Sit down and fight.

The rise of the 5th estate is having a huge effect on the way politicians, the media and the corporate interact with the public. Social media is a hugely powerful tool- word of mouth can make or break a business and, thanks to the internet, can travel like wildfire. Politicians, media & corporate have to own up to their mistakes and apologise to the damaged parties. To put it simply, they get called on their sh*t.
Which is great. There is no downside to keeping politicians and other public figures honest.

The best thing about the 5th estate is giving the public a microphone to help improve our world. Online activism sites are a big part of the internet and a fantastic way to educate and involve people in helping our planet. If enough people talk, the leaders listen.

That's not to say the 5th estate is all good news. Where there are true accusations, there are false accusations. And once something is on the internet, that's it. It will always be there for anyone to find. Julia Gillard is finding this out the hard way: '[a newspaper] republished a false and highly defamatory  claim about my conduct in relation to these matters 17 years ago.'
The internet never forgets.

But if occasional falsifications are necessary in order to have a virtual watchdog on the politicians, media & corporate, as well as the chance to speak up for ourselves and make a stand, then so be it. Every system is flawed and why should this be an exception?

Doesn't everyone have bigger things to worry about

It's called the sporting arena, not the sporting, politics & ideology arena. I don't watch sport, but if I did I would just want to be entertained, not forced into an internal debate.

That being said, what Damien Hooper did is apparently an issue, and as to whether or not it was more positive or negative, I am divided.



   + On one hand I respect Damien's courage and pride in his heritage, but then again who doesn't love a rebel? Another thing to consider is that most Australians have an in-built sense of guilt and sympathy towards the Indigenous people. If he was from another country I doubt we'd be on his side.

   - On the other hand he broke the rules. Rules are rules. If there are no rules we have anarchy. And anarchy isn't nice. Damien's issues with the uniform should have been addressed before the fight.



In the end what it comes down to is stepping back and looking at the bigger picture: is it really that big of a deal? No. Was anyone hurt by his actions? No.

My last thoughts on the matter: if no one was allowed to express their opinion ever, the world would be a very dull place.

Terrific or Trashy

Who says it better?

For the purposes of this weekly task I will do an individual analysis of each site, giving it a star rating with the highest number referring to the best site. I am finding this rather hard, because I think the majority of journalism is propaganda. Designed to persuade the masses to agree with somebodies personal agenda or views... I don't like being manipulated... I wont say ALL journalists are like that, but every body has an opinion and it is extremely difficult to keep said opinions out of our writings and don't forget the media industry is a  BUSINESS it serves to suit its own purposes and needs.

1 STAR

The Australia Institute:

Is it effective?

This site was BORING...

Who is the audience?

This site is aimed at the educated citizens that have an interest in the statistics of our environment and government.

My opinion?

The first thing I noticed on this site was the constantly moving rss feed bar, I found it very distracting and the speed of it was way to quick. I didn't like this site at all, yes it seemed very informative... But what good is information if I'm to busy sleeping to read it? I spent less time on this site then any other, So no "not effective"... Yes the information is there but the interest isn't, it seems so formal and ridged.

2 STARS

Sydney Morning Herald:

Is it effective?

No not for me...

Who is the audience?

I think this site is designed for young to middle aged people. I think it's also aimed at middle class citizens, those who have a basic education. Those that want to stay aware of whats going on, but don't have enough motivation or time to investigate the articles any further.

My opinion?

I don't like this site, it made me frustrated and it felt like they where "dumbing" things down. I don't believe that the top rated articles are the most important news stories of the day either. I found this site to confusing, with a clutter of stories all over the place it seemed like there is no order to anything. The short excerpts from the top stories seemed like something out of a trash mag not a news paper. I was unimpressed...

3 STARS

Daily Telegraph:

Is it effective?
   
This site is below the middle for me... Is it effective?  yes and no... I liked a couple of the articles especially in the weird section, but I found that quite a few of there articles don't seem to be very news worthy, on one page they have an article on the tsunami threat and one on a cricket stars refusal to sell baby photos... Hmmmmm

Who is the audience?

This site is aimed at the average business class Joe, middle aged and with a middle class education.

My opinion?

This site is trying to do to much, there is so much to look at all different categories and styles. Normally this would be good, but in this case its just over whelming. Like the Sydney Morning Herald this site feels like it has no order to it. This site also seems confused about whether or not it's a gossip mag or NEWS paper site... with the different levels of reporting that are displayed.

4 STARS

The Huffington Post:

Is it effective?

Not for me..

Who is the audience?

This site, I think is aimed at slightly younger crowd then the others, because there is considerably more pictures.

My opinion?

I love the photo gallery idea at the top, the writing underneath is a bit confusing though. The articles are a bit long still and a lot of the quick read links jump to school related sites i.e. 10 of the ugliest collages. This site needs to be cleaned a bit before it goes up the list.

5 STARS

The Global Mail:

Is it effective?

Yeah I guess...

Who is the audience?

People that are interested in what's happening around the world are targeted by this site, I'm guessing middle age with a average to high level of education.

My opinion?

The articles on this site seemed a bit long winded it isn't recommended for people with a short attention span like me... They are interesting and informative but really long, every article is set out the same and there is barely any variety. Also this site seems very judgmental it seemed like all the articles were either one way or another, no middle ground. I won't be spending my spare time reading this site...

6 STARS

Crikey:

Is it effective?

Yes and No... Yes because a lot of the articles are good and no because again it seems really cluttered up.

Who is the audience?

I think this site is aimed at the more tech savvy people out there, the side links and some of the stories are aimed at people the jump around the web with ease.

My opinion?

I like the idea for the layout at the bottom, the categories are split up rather differently then the rest of the sites so it was a nice change. This site has a lot of advertising to and social media connections/ads, I think its is trying to fit to much in.

7 STARS 

ABC:

Is it effective?

Yes... This site was well planned out, organised and full of reliable unbiased information.

Who is the audience?

This site has a range of fields aimed at all different people, it has intelligent pieces that are well written and easily understandable.

My opinion?

I really liked this site it was easy to navigate and the majority of the articles were very interesting.

8 STARS

The Conversation:

Is it effective?

Yes...

Who is the audience?

This site is aimed at people from teens to the elderly with a middle to high education level, This site encourages those readers to investigate issues by posing the articles as question style pieces, especially the matters of the mind section.

My opinion?

I enjoyed this site, because the range of articles was huge. The articles where interesting and informative. I found it very effective, the simplicity of this site made it easy to navigate through and I found the headlines eye catching, with out seeming to over the top and they where relevant to the stories. The only problem I had with this site was that the excerpts seemed to be cut to short, not giving enough information on the article.

 The Conversation said it best...

There is a large variety of media outlets out there... you just have to find the ones you like and never base an opinion solely on one article, newspaper, website or source because that one angle could be wrong. When I play a claw machine I look at the toys from all the available angles to get the full picture, that is how the news should be interpreted. 

There is 3 sides to the truth yours, theirs and what really happened...



Let's not forget the media is a business.

Hasn't news coverage always been voyeuristic?


The press has no qualms about taking invasive photos, hacking into phones etc. The media is a business and they're just trying to keep their jobs and draw our attention as much as possible. And most of the time, we fall for it. It's impossible not to be interested in a news title containing the words 'gun' 'horror' 'dead' and 'madman'. It may be perverse, but it's the way we are. The media will not change until we change. And that's not likely to ever happen. We, as people, will always be interested in horrifying events. It's in our nature.



However, that's not to say that things should be changed, especially some things- it makes me sick when I see pics of celebrity families enjoying family time, with the photos taken from behind a tree.

And then they'll have a photo of wife celeb looking slightly disgruntled in the direction of husband celeb, with the caption 'Uh oh! Is this marriage on the rocks? Let us know what you think in the comments!'
Because it's not even slightly possible that the sun could have been in her eyes, or some other equally preposterous theory.



The media can be a monster, but we're to blame for feeding it.

Deforestation is not an issue, it is a tragedy.

Forests are my favourite natural things on this planet, and so far half of them have been destroyed. 7 million hectares of forest are cleared every day. At the current rate they could vanish in a hundred years.





This makes me furious. The thought of our planet entirely covered in grey polluted cities kills me inside. Our planet is a gift and we should be taking care of it, not clearing all the land, and leaching all the minerals out of the earth, and projecting tons of poison into the atmosphere.

So what steps can we take to put a stop to deforestation? Greenpeace has a game plan. If you follow this link you will their steps outlined:
- create preservation parks
- enforce harsher penalties on illegal loggers and the people who knowingly buy from them
- educate consumers to only buy Good-wood friendly products and to use recycled products, and
- encourage eco-forestry practices within the communities.

The Amazon Rainforest is one of the world's most precious assets, yet 20% of it has been cleared so far and 200 square miles are being cleared every day. Check out Greenpeace's video outlining the issue and what you can do to help.

The world needs to change before it's too late. If the entire planet ends up looking like the picture below in a few hundred years, I'll be glad I'm no longer alive.

Rise of the "5th Estate"

Citizen journalism, online activism groups and social media sites have morphed into what is being termed the "5th Estate". How is the rise of the 5th estate affecting the way Politicians, the media and the corporate world interact with the broader public?

The rise of the "5th Estate" affects the way politicians the media and the corporate world interacts with the broader public because media coverage is no longer the sole provider of the most current up to date information available. With the invention of social  networking anyone who has an account can post up information to the global community.
The rise of the "5th Estate" affects the way politicians interact with the broader public as now everyone has a voice and its impossible to keep things in the dark once the information has been leaked publicly. Politicians are now alot more politically correct as a single offensive quote may be posted globally within seconds. It also affects how things are run as now we can see a far more indicative version of what the public wants rather then the way it was before the internet.
Online activism groups give voice to the different groups of people that may have not had a voice in the past such as a minority group. They also disclose information about politicians that are for and against their policies giving the viewer a clear choice as to who to vote for in order to get the legislation they want.

Internet: Postives/ Negatives

The internet has changed the world. List some positive and negative aspects of this change.

The internet has changed the world. The changes have been both positive and negative the global sharing of information has benefited many people as well as social networking proving to be a tool of procrastination.
The positives of the internet range from easily accessible information to reliable sources it aids the researcher of any topic greatly as the information provided is diverse and comes from a range of different sources across the globe. It's the researchers job to sort through the information provided to find reliable sources. A topic researched on the internet will have a range of differing opinions on the matter giving the researcher a more open minded view as all aspects of the topic are covered from all different viewpoints. A singular source may only provide a bias view on the topic whereas a multitude of sources gives the researcher a far more in depth understanding of what is trying to be understood.
The negatives of the internet range from sharing of virus's to providing tools of procrastination. Virus's are sent through emails and video links as well as pop ups. Virus's negative impacts range from deletion of computer memory/information to file corruption and virus's can even resend themselves through emails sent from your computer. As a tool of procrastination the internet offers free games and social networking which can provide a distraction to those who have work to complete and topics to research.

Damien Hooper does what Damien Hooper does because he is... Damien Hooper

Damien Hooper made a bold statement to politics when he chose to wear the aboriginal flag to his Olympic fight. Is it Courageous? anti-patriotic?

In this case I think there’s a positive aspect to both sides of the arguement. There is nothing wrong with showing your heritage and wearing your flag with pride. We live in multicultural societies now, we can express our patriotism to whichever flag. But an Olympic event is and always will be between nations and that means global media coverage, add Damien Hooper’s little moment to the mix and you get controversy.

You can’t deny the fact that he’s got balls for what he did, his actions will forever be judged by the world. Some may say, “He didn’t choose to represent fellow Australians” or quote “One country, One Flag” propaganda. But in the end does it really matter? He’s representing his native Australian background and to be honest, that’s good enough for me. However it didn’t sit well with Olympic Committee as they’ve asked for a public apology. No apology needed from me son, just fight for what you stand for. Pun intended.

Internet, I love thee.

Internet has most definitely changed the world. I think it's safe to say that it's for the better, as there are many pros as opposed to a few cons.


Here are just a few of the things that the internet has made possible. You can:

- meet and talk to people from all over the world
- have 24/7 access to tons of information, you can learn about anything you want
- have a live news source
- email people
- look up health and diy solutions
- do chores like transfer money, report your earnings etc without having to stand in a queue

- look up product reviews
- look up any recipe
- look up phone numbers
- book travel tickets and accommodation
- look for jobs, submit your resume
- watch/download movies, tv shows, music, games, software

- study by distance, particularly useful for disabled people or people who live in rural areas
- google maps lets you virtually travel the world and see places you otherwise might never have seen
- buy practically anything you want from all over the world, and sell things as well
- keep in touch with, or find, relatives
- raise money, raise awareness, promote your business, etc
- work from home, great for disabled people
- share the great photos you take, articles you write etc
- stalk your crush

However, the pros come with cons. Here are some of the negative aspects of the internet:

- with so much information available, it is easy for someone to learn things like how to make an explosive device, or how to produce drugs
- cyber-bullying is a result of the anonymity of the internet, many times a person would never had spoken to the other person like that if they were face to face
- weapon of distraction- there are so many entertaining things to do on the internet that some people can have a difficult time focusing
- people are getting lazier when it comes to personally speaking to people instead of emailing them
- hackers can steal your information, bank details etc
- everything is moving online, which means people are getting physically lazier and gaining weight
- ads and influential media can affect the impressionable, desensitise etc
- if you look up your symptoms on google you'll end up terrified
- kids can develop social problems from using the internet too much instead of getting outside and playing with others
- the crazy kid with a crush on you can stalk you

Overall I view the internet as a good thing, a necessary thing, and for me the pros will always outweigh the cons.

Quality over quantity, please

Small class size vs. quality teachers.
Both variables are highly important and, ideally, both would be in place at the same time. But often this is not the case and it must be one or the other.

Smaller class sizes mean more classes, more teachers, and as a result, a lower standard of teaching.
These smaller classes have the advantage of less distractions and more one-on-one help from the teachers. But what is the point of this if the teacher is sub-par?

Larger class sizes mean fewer classes and fewer teachers, which means more effort and money can be put into ensuring the best quality teachers are hired. A good teacher can be extremely advantageous in a student's life, and pave the way to a rewarding career.

The opposition education spokesman Christopher Pyne states that 'Australia's education system is not attracting the best people to the profession', and 'there is no evidence that smaller class sizes somehow produce better student outcomes. In spite of Australia having small class sizes for 10 years... their outcomes have gone backwards.'

In my opinion, both smaller class size and quality teachers are equally important, but if we were to pick one to work on first, it should be improving the quality of teaching.

I have had a couple of exceptional teachers in my school years, and it is these teachers that inspired me, made me push myself and realise my potential, and actually made me learn and remember the subject. I believe quality teachers are invaluable in a willing-to-learn student's life, and that more time and effort should be put into ensuring more of them are hired.

5 Second Rule

There are so many millions of websites on the internet that, as a result, I have a 5 second rule. If a new website hasn't caught my interest within 5 seconds, or if something about it actively annoys me within that time period, I leave.

I utilise this when analysing websites. This immediately rules out 'The Australian Institute.' I mean, the background is a bogey colour.

As a side not, this highlights one of the problems of today's society. We have so many choices available that choosing just one comes down to picking at small, insignificant things, and we get so caught up in the process of choosing that we forget how lucky we are to have any of the choices in the first place.

The second website to analyse, 'The Sydney Morning Herald', is a comprehensive, accessible news source detailing stories that locals would be interested in. The layout is fairly small, to fit as many news stories into the one page without scrolling down as possible, which is a plus. It doesn't particularly interest me however as I am not a Sydney local, and the stories are too small-scale ('child injured' 'suspect collared' 'profit wins' etc) to incite much interest in anyone who isn't. The targeted audience: adult Sydneysiders of any income.

'The Conversation' is too academic for my taste. 'Unlocking university expertise', 'new study challenges exoplanet doubts', 'political staffers aren't killing the public service' etc. I've never heard of an exoplanet before. I don't know what political staffers are. I'm not going to use a site if I have to keep looking up words.
For intelligent people though, the site looks like a comprehensive source of interesting news and information, with an aesthetically pleasing photo-to-text ratio.
The target audience: people more intelligent than myself, with scholarly interests.

'The Global Mail' has too much scrolling for too few news stories. It doesn't even have that many news stories on the first page and I can't see an option to load more. As it's slogan says, it's targeted at 'independent minds' ('Independent journalism for independent minds') which probably means younger uninfluenced people.
That's 5 seconds up. Next.

'The Telegraph' has a good layout; it starts off with a large photo/news story that changes every few seconds, and then underneath are smaller news stories with small photos and a few lines of summary, and then at the bottom of the page are lines of just text. So it's actually an inverted pyramid.
There is an abundance of tabs and links, and the addition of the weather on top of the home page is good. This site is effective. It's not exciting, but adequate. It's targeted at the same audience as 'The Sydney Morning Herald'.

I can't say the same for 'ABC News'. The text is small, the site looks cheap and there is a huge photo of some guy looking stoned on the front. It's main focus is on politics, which doesn't interest me. Most likely targeted at politically-minded adults. 5 seconds.

'The Huffington Post' engaged me the most out of all these sites. For one, it's name is 'The Huffington Post'. Secondly it has an abundance of articles on a variety of subjects, with a great photo-to-text ratio. It's accessible and interesting. It is also separated into columns; the middle column feature politics, the right hand side is for social media and the left hand side features blog posts about interesting issues. Target audience: probably younger people. I bookmarked it.

'Crikey' is also a site that I bookmarked. It has a range of articles (politics, business, media, culture, technology', a really interesting, eye-catching layout and like 'The Telegraph' it also utilises the inverted pyramid. Target audience: younger Australian people.


In conclusion, 'The Huffington Post' and 'Crikey' are the most engaging sites in my opinion, with 'The Australian Institute' and 'ABC News' coming last.

If you want to know what God thinks about money, just look at who he gives it to.

"If you're jealous of those with more money, don't just sit there and complain; do something to make more money yourself - spend less time drinking, or smoking and socialising, and more time working" says Gina Rinehart, who is now richer than many poor countries thanks to the fortune that got handed to her.

As a working Australian, her comments make me seethe.

Granted, cutting back on drinking and smoking is never bad advice, but telling us to work more and have less relaxation time is pure insolence. This woman is sitting on a throne of mostly unearned fortune and thinks she has the right to lecture us about working more. Would you take relationship advice from someone who has been single for almost all their life? No.

And let's not forget this is coming from someone who earns $2 million per hour, yet doesn't even give to charity. 

Gina talks about having our best interests at heart, yet somehow also thinks that lowering the minimum wage and cutting taxes is a good idea. She talks about wanting to help increase our wealth, yet is simultaneously giving coal-mining jobs to foreign workers. To save money.

Although her comments were made in her regular column in a mining industry magazine and could possibly have only been directed at that audience, a person with such a public profile can't make statements as such and expect them to remain only in the targeted sphere.

This is a good thing for a democratic society, as we choose our leaders and the more information we know about people, the better equipped we are to make good decisions regarding who we choose to follow.

In closing, one internet commenter ('Horus') speaks for the majority: 'Gina's completely correct... if you want to be successful you should get up every morning, be prepared to work hard every day, and inherit a mining company.'

Calming The Savage Beast

Studied for decades by so many... Some even dedicate their lives to it and it's production. It's explored by every person at some point or another during their life time and the possibilities are only limited by your imagination.                           

   Yes.. Once again I'm referring to the world of musical expressions.

There is more to it then you think! So in the words of  Glen Chiacchieri  I ask you "Why does music influence our life more than, arguably, anything else?"

Matt Sherman states "Ancient cultures used music as a mnemonic device to imprint vital stories and myths onto young minds, passing down tribal histories. Almost anything you need to memorize from a shopping list to a formula like E = mc2, may be set to music, locked quickly into memory for later retrieval and use"

People use music for a variety of different reasons:

• Recreation
• Mood setting
• Educational purposes
• Medicinal use
• Information
• Making a statement
• Entertainment
• Advertising
• Therapeutic purposes

And the list goes on, the use of music is limited only by the imagination. The variety of musical options are enormous and everybody has a preferred style. I personally enjoy a diverse range of music, with that said like everyone I do have a list of preferred bands. Music has influenced my life many times... From being inspirational to educational music has always been there for me.

But the question is why?        

Well I believe that it is in our bodies make up... When your heart beats fast you feel different to when it beats slow... Am I right? If your internal rhythm alters your mood, then it makes sense that an external rhythm can to... Beats and tones whether they are loud and aggressive or soft and relaxing vibrate the inner ear, in the same way. These vibrations affect your brains equilibrium, in turn altering your internal balance and mood.
I found a YouTube clip that shows something very interesting about the brains reactions to a certain frequency, to understand you have to listen.

From the lyrical side of things you can almost guarantee that there is a song out there, that can describe exactly how you are feeling. Not every body is as vocal as me... And many people have trouble articulating how they feel, music helps these people to have an outlet in which to express themselves. Music evokes emotional responses in people and animals its a primal reaction.

This link is a YouTube video that asks a similar question. The video isn't what is interesting, but the comment section opened up a range of opinions from "regular people" so I'm asking you to check it out and tell me what you think...

The 5th Estate - Citizen Journalism

I believe that the rise of the 5th estate is a good thing, for too long newspapers, radio and then television dictated what we were "permitted" to know, and the information was invariably slanted and biased toward whomever sat on the board and their political agenda, not to mention the pressure from the government of the day.

This will continue to be the case but at least we have the opportunity to investigate and source our own answers and evidence of whatever is of importance to us, and with the advent of social media it gives the powerless Joe Citizen an opportunity to make his opinions or outrage or support to something heard.  We have seen the groundswell this can create and surely that is a good thing.

I realise that it can be dangerous if people believe everything they read on the net as there are people with their own agendas spreading false information and propaganda, but surely if Alan Jones has been permitted to sprout his vile hateful tirades for all these years surely Joe Citizen should have the right to voice his opinions, and that he & she did in the case of Mr Jones, Ok so he didn't get the sack (yet) but it sent a very clear message to management and sponsors that his Brandenburg Rally style presenting is unacceptable and dangerous.  Long live the 5th Estate.....

5th estate?

nearly there.

So the "5th estate" this new social media thing we've all been hearing about en mass for the last decade is finally turning out to be of some use, admittedly I'm not a social media user, this is the first blog i've ever posted on i think, and lets face it, the internet hasn't lacked due to my absence.

With facebook constantly up the ass of every business and politician on the planet it can be easy for the public to get right up there too, and even easier to make your complaint a resounding cry of the community. " now how do i do that?" you ask yourself, well that's simple find something to complain about, do you drink a lot of soft drink? is it ruining your teeth? well go to the coca cola Facebook, complain aggressively, wait till they take it down, and then go right to 60minutes, you just earned yourself $5,000 for a BIG news story and opened the door to a class action lawsuit against the most successful soft drink company on the planet.

Sounds glib doesn't it? depressing? like a really sad way to spend your days? well this is just the douche bag way of doing it, but basically, its exactly how it works.welcome to the 5th estate. the death of actual journalism and the birth of big brother.

Well that's OK, this big brother is more like Homer Simpson than George Orwell's ominous overseer, this is just you finally being able to put the boot to companies and politicians and make them accountable for themselves

Can of worms.

Getting there.....

OK! so there's no doubt the internet has changed the world, we all know this to be true, pretty much for the better despite some pretty messed up stuff lets run through the nice list for now;

• Communicate with the whole world and share your love.
• Study ANYTHING YOU WANT!
• Donate money to charities
• Sponsor medical research
• Share you music and art with the world
• make wonderful new friends
• create blog's/share your life
• facebook
• youtube 
• medical research
• Buy a robot
• play games online

Wow! the internet sounds magical! now lets look at a couple of the not so nice things you can do on the internet.

• Purchase fissionable nuclear materials.
• purchase medical waste and biological agents.
• learn to make Agent Orange from household chemicals
• learn to cook meth using readily available chemicals at your local pharmacy
• bomb making instructions
• place a contract on someones life
• Cyber Piracy(cause apparently its a crime?)

yeah... that's right you can purchase FISSIONABLE nuclear material online today.

I'm not even going to try, it can be good or bad, depends on who is using it, and for what purpose. But yeah. its still global communication and information, and the old axiom says that knowledge is power, we've given our entire planet access to information on how to blow shit up, and we're suddenly surprised that its started happening everywhere.

The internet is just this kind of can of worms, people weren't ready for it, and now it just cant be shut down or monitored succesfully, it gave everyone a voice and a face all over the world, and at the same time made everyone voiceless and faceless, we're nothing if we arent part of this new "global community"

it's messed up

Olympic Irony

Man... im so far behind......

so the Olympics are well and truly over, no one cares anymore right....? Alright then. So Damien Hooper walks to center ring with the Aboriginal Flag on his chest while the the rest of the team and the world watches thinking "WTF?" well, the guy is Aboriginal, they're an entirely different cultural and historical background, why shouldn't they be allowed to represent that heritage at the Olympics alongside the Australian flag?

oh right. because it doesn't demonstrate "team work"....... wait a minute... Two-flags... side by side... together.... how does that not equal teamwork? two cultures..... two histories..... one nation..... sounds like team work, but then what do i know. I'm just a guy frrom that country who kinda understands the issue's.

personally i find it offensive anytime this type of thing happens, representing your cultural heritage does not make any political statement other than "i'm proud of who i am." and the fact that aboriginal athletes are constantly reprimanded and dressed down for essentially just being proud of themselves while representing their entire country. they've got every right to show that flag along side the the Australian flag in my opinion.

Id rather see the aboriginal flag then another Addidas or Nike logo that's for sure.

Way behind, but im catching up! Freedom of the media!

Ok, so it's no secret i'm way behind on everything to do with blogs at the moment, and i've got a few weeks of topics to catch up on, so i'll make each post as short and succinct as possible. First on the firing line is the freedom of the media to over-hype or under-sell any story in the public eye.

The sad fact of the matter is that people WANT the gruesome details, they want the horror, they want to know what went wrong, and how, because these things don't just happen in one country, they happen all around the world, and whats scariest is that they cant be predicted, it's happened in England, America, Australia, Canada, France, not to mention the countries that are LITERAL war-zones right now like Iraq.

Tell me why its perfectly acceptable for me to see an Arab woman crying over her sons severed head, but a white woman next to a body bag is unacceptable and i'll tell you why you're retarded, ok, sure, it was a tragic loss to that woman and her family, but its the job of the news to report the bad stuff as well as the good, sure maybe they could have been more tactful, but its two-way street, they can be aggressive and get you the information you want and need or they can roll over and ask what they're allowed to show us, if you want to like the news, go watch E! idiots.

Gina, Gina She's The Man

"If you're jealous of those with more money, don't just sit there and complain; do something to make more money yourself - spend less time drinking, or smoking and socialising, and more time working"

You almost had me routing for you... 
until!

 "Why not ask whether lowering the minimum wages and lowering taxes would make employers hire more people?" As if Gina... as if.

She has a strong work ethic that is for sure and she is right people don't become millionaires by sitting on their butt collecting the dole.  But not every one gets handed millions to start off... so my response on Gina Rinehearts comments are...

Wow.. just Wow...

Nothing you do is for the good of the poor, you get a kick back from everything you invests in... hence forth the term INVESTMENT!

This is a classic case of some one displaying narcissistic sociopathic tendencies, she needs to come back down to earth and rejoin reality. I would love to see her lay bricks 8hrs a day, 6 days a week on less then minimum wages... then say that she is nothing but a bludger when she has a BBQ with the family...

LAY OFF THE COKE GINA

We Have The Power

The rise of the age of technology!

As a result of the advancements in technology, we the average Joe... are taking control of our society. Politicians, conglomerates, journalists and pretty much everyone has to be weary of their actions more so now then ever before. The voice that was once meek is now able to express its discontent or approval, on any subject...

This like everything has good and bad possibilities. I think it is great that we now have a way to stand up for our morals, beliefs, opinions, ideals and rights without having to attend some sort of march or picketing line. This reduces the risk of physical harm to those involved and also allows the police to attend to more serious things like murderers. The growth of the 5th estate means that everything is up for scrutiny. 

I say

• Lets keep our politicians as honest as possible
• Our news as factual as possible
• Our schools/shops as sex/violence free as possible 
• Our lives as depravity free as possible  
• fight to keep our future as bright as possible...  
  

 

If we have the power we will use it...

 

But I warn you people in glass houses should not throw stones.... everybody has something to hide... and these day with the internet if you do the wrong thing or something stupid, the whole world can and more then likely will know about it with in minutes...

 

If you believe in something standup and be counted.

Your not alone...

 

The good, The bad and The Internet

Pros and Cons

The invention of the world wide web opened the door to an almost limitless abyss of information. That alone gives way to good and bad potential, it all depends on who is using it and what their intentions are... Using a knife as an example... This object is productive, convenient and effective, Until it is used improperly then it can be harmful, dangerous and  has the ability to cause great pain.

 My point is... 

The knife has potential for possibilities that are only met by those whom wield it. 

Moving on I have gathered a list of things that can help to broaden your prospective of the Internets abundant wealth of information.

Pros:       

• Connections... It allows for people, companies and organizations to connect with each other for a multitude of purposes.
• Informative... It allows people to find information they wouldn't usually have access to. 
• Makes a lot of things easier... people find access to tickets, jobs, housing and even help plus so much more...
• Social situations... It helps us meet people from other cultures and backgrounds that we would normally not have a chance to communicate with...
• Emotional/health aspects... It can help people that are embarrassed or shy to seek answers and support

Cons:

• Connections... It allows unwanted access to people... i.e. stalkers, con artists and predators
• Informative...  It gives people access to misleading information, information they don't need or want... even information they shouldn't have i.e. Child pornography
• Makes things a lot easier... People have become lazier... not needing to go anywhere to retrieve things they need or want... i.e. shopping, movies, music, socializing etc.  
•  Social situations... It opens the door for the new form of bullying, i.e. trolling and cyber bullying... 
•  Emotional/health aspects... People can be unnecessarily alarmed especially those susceptible to fits of hypochondria  

 This list goes on and on. Every thing has the potential to be misused, that is why I don't think the internet should be accessed by young children with out extreme supervision. 

The impact of blog is increasingly cultivated.

The Internet emerged in the late 1980s and since then has expanded vastly into what we enjoy today. The mass communication delivers through online news, magazines and books, and now, the messages can be directed through email, through Twitter and Facebook, and via blogs.

The blog provides an opportunity for audience to express their views and opinions about whatever subject they interested in. With its accessible feature, extent of distribution, reader can get as much information as they can, whenever they want. They can go online and seek information via a variety of news sources. Blog also has profoundly influenced on political perspective; moreover it produces public discussion, reshapes or view of journalism. 

According to ShariVari,  who wrote in an essay The influence of Political blog sites on Democratic participation, has pointed out the influence of blogging on politic

"A computer-mediated environment may make it easier for citizens to express their feelings about political candidates and allow them to speak more candidly than if they were in a face-to-face situation.  The diversity of the internet gives citizens access to a wide variety of opinions and information that they may not have access to otherwise, and this may play a role in changing or shaping an individual’s political views.  After disregarding any blog sites that have a corporate financial objective or are engaging in political agenda-setting, political blog site users can begin to discuss their personal view points with peers."

Blogging is more objective and factual analysis. Indeed, the impact of blog is increasingly cultivated.

ABC , the useful web-page

To be honest, It is not caught my attention to the Australia news when I frist arrived to Australia. I am likely to struggle myseft when I force myseft to read newspaper, I am just instersted in reading magazine and fiction book ( in my frist language ) not english . Apperantly, In order to improve my english and built up my confident, I decided to enrolled in communication and media courese, before making my decision, I endeavour  myforce to reading elecronic news on internet.  And when I  joined in this course, I have recently engaged on the offical website of our class. In the onset time, myseft reading the others comments on artivale, although it is not simple for me to get all the valuable information of other classmate. However, it is an instretsed and excited to have a freedom of speech and share your own opinion or comment to the "hottest" topic in various aspects. At this time, I started to drawn my attention to Abc webpage. Honestly, In my view, I think Abc is an trustworthy page and consist of the immense source of valuable information. The useful site which represent the well-organized layout.This single theme is classified separately to the main topic incluing: heath, polictic, weather, education, entertainment,business, Soprt, the Drum,Radio channel and other useful topic . All the soure of information on Abc news are reliable,ethical, and trushworthy for others purposes search. The layout is likely to facilitate for us to catch up the news simply. The linkage with other sites in the same topic is explicitlly for informative seeker. .....Additonally, the content of the article appears to be concise and quite genuise for information addicts. Beside the various coverage, the wide range of video links, footage and photos are also composed accrording to the relevant items.

Other advanatge of reading abc new is to widen our knowlege in the political site. Honnestly, since the time I was fascinared by Abc website. I have obtained more valuable and sgiificiant information on the health segment. Appearantly, abc website is by far the most helpful site for student like us who are engaging studying in various appects

"Final" can be a rather subjective term.

Final Fantasy 13, among both new comers and long time fans of the series was reveived somewhat negatively.

Among the complaints about the game the most common where:
* The over simplified combat system
* The un-likeable main character (or lack there of, as some put it)
* The generic supporting cast, one of whom was a borderline offensive racial stereotype
* The story was incredibly convoluted (even by JRPG standards)
* there was a huge explanation of the setting but it was just text (a LOT of text) you could choose to read if you found it in the menu system
* The game world was incredibly Linear, removing virtually any element of exploration
* Vanille, arguably the worst character in anything ever.

A great deal of the complaints came down to personal preference, but it happened that a lot of people had the same personal preference. But it seems people were perhaps too quick to judge the game, FF13 was never planned to be a stand alone title.

Enter Final Fantasy 13-2, a continuation of the ill-received story. They had two years to learn from their mistakes and try to salvage the FF13 franchise and not only did it vastly improve on virtually all of the qualms of its predecessor (as any decent sequel should) it actually managed to justify some of the issues being in the previous game in the first place. That's right, the sequel did not just improve upon the first game, it actually improved the first game itself.

The simplified combat mechanics of the previous game were justified in that they were essentially an introduction to the new system, which was used in a more in depth way I'm the sequel. We could use the new system better and in more ways because we already knew how it worked from the previous game.

The characters were all expanded on in the sequel, which gave us some insight as to why they were the way they were in the previous game. This is especially true of the main character, Lightning, who was one of the biggest issues people had with FF13.

The story was told in a much more engaging way. The plot was just all around better and much more interesting and as there were only two main characters we got to know and understand them much better. The cast of FF13 was also there but they played secondary roles and we learned more about them through their interactions with the new characters.

Vanille... remained awful, but there was less of her.

This can of course go either way, a fairly solid argument can be made that we shouldn't have had to wait for a second game to get an understanding of the characters. But at the same time we knew beforehand that this was not the final instalment of the FF13 franchise.

Although one of the main issues that the first game had could not be excused. That being that so much of the story and setting details where given in an optional and dull text format.
A video game is an interactive visual medium and the general rule of thumb for all visual mediums is "show, don't tell" and they broke that rule pretty hard.

FF13-2 is a great game, a lot of people may have been deterred from playing it based on its predecessor  but again, FF13-2 is so good that it also makes a previously sub par game good as well.

Marriage Equality

I've been brought up in a house hold to accept and love everyone. It's a shame same sex couples do not have the same rights as I do. I have gay friends but they're not my "gay friends"... they're just my 'friends'.

Here is a little film I made about my thoughts on marriage equality. I just hope one day my son can come home from school and be like "hey dad, I met this guy and I love him". And i'm gonna be like "that's so cool and that's okay".