Archives for December 8, 2013

According to a survey done by Kelly Global Workforce Index New Zealanders have utilized social media’s limitless possibilities better than Australia.  The survey states that 40% of New Zealanders have been contacted about a possible job.  While Australia trails with 38%.  Along with the possible jobs 17% of New Zealand’s respondents had found a job in this fashion while 14% Australians who did the survey secured jobs.  Again social media’s possibilities are endless.

Social media as a networking tool only makes sense in this day and age.  What other form of technology lets you find employers, chat with future employers, and give detailed info about yourself all in real time?  The answer? There is no other alternative.  Social media is transforming the job search and it will just be a matter of time until finding a job will be done exclusively on social media.  Technology is ever changing and people need to change with it.

Social media is “revolutionizing recruitment” and by doing so creates a whole new set of skills people must acquire to be productive in todays workplace.

A New Zealand man is using Social Media to find a woman he met last New Year’s Eve….through social media.  Sounds like something you’d see from a movie or worse Catfish?  Well Reese McKee has went to the world wide web to find his long lost love “Katie”.  In this day and age it isn’t to far fetched to think that Mr. McKee will find his one true love.  Thats the power of technology and social media!  It connects people who would have never had the chance to connect or in McKee’s case reconnect.  The internet gets a bad reputation but in this instance it could mean finding a long lost love.

source:

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11168322

Photo: Jose Jordan (AFP)

New Zealand lawmakers pulled a play straight from the ole George W.’ playbook this past summer when it was said to have the numbers in order to pass a law that would allow the interception of private communications in the name of national security.

The Patriot Act 2.0?

Regardless of the name, more power would be given to New Zealand’s domestic and foreign intelligence agencies – the Security Intelligence Service (SIS) and the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB). Lawmakers have said that both spy agencies need more resources and less legal restrictions to protect national security, as well as New Zealand’s international relations and economy.

“No matter how John Key tweaks the particular legislation in front of him, he won’t overcome the suspicion, not of a small group of paranoid people but a wide cross-section of New Zealanders who are asking justifiable questions about how the bodies work, how they should work and why they are needed,” former Foreign Minister Phil Goff told the New Zealand Herald.

You would think the world would have learned from our mistakes. But I suppose not. Now, the part that surprises me the most about all of this is why exactly is there a national security issue in New Zealand? Last I checked there weren’t any Al Qaeda members lines up on the coast line to spring an attack there. Why does the government feel the need to claim national security as a priority in this measure at the expense of the privacy of its citizens.

Sources:

http://www.isidewith.com/article/expansive-new-zealand-surveillance-bill-expected-to-pass-through

This story, though a few months old, gives us some insight into Australia and some of their takes on what would be viewed as “free speech issues” here in the States.

Honi Soit, the student newspaper at Sydney University, published an issue featuring a cover photo of 18 different vaginas to protest censorship and over-sexualization of lady parts in a story entitled “The Vagina Dialouges”, but the cover never saw circulation as it was censored by the lawyers of the Student Representatives council. The paper then published a version with the vulvae covered by black bars, but again were told by the council, which operates the newspaper, that they didn’t hide enough and pulled 4000 copies off of the shelves.

“The idea that the vagina, a body part that half the population, can still be considered offensive or indecent is the very idea our paper was challenging,” the issue’s editor-in-chief, Hannah Ryan, said. “The cover was meant to be an empowering message to women that they don’t need to be ashamed of their bodies. This response, and the fact that it is possibly criminal, is therefore incredibly disappointing.”

I felt that as a journalist this is something that is a danger to our profession if a University can just step in and drop the hammer down, who’s to say that free press is free any more?

Sources (Viewer Discretion Advised):

http://jezebel.com/student-mag-censored-for-featuring-18-different-vaginas-1180714520

http://www.honisoit.com/2013/08/the-vagina-dialogues/

Photo: Greg Wood (AFP)

Qantas and Virgin Airlines Australia are currently engaged in a public battle over who is better off under the existing regulations that govern airlines in Australia, with the  two pieces of legislation and seem to be at the center of the controversy being the Qantas Sale Act and the Air Navigation Act.

The Qantas Sale Act was enacted in 1992 to ensure Virgin retained majority Australian ownership after privatization, with foreign ownership in the flying kangaroo is capped at 49 percent and single foreign investors cannot own more than 25 percent of the company. The Air Navigation act demands that Virgin maintain Australian ownership in order to continue to have access to routes in and out of the country.

Qantas feels that because Virgin has partial ownership from three different other foreign airlines, Virgin is being intentionally ran at a loss in order to drive them out of business. Qantas pointed out other ways the Federal Government could assist it, including a Commonwealth guarantee on its debt.

Virgin CEO John Borghetti says any assistance should be extended to them, and is calling for an end to the Qantas Sale Act saying the airline has no problem competing on a level playing field with Qantas.

Virgin split its domestic and international operations in 2012 in order to comply to government mandate, allowing all international affairs to be done primarily by Australian ownership, while domestic affairs would be foreign owned.

Source: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-12-08/qantas-versus-virgin/5142932