petition?
What is its message?
Who is the target? Who is being spoken to?
What are they being offered membership to?
Interactive?
Design?
National/International?

For this post, I am focussing on the colussus that is General Electric, and more specifically, its news media interests.

Who- General Electric is the public parent of an amazing 1 945 companies (the worlds largest corporation), with over 323 000 employees. Many of GE’s subsidiary brands could be on the fortune 500 list on their own.  General Electric is ranked 5 on this list.

What- Being such a large company, it is pretty hard to describe all its interests and assets, but some of them include: aircraft engines, power generation, water processing, security technology, medical imaging, business and consumer financing, media content and industrial products.  NBC appears to be its main media interest. GE owns 80% of NBC, with Vivendi international (who own Universal) owning the remaing 20%. Despite its vast interests, GE appears to have no real interest in expanding into other media fields, and doesn’t have any news media interests.
GE owns $797,769,000,000 worth of assets (no, that is not a typo).

When- GE was formed by Thomas Edison in 1890, and was incorporated in 1892. It originaly functioned as a patent holder for many of Edison’s designs. As discussed above, GE has since diversified into area’s such as oil and gas, engines, finance, media entertainment, and banking. Recently, GE has been pushing into the green energy market, investing billions each year in solar, wind and geothgermal power, perhaps as a means of diverting attention from the fact that it is the 4th biggest corporate air polluter in America (over 2000 tonnes per year).

Where- GE is a multinational conglomerate headquartered in Fairfield, Conneticut. Its New York main offices are located at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Rockefeller Center, known as the GE Building. NBC’s headquarters and main studios are also located in the building.

Why- With its media interests mostly focussed on NBC, GE’s political influence is much more subtle. Most of its influence is wielded through donations, contributions and PR campaigns. For example In the ‘05/’06 election cycle, GE donated $1,281,400 to political campains, 63% of which went to the republican party. In 2006, GE spent $19,420,000 for lobbying in 2006. $4,050,000 of this total went to 39 outside lobbying organisations.

Global media corps:

Who- Ownership, management, employees

What- Business, Assets, what are they selling

When- history (esp. recent history)

Where- where is business being conducted, where they own things, where are their outlets

Why- political influence to leverage change? mouthpiece? market positioning for a certain market niche?

SWOT

I have been trying to find work in Human Resources (and more specifically, the recruitment and selection field), preferably in the Wollongong area.

With HR planning being rather long term in scope, I found the majority of jobs appeared to be permanent full time (which appears to be increasingly rare in today’s working environment). However, most of these permanaent, higher paying jobs ($75 000- $100 000) are only on offer to those with experience and proven track records.
So after graduation, one of the few jobs I would actually be eligible for is the ‘Recruitment and Office Administrator’ for a company called Angel Personnel Pty Ltd, which is located in the Wollongong CBD. The job basically involves recruitment consultancy, with Angel Personnel acting as an external recruiting agency for local businesses. So my roles would include screening applicants, conducting interviews, analytical work, etc.

The salary is $50 000- $55 000 plus super and benefits. This is a relatively small amount, but it pretty standard rate for most entry level positions.

Employment for this job is based on a one year contract, but has “the option to extend for the right candidate”
The job was advertised of seek.com, I searched Angel Personnels website but found that their empoyment section had the same job ad that was found on seek.com.

There are a fair few HR professional forums, such as http://community.blr.com/hr/forums/10/ShowForum.aspx, or http://www.hrbuzz.com.au/forum/
These forums allow HR professionals to post questions relelvent to specific topics where peers can post advice or opinions to help work through problems.

After deciding to enter the lucrative computer mouse market, a simple google search directed me to http://bishengda.en.alibaba.com/product/231462238-209374660/ACRYLIC_COMPUTER_MOUSE.html, a derivitive website of Shenzhen Bishengda Plastics Plant.

Its shipping conditions are as follows:
Minimum order quantity: 2000
Packaging details: box packaging into master carton
Delivery time: within 15 days
Payment Terms: T/T Western Union
Supply Ability: 5000 pieces per day

So effectively within 15 days i could have 2000 computer mouses arriving at Port Kembla direct from Guandong, China. However, I would have to enquire further to get an actual price out of the firm, however they do assure me that they are the best quality and a reasonable price.

A view of the high quality production factory can be seen here:
http://maps.google.com.au/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=7+Longhu+road+Shenzhen&sll=22.543737,114.056279&sspn=0.001801,0.002406&ie=UTF8&ll=22.719359,114.289473&spn=0.003597,0.004812&t=h&z=18&iwloc=A

This map depicts 93 of the world’s major submarine cable systems and 28 planned systems that are due to enter service by 2011. Similar to the maps shown by Jason in the lectures, the submarine cable systems seem to follow a very similar route as the old spice routes.
Probably the most interesting (but least surprising) aspect of this map is the obvious heavy traffic between North America and both Japan and Europe. Traffic is also quite heavy in the majority of South East Asia. As such, this map shows clear evidence of the digital divide that exists between technologically advanced and technologically disadvantaged countries, and therefore gives a visual representation of how third world countries are being left behind in even more ways.