Social Networks and Job Finding

1. LinkedIn is considered the number 1 spot for job seekers. With more than 35 million users.What you must do is optimize your profile, join and participate in groups, use its applications and exchange endorsements.


2. Plaxo is very interesting because of the address book that keeps track of all your contact information, including a Yahoo!Map indicating where your contacts live.


3. Twitter is an amazing tool although I must confess I still don't understand the way the conversations flow or how I can add to a discussion. Anyway, it is considered an amazing tool "if you can unlock its power"


4. Jobster is said to be a powerful platform for employers offering jobs and for employees searching for them. You can upload your resume, embed your video resume, show your picture, tag your skills and show links to your site.


5. Some more interesting websites


Craiglist, MyWorkster, VisualCV, JobFox, Ecademy

Will the Arizona shootings change our political culture? American people wonder

A 22-year-old college dropout shot 20 people last Saturday in an attempt to assessinate a female politician in Arizona. There were six casualties.
 

The question is: "Is there anything that can be done (by politicians, the media or just ordinary citizens) to ensure something like this does not happen again?"

Read the comments about students participating in The Learning Network, an eduactional section in The New York Times and have a dare to share your own ideas.

November 25th: International day against Domestic Violence

Violence against women and girls is one of the most widespread violations of human rights.  According to UNIFEM, six out of every ten women in the world experience nowadays physical and/or sexual violence in their lifetime.

Gender issues in advertising are also a fascinating topic to be considered. You can watch this TV programme on Gender stereotypes in Advertising.

You can also listen to Behind the Wall, a beautiful but sad song by Tracy Chapman.
 Can you understand the lyrics of the song?

Not as Web Savvy as we think: we may be giving Google too much credibility

Google it! And that's what we simply do for nearly everything.We trust Google so much that we just click on websites that turn up at the top of Google searches thinking to ourselves: "Okay, if Google placed it number one, of course it's credible!". According to Eszter Hargittai, associate professor of communication studies at Northwestern. "This is potentially tricky because Google doesn't rank a site by its credibility."

If you were asked to bring up the page that's usually on their screen when you start using the Web, wouldn't it be Google's?

A recent study published by the International Journal of Communication: "Trust Online. Young Adult's Evaluation of Web Content", 102 students at the University of Illinois at Chicago sat at computers with researchers.The activity on their screens was captured on video as researchers gave the students a variety of hypothetical information-seeking tasks to perform online. Time and again, researchers watched students navigate to brand-name search engines--usually Google--and to brand-name websites to find information. Researchers also asked students questions about websites they chose.

"Many students think, 'Google placed it number one, so, of course it's credible,'" said Eszter Hargittai, associate professor of communication studies at Northwestern. "This is potentially tricky because Google doesn't rank a site by its credibility." Search engine rankings seemed extremely important. A website's layout or content almost didn't even matter to the students. What mattered was that it was the number one result on Google!
Some of the students did give more credibility to websites ending in dot-gov, dot-edu or dot-org. However, Hargittai said most didn't know dot-org domain names could be registered by anyone, and thus are not inherently different from dot-com sites.Aside from Google, other online brands that students mentioned most often to complete tasks were: Yahoo!, SparkNotes, MapQuest, Microsoft, Wikipedia, AOL and Facebook.

"Just because younger people grew up with the Web doesn't mean they're universally savvy with it," Hargittai said.
"Educators should show specific websites in class and talk about why a source is or isn't credible." Here you are some hints which can help you evaluate websites.
  Think about your own reasons and benefits to get web-savvy!!!
                                                        

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness (Matthew 5:6)

At first we felt rather disappointed. Nobody had bothered to tell us Jon Lee Anderson was not coming to the talk. All of us had made a huge effort to attend the conference and there was only one interviewer - Gervasio Sánchez- who was a real dark horse. Never ever had I imagined the shocking pics and info he kept in his laptop: the proof of so much disgrace, pain an unjustice being suffered abroad. As his talk went on, I wondered why South America, why Iraq, why had he been working for so long in faraway places...? And eventually he told us about his recent decision to stay for the next 5 years in Spain, following the controversial issue of the Spanish Civil War exhumations.
I did not agree with his disbelief in New Technologies. It is precisely because of them that alternative ways of doing journalism can be spread all over the world. We left the place convinced of the discouraging context of corruption and cowardice around us, being the media controlled by economical interests and greedy politicians. I wasn't starving any more when I took the bus home. I even felt 20 years younger thinking that there was hope of some kind if people like Gervasio do exist in the world. Congratulations for such a worthy and extraordinary working life. His incredible laptop contained hundreds of stories of broken lives who deserve at least a moment of respect and consideration from us.

A talk with Jon Lee Anderson

Jon Lee Anderson (California, 1957) wil be visiting Alicante in one of the cultural events organized by the C.A.M. entitled "El Mercado de la Verdad". Two famous journalists: Gervasio Sánchez (Córdoba, 1959) and himself, will discuss about the implications of the media and the journalists in the telling of the real truth when dealing with armed conflicts or humanitarian actions which eventually become human catastrophes.

Here's a link to a talk with Jon Lee Anderson which was recorded as a podcast (30th June, 2008), you can read the transcript while listening to the mp3. I find it an interesting warm-up activity before next Tuesday's talk in the C.A.M. We can't miss it!

You may have probably heard of wikileaks, a controversial website launched in 2006, whose main interest is expossing oppressive regimes all over the world. Julian Assange - an Australian journalist- shows himself as one of the main representatives (=director?) of this international organization which publishes anonymous submissions (also called leaks= filtraciones) preserving the anonymity of sources.

INGLÉS PARA LOS MEDIOS DE COMUNICACIÓN- Nuevo plazo de inscripción

En su novena edición, este monográfico amplía sus horas para poder adaptarse a todo un curso académico -
DURACIÓN: 19 octubre 2010 - 20 mayo 2011
HORARIO: todos los martes y 4 viernes (18:00-20:00)en el aula 4I (4º piso)
Tasas: 213,60 € (50% F. N. y/o minusvalía acreditada)
CERTIFICACIÓN OFICIAL 60 HORAS
INFORMACIÓN y MATRÍCULA:
Secretaría de la EOI Alicante (C/ Marqués de Molins 56-58)
COMIENZO DE CLASES: martes 19 de octubre de 2010
Sesión informativa sobre el curso: martes 5 de octubre en el aula 4I
Información: dolores.alemany@ua.es